IS AIRBNB AN EXAMPLE OF A SHARING ECONOMY?

The paper discusses the topic of sharing economy in the segment of accommodation services on the example of Airbnb. The aim of this paper is to describe the advantages and disadvantages of a sharing economy especially in the context unfair competition. In the first part, the principles of sharing economy are introduced. The second part is focused on Airbnb, the main player, which represents a controversial approach to "sharing accommodation", similar to Uber in the "carpooling" segment. The case study of Airbnb is aimed at the city of Prague. Data on the number of property owners, units, beds and prices are also mentioned. The monitored period is between April 2016 and April 2017. Comparison with traditional providers is mentioned. At the end of this paper, there is a discussion about potential restrictions of the accommodation segment and consequent recommendations, which correspond to the recommendations of the European Union, are proposed too.