1 Introduction

In recent years the growth of the sharing economy has transformed the hospitality industry and evolved the business models with high profits. The sharing economy business model in the hospitality sector allows accommodation resources (particularly those unused ones) to be offered from peer (owners/suppliers/hosts) to peer (receivers/guests). Peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation refers to temporary stays in private homes, entirely or partially, as tourist accommodation (Bakker & Twining-Ward, 2018; Petruzzi & Marques, 2022). It is offered by a non-commercial host to a guest and mediated by online platforms. The host and guest have direct contact and may result in meaningful social interactions (Petruzzi & Marques, 2022).

P2P accommodation has grown very rapidly in recent years. It has been estimated that P2P accommodation throughout the world will have an annual growth rate of 31% from 2013 to 2025, six times the growth rate of traditional tourist accommodation services (Bakker & Twining-Ward, 2018). Online paid P2P accommodation (advertised via platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway) has become the largest sector of the sharing economy, as measured by its transaction value (Farmaki & Miguel, 2022). As an example, Airbnb, the most notable representative of P2P accommodation, has grown to over 5 million hosts and over 1.5 billion guest arrivals in over 220 countries and regions in the world since it was established in 2007 (Airbnb, 2024). The rapid development of P2P accommodation has profound economic, social and environmental impacts, and affects touristification, the traditional hotel industry, travellers’ behaviour, community residents’ well-being and quality of life, and rural community resilience (Jiang et al., 2020; Stergiou & Farmaki, 2019; Stienmetz et al., 2019, 2020; Tussyadiah & Pesonen, 2016; Yeager et al., 2023).

P2P accommodation benefits local hosts in generating income, and local tourism destinations in receiving tourism expenditure. On the other hand, it also induces more tourist travel and changes traveller behaviour, causing excessive spending, overcrowding, and more conflicts with local residents (Tussyadiah & Pesonen, 2016). P2P accommodation, such as Airbnb, provides landlords with an alternative option to rent properties on a short-term basis to tourists, thus reducing the supply and affordability of long-term rental housing, particularly in cities where Airbnb is popular. Affordable units are the major sources of supply reduction because of Airbnb. Therefore, on one hand, Airbnb reduces affordable rental supply and harms local renters; on the other hand, it benefits local hosts who are owners of affordable units by creating a valuable income source (Li et al., 2022).

Like many other tourist accommodation industries, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had profound impacts on the P2P accommodation industry. The COVID-19 pandemic damaged P2P accommodation operations, exposing the vulnerability of the sector to the pandemic in world cities and countries (Farmaki et al., 2020). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, short-term accommodation bookings on the Airbnb platform reduced continuously in the first three months of 2020 compared with 2019, e.g. a total reduction of 95% in week 14 of 2020 in Florida counties in the United States (Jang et al., 2021). Short-term accommodation impacted the rental housing market with an 60% increase in available rental properties in Dublin shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak. Worried about a potential collapse in tourism, landlords shifted property to the long-term rental market, leading to concerns about how short-term accommodation was regulated (Scott, 2020). COVID-19 and the associated social distancing requirements imposed constraints on paid P2P accommodation, particularly on shared rooms and private rooms. COVID-19 triggered fears in a portion of travellers about sharing a house or room with others. The structure of different accommodation types (shared house vs. entire house), safety perceptions regarding physical guest-host interaction and fears of infection dramatically impacted and altered the demand for paid P2P accommodation during the pandemic (Bresciani et al., 2021).

The COVID-19 pandemic presented not only a health crisis but also economic and social crises. In the past, human beings have experienced many complex economic, social, environmental, and health crises, and different theoretical frameworks, approaches and models of crisis management have been developed (Vasickova, 2019; Zamoum & Gorpe, 2018). Crisis management, in simple words, means crisis managers and leaders deciding what actions to take in a crisis situation (Zamoum & Gorpe, 2018). In the crisis management process, many factors (e.g. communication, leadership, knowledge, governance, and information technology) influence the effectiveness of crisis management (Hazaa et al., 2021). Crisis management involves prevention, preparation, response and revision, which can be incorporated in a commonly used three-stage approach: the pre-crisis phase including prevention and preparation, the crisis phase including response, and the post-crisis phase including (learning and) revision (Coombs & Laufer, 2018).

