AN INVITED INTRUSION: EXAMINING TERRITORIALITY IN P2P ACCOMMODATIONS FROM THE GUEST PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This dissertation aims to understand the role of territoriality in peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation guest experience by answering four questions: (1) How do P2P accommodation guests feel about staying in P2P accommodation rentals as a territorial complexity? (2) What factors influence P2P accommodation guests’ perceptions of being in P2P accommodation rentals? (3) What kinds of territorial behaviors do guests experience from hosts in P2P accommodation rentals? How does host territoriality affect P2P accommodation guest experiences? (4) Do guests engage in territoriality in P2P accommodation rentals? If so, what territorial behaviors do guests use? A convergent mixed-methods design was used to answer these questions based on two studies: a qualitative study intended to develop an overall understanding of territoriality in P2P accommodation guest experiences (Study 1); and a scale development and validation study intended to develop a scale of perceived host territoriality in P2P accommodation settings (Study 2). Study 1 followed the procedures of interpretative phenomenological analysis, including semi-structured interviews with 13 P2P accommodation guests. Interview transcripts were analyzed to identify themes related to territoriality in P2P accommodation guest experiences. Results of Study 1 show that P2P accommodation guests possessed two territorial senses while staying in a shared rental: a sense of being in others’ territory and a sense of being in their own territory. Feelings associated with staying in others’ territory vs. their own territory were identified. Eight sets of factors were found to influence territorial senses, including home amenities and facilities, personal items/décor items, length of stay/use, physical presence of the host, entire rental vs. private rental, disturbance from others, hospitableness of the host, and travel companionship. Multiple factors that enhanced P2P accommodation guests’ sense of being in others’ territory were related to host territoriality. A closer examination of host territoriality revealed six types of host territoriality: personalization of the rental, house rules, accessibility, intrusion, hands-on hosting, and service failure. Guests’ reactions toward host territoriality fell into four categories: adaption, assertive defense, appeal, and avoidance. The impacts of host territoriality on guests’ evaluations of hosts, evaluations of their P2P accommodation experiences, and future use of P2P accommodations varied depending on guests’ reactions and attributions of host territoriality. P2P accommodation guests were also found to need their own space in P2P accommodation rentals. Influenced by this need and a sense of being in their own territory, P2P accommodation guests sometimes also engaged in territoriality to construct, communicate, and defend their territories. Guests’ territorial behaviors included personalization of the rental, exploration of the rental, giving instructions to others, and defending against territorial intrusions. Following an eight-step scale development procedure, Study 2 developed and validated a scale of perceived host territoriality in P2P accommodations. An initial list of scale items was generated from an online survey with open-ended questions (N = 116), independent coding of survey responses, and examples identified in Study 1. An expert panel (N = 5) and a panel of P2P accommodation guests (N = 26) were hired to assess the content validity of the original scale. A pilot study was conducted for initial scale validation (N = 93), after which the wording of scale items was modified. An online survey for scale purification and refinement was then conducted (N = 911). The dataset was split into a developmental sample and a validation sample to conduct exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. After scale purification, a second dataset was collected to validate the scale (N = 603). The final version of the scale included 18 items and four dimensions: Accessibility, House Rules, Signs of Ownership, and Intrusion. Known-group comparisons and criterion-related validity assessment confirmed the validity of the scale. Specifically, P2P accommodation guests who stayed in a private-room rental reported higher levels of host territoriality than those staying in an entire rental. Experiences of host territoriality were negatively correlated with perceived control, perceived self-efficacy, and personal sense of power among P2P accommodation guests. The newly developed scale was used to examine the impact of perceived host territoriality on perceived warmth and competence of P2P accommodation hosts, guests’ experience satisfaction, and guests’ behavioral intentions via a second-order structural equation model. Perceived host territoriality was negatively associated with perceived warmth and competence of P2P accommodation hosts, satisfaction with the P2P accommodation experience, and intention to reuse/recommend a P2P accommodation rental. However, dimensions of host territoriality had varying impacts on guest experience; host territoriality via signs of ownership and house rules positively influenced P2P accommodation guest experiences. A conceptual framework of territoriality in P2P accommodation guest experiences was proposed based on the findings of this dissertation, describing relationships among territorial senses, factors influencing territorial senses, host territoriality, guest reactions to host territoriality, and guest territoriality. Theoretical implications of these results on P2P accommodation research, human territory and territoriality research, and tourism and hospitality research were discussed, followed by implications regarding P2P accommodation platforms, hosts, and guests as well as management of guest experiences in other hospitality service encounters.