The “Beauty Premium” Phenomenon: Appearance Discrimination in the P2p Market

Hengyun Li, Danting Cai, Gang Li, Mingming Hu

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

Abstract

The online P2P accommodation market, including Airbnb, encourages accommodation hosts to upload profile photos. However, the inclusion of a profile photo may carry consequences such as appearance discrimination. Using secondary Airbnb data from Beijing, China, this study investigates the presence of the “beauty premium” in the relatively low-priced accommodation market and examines the extent to which consumers discriminate based on hosts’ facial appearance from a supply perspective. Three experiments were conducted to respectively examine the impacts of hosts’ facial beauty on customers’ willingness-to-pay, boundary conditions, and underlying mechanisms. The findings emphasize the importance of hosts’ visual self-disclosure in reducing appearance-based discrimination. By providing practical implications for P2P platform operators and accommodation hosts, this research contributes to a better understanding of appearance-based biases in the online accommodation market and reveals strategies for mitigating negative effects.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Travel Research
Early online date30 Jan 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2024

Keywords

  • appearance discrimination
  • peer-to-peer market
  • price
  • visual self-disclosure
  • willingness-to-pay

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Transportation
  • Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management

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