Numerous studies have examined the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on P2P accommodation. The existing literature explored the catastrophic effect of the crisis on P2P accommodation operating performance, including price, revenue, booking, occupancy, revenue per available room, booking rates, supply and demand, and survival rate (Boros et al., 2020; Boto-García, 2022; Gossen & Reck, 2021; Guglielminetti et al., 2021; Jang & Kim, 2022; Kourtit et al., 2022; Liang et al., 2021; Türk & Sap, 2021). Some studies emphasised the importance of developing response mechanisms for the P2P accommodation industry. However, little research has been conducted on the different responses by accommodation stakeholders in term of changes in behaviour and business operation, and strategies for coping with the COVID-19 crisis (Ghaderi et al., 2022). The scale of the disruption on P2P accommodation led some to question the survival of the industry in the post-pandemic era.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which caused exceptional disruptions to the P2P accommodation industry, provides a unique opportunity to analyse the coping and survival strategies of businesses under extreme market conditions. This overview aims to synthesise the literature on the different responses and crisis management strategies of P2P stakeholders used to cope with the crisis. A summary of current knowledge about the responses and strategies applied during the COVID-19 crisis from different stakeholders, experience obtained, lessons learned and possible ways to move forward offers P2P stakeholders worldwide some insights for preparing for and surviving this type of crisis, recovering from the damage, and resuming their businesses. The research questions of this study are: (1) what were the ad hoc responses and crisis management strategies that stakeholders of P2P accommodation industry adopted to cope with the COVID-19 crisis? (2) who were the key stakeholders of P2P accommodation that implemented coping strategies? and (3) what were the lessons learnt from coping with the COVID-19 crisis and developing ways to move forward?

The threat of pandemic emergence to our population and societies has grown in this century for multiple reasons, e.g. urbanisation and population concentration, expansion of transport networks connecting world cities and countries, and increasing mobility of people, and these reasons have contributed to the rapid transmission of viruses world-wide (Farmaki et al., 2020). The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had a catastrophic impact on the tourism and hospitality sector throughout the world. It also offered an opportunity for us to develop our understanding of how to combat the threats of major health, economic and social crises like COVID-19 in the future.

This overview makes important contributions to the literature. First, the overview contributes to developing a comprehensive understanding of the responses and strategies for coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the prospects for post-pandemic adjustment and improvement in the tourism lodging industry. Second, given the growing interest of practitioners and academia in crisis management, tourism development and the sharing economy, this overview helps to develop a better understanding of crisis management in the sharing economy industry during a major crisis. The paper serves as a reference for preparedness for major unprecedented disruptions in the future. Third, these research questions have significant practice and policy relevance. The answers to the research questions provide practice implications for P2P accommodation stakeholders and business practitioners in maintaining operations during a major crisis. It also provides insights for planners and decision-makers in creating strategies, and formulating and implementing regulations for P2P accommodation during a major crisis. The original overview framework is show in Fig. 1. This overview aims to further develop the response mechanisms of key stakeholders of the P2P accommodation industry in the conceptual framework.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Overview framework

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2 Responses and strategies to the COVID-19 crisis

2.1 Hygiene, cleanliness, isolation, social distancing and crisis management plans

If travellers perceived potential benefits rather than risks, COVID-19 might not have impacted their travel decisions because they took non-pharmaceutical public health measures (e.g. social distancing and personal hygiene). Hosts applied measures such as hygiene and cleanliness, and health and healthcare as common responses to the COVID-19 outbreak (Jang et al., 2021). Hosts from Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, and Spain lowered prices to attract new guests, targeted domestic tourists instead of international ones, introduced self check-in to reduce human contact, offered antiseptic gels to guests to prevent infection, disinfected properties, purchased air purifiers for better cleaning, and adopted 24-hour intervals between bookings, allowing them to adapt their hosting activities to the health crisis (Farmaki et al., 2020). It is worth noting that untact hospitality, referring to consumption behaviour that reduces personal contact, was a new phenomenon in the hospitality industry for P2P accommodation during the pandemic. With a focus on isolation and distance-keeping, hosts protected themselves and their guests from health and safety risks (Ghaderi et al., 2022). In addition to responses related to hygiene and cleanliness, health and healthcare, and isolation and distance-keeping, accommodation hosts explored other types of responses with ingenuity and integrity after the COVID-19 outbreak. Taking Airbnb as an example, its community-minded hosts made their properties available to healthcare workers as free accommodation. Together with other sharing economy sectors that offered free travel, meals and hiring services, this action helped communities through times of hardship (Gerwe, 2021).

