ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE PEER-TO-PEER MARKET FOR TOURIST ACCOMMODATION

The aim of this article is, first of all, to identify the entrepreneurial opportunities that have appeared thanks to the development of the peer-to-peer market of tourist accommodation. In this sense, three areas in which entrepreneurial projects have arisen are analyzed: the platforms that, through the Internet, facilitate the meeting between hosts and guests; the service providers to the hosts; and the service of hosts themselves, that offer their house for holiday rent. On that basis, the motivations that lead individuals to become suppliers or demanders in that market are discussed. More specifically, it is argued that there are objective reasons associated to the reduction in information and search costs in the case of the guests, and of barriers to entry in the case of the hosts, explaining the exponential growth that the market has experienced. As for personal motivations, a literature review evidences as a stylized fact that the weight of economic factors in agents' decisions is important. This reality supports the thesis that factors that explain the entrepreneurship that has arisen thanks to the development of platforms connecting guests and hosts are similar to those that explain entrepreneurship in any other market.