Professional and non-professional hosts tended to adopt different responses. Individual hosts suffered large losses during the pandemic, but they were more flexible and faster to adapt to new situations and requirements because they were comparatively independent in decision-making regarding their responses and crisis management strategies (Turk and Sap, 2021). To reflect the different market perspectives and intentions regarding hosting activities during the pandemic, research has categorised hosts into different groups. Pessimistic hosts considered selling their properties, completely giving up renting or moving to the long-term rental market. This type of host believed that the threats from the crisis weakened the system of P2P accommodation and that tourists would prefer hotels during the pandemic. Cautious hosts considered moving to the long-term rental market (1–2 years or more to earn some money), as a temporary response to the pandemic and until the situation improved. Cautious hosts chose to rent in both the short- and long-term rental markets to increase their sense of security. Ambivalent hosts preferred to wait to see the progress of the situation before they made decisions on continuing hosting or withdrawing properties because it was hard to foresee the future of the sector. Indolent hosts would continue renting short-term accommodation because of the attributes of the properties (e.g. in tourist locations, or attached to or within the hosts’ properties), higher profits from short-term rental than long-term rental, and problems with long-term renting (e.g. damage to properties, and unpaid rent). Optimistic hosts thought the COVID-19 pandemic offered opportunities to the P2P accommodation sector with examples of increasing demand for isolated accommodation with less face-to-face contact (Farmaki et al., 2020).

To deal with the pandemic crisis, the P2P accommodation platforms implemented crisis management plans and strategies, e.g. communicating with hosts, revising cancellation policies with full refunds, providing travel vouchers, implementing schemes for helping hosts, and offering accommodation for key workers during the pandemic (Miguel et al., 2022). During the pandemic outbreak, to be able to support the short-term rental market, Airbnb managers were required to adopt a special hygiene and cleaning protocol. Landlords were obligated to use personal protective tools (e.g. masks, disinfectants and gloves) or adopt 24-hour waiting times before entering a facility (Kowalczyk-Anioł et al., 2022). In Croatia, Cyprus, Greece and Spain, P2P accommodation platforms developed a cleaning protocol for their properties. The protocol required a one-day interval between bookings in addition to the use of specific cleaning products to reduce the possibility of transmission of the virus (Farmaki et al., 2020). In addition, short-term rental service managers also worked on developing innovative solutions to ease hosting activities and support travellers’ changing needs, e.g. Translation Engine (the most advanced translation technology), Verified Wifi (a new speed test tool), and Smarter Trips Tab (a redesigned Trips tab with all must-have travel details). Moreover, a special function of Accessibility Review was introduced by Airbnb to attract the disabled and vulnerable communities. People travelling with pets was another new group of users (Kowalczyk-Anioł et al., 2022).

During the pandemic, large short-term accommodation platforms, e.g. Airbnb and Booking.com, introduced crisis management plans and strategies to prioritise guests over hosts (Miguel et al., 2022), and this received criticism from hosts. Farmaki et al. (2020) interviewed hosts of P2P accommodation and found that the majority of interviewees criticised the insufficient support provided by the platforms to hosts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The platform’s crisis management plans and strategies allowed guests to receive 100% refunds (due to force majeure) during the pandemic, a change from the original strict cancellation policy or non-refundable policies. Some hosts thought the information from Airbnb’s host help schemes was misleading, unclear or insufficient. Information for ‘help scheme for hosts’ failed to indicate whether it was for all hosts or only for some hosts (e.g. those implementing strict cancellation policies), and information for the ‘superhost help scheme’ targeting superhosts with only one property as the income source was lacking. Many hosts perceived that they were not treated as partners by the platforms (Farmaki et al., 2020). Although professional hosts received some government financial assistance as part of their subsidy to companies, many hosts pointed out that P2P accommodation operated in an unregulated context, limiting the possibility of government compensation (Farmaki et al., 2020).

The fast spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in countries left a very short time for crisis management planning. Accordingly, P2P accommodation platforms and property managers had to take immediate responses and ad hoc actions. In the process, large platforms, as primary stakeholders, provided support to other stakeholders to manage the disruption, while some other stakeholders focused on themselves, taking actions for the survival of their own businesses instead of taking the sector as a whole into account (Miguel et al., 2022). The platform, Airbnb, made great efforts to respond to the pandemic, e.g. by introducing a free cancellation policy for guests, and providing online training for hosts. However, platform collaboration was not successful in supporting the survival of hosts. On the other hand, interviews with P2P accommodation hosts in China revealed that a lack of platform collaboration was an advantage during the pandemic because, instead of looking for accommodation through platforms, guests sought accommodation through trusted personal relationships (Zhang et al., 2021). To support efforts during the pandemic, Airbnb offered free accommodation to frontline workers including doctors, nurses, and technicians. Therefore, according to Airbnb, many guests were willing to support their hosts financially, e.g. by sending notes and making financial contributions to their hosts via a channel Airbnb created for guests (Hossain, 2021).

2.2 Relocation of short-term rental properties into other rental markets

The COVID-19 crisis forced P2P accommodation hosts to think about their services differently, and many adopted strategies to relocate short-term rental properties to other rental markets, allowing P2P accommodation hosts to obtain a higher income, thus reducing the economic effects (Sequera et al., 2022). In addition to the profit consideration, the pandemic-related regulations which quickly restricted the letting of holiday accommodation, made holiday rentals significantly less attractive for property owners than before the COVID-19 pandemic (Kadi et al., 2020). During the pandemic, the supply of P2P accommodation shifted. The managers of tourist flats changed the properties from tourist rental (short-term rental) to seasonal rental and medium-term rental (e.g. monthly or temporary). This was an ad hoc action taken by these managers. When the crisis was over, tourist activity was expected to recover (Sequera et al., 2022). In Italy, long-term rentals increased significantly in 2020 while there was a decreasing trend in 2019. In 2021, short-term rental properties kept exiting rather than staying in the short-term rental market. This was experienced in Rome, Milan, Florence and Naples, with decreased numbers of registered short-term rental listings in 2021 (Romano, 2021).

Shared accommodation hosts shifted their focus to long-term tenants and domestic guests, instead of short-term tenants and foreign guests. Airbnb emphasised long-term stays, reduced its reliance on hotel-style accommodation and saw increased demand for long-term stays (Hossain, 2021). During the pandemic, corporate hosts (people who rent their homes to the consolidation of a professional short-term rental industry dependent) used their channel managers to advertise properties on platforms that were used for long-term rental (e.g. Idealista in Portugal and Rightmove in the United Kingdom) and on different platforms simultaneously to increase the occupancy rate and income (Cocola-Gant et al., 2021). As a result, homeowners not only had two markets (residential and tourist) in which to operate, but also had infrastructure (platforms) to execute the switch. The infrastructure was developed and professionalised, allowing the switching of the use of properties and the markets in which the properties operated to allow greater flexibility for property owners and hosts. Properties could be advertised and rented out in different rental markets (short-, medium- or long-term market) and to different consumers (tourists or residents). This increased the possibilities for properties to be rented out and capital gained through adapting to the built environment, especially when some markets did not work well during a crisis (Sequera et al., 2022). An increase in the supply of well-furnished properties (previously used for short-term rental only) for long-term tenants at a low price in city centres and touristic areas was observed (Hossain, 2021).

Relocation of short-term rental properties into other rental markets also had impacts on the housing market. A study in the city centre of Lisbon, Portugal found that short-term rental properties relocating into the long-term rental market resulted in an increase of 20% in the number of listed long-term rental properties and a decrease of 4.1% in rental prices. For the sales market, no statistically significant impact was found on the number of listed properties. An incremental negative impact was found on sale prices of 4.8%. Therefore, the impact was stronger in the rental market than in the sales market (Batalha et al., 2022). Similarly, in four large Austrian cities (Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, and Salzburg), holiday homes moved to the long-term rental market and the resultant increased rental property supply did not decrease rent levels (Kadi et al., 2020). With regard to the impacts on the local environment, the decrease in home-sharing activities was welcomed by many people, and some believed that this led to a better quality of life for residents in popular areas. With more long-term tenants, noise levels decreased, and local shops and amenities improved (Hossain, 2021).

To summarise, in the light of various ad hoc responses and crisis management actions taken by P2P accommodation stakeholders, there are a few matters for further discussion to explore ways for the P2P accommodation industry to move forward in coping with major crises in the future. First, safety and hygiene used to be concerns for P2P accommodation, and this is especially the case during a pandemic. It is not just about actual safety and hygiene, but also about guests’ perceived cleanliness and safety that involve communication, marketing, targeted market of guests, and policies to enhance guests’ satisfaction outcomes. Second, applying supply adaptation strategies (e.g. moving properties to the long-term rental market or renting entire properties instead of rooms separately) may have effects on hosts’ businesses. There may be both opportunities and threats related to the adoption of different supply adaptation strategies during the pandemic. Third, the dampening effect of the pandemic raises the question of the sustainability of the P2P accommodation business model. There is a need to reconsider the operation of P2P accommodation, and the roles of key stakeholders when moving to the post-pandemic era and during a significant future crisis like COVID-19, based on experiences gained and lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, in the current P2P accommodation business model, for many hosts on the platform, renting properties was their occupation and only income source, meaning they are highly vulnerable. When there is an economic boom, both platforms and hosts generate profits. However, when a crisis occurs (e.g. the COVID-19 crisis), hosts suffer from significant loss of income, and this, together with the prioritising guests over hosts policy, impacts directly on their livelihood. Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic can provide some insight in this regard.

3 Opportunities to move forward

3.1 Safety and hygiene

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the psychological needs of P2P accommodation guests changed in that their awareness of self-protection was enhanced (Shi et al., 2022). P2P accommodation guests, when travelling, were intensely focused on the cleanliness of their surroundings. Safety and hygiene are issues of increased importance (Hossain, 2021). This requires the hosts to pay close attention to the hygiene management of their accommodation, to ensure the cleanliness and tidiness of their accommodation, to provide information to guests about the hygiene conditions of the P2P accommodation and the destination, and to inform guests about epidemic prevention policies and prevention measures implemented (e.g. to keep physical distance), so as to reduce the perceived risk for guests, and thus facilitate personal interaction. To maintain a positive interaction with guests and pay close attention to their psychological needs and well-being, hosts can convey positive emotions to guests and provide them with emotional support (Bresciani et al., 2021; Shi et al., 2022).

In addition, hosts need to fully cooperate with local epidemic prevention and control policies, and implement strict epidemic prevention measures (e.g. checking guests’ health status and providing disinfection supplies) (Shi et al., 2022). Standardised routine practices of disinfection, cleanliness and safety also include monitoring the health status of employees and equipping them with personal protective equipment and related infection prevention and control materials (e.g. masks) to release anxiety and pressure in P2P accommodation. P2P accommodation operators and hosts should take effective measures to reduce guests’ risk perception, thus enhancing guests’ emotional solidarity with hosts and maintaining customer loyalty (Zhang & Tang, 2021).

It is important for Airbnb and other platforms to focus on marketing hygiene and sanitation protocols, develop image campaigns highlighting the safety and cleanliness of their accommodation products and services, and provide cleaning demonstrations to potential customers to convince them of the emphasis on hygiene (Bigné et al., 2020; Hossain, 2021; Kim et al., 2022). Online reviews play a very important role. Therefore, hosts should make great efforts to mitigate the influence of negative review comments and ratings on their rental products and services (Bigné et al., 2020). Platforms’ overall guest support measures should ensure that there are clear, standardised and universal policies related to all hosts’ service provision. For example, policies should regulate how a service advertised by a host must be completely consistent with the service provided by the host (Sthapit et al., 2022). Accurate photographs also play a vital role, particularly during a pandemic or crisis. Hosts need to advertise updated photographs that truly and accurately reflect the accommodation for guests to obtain realistic views of their properties and improve the risk perceptions of guests (Lee & Deale, 2021).

Continuous communication with guests and clear articulation of the cleanliness and (protective) amenities (e.g., hand sanitisers, masks, and surface disinfectants) of the accommodation, and the measures adopted to ensure guests’ safety, well-being and peace of mind, and prompt response to any issues help to mitigate these risk perceptions. Hosts should put a more intentional focus on the hospitality service they provide, and be more considerate, capable, caring and helpful (Lee & Deale, 2021; Sthapit et al., 2022). Establishing and maintaining close host-guest relationships was the key to the success of the P2P accommodation business, and personalised human interaction was advantageous for the P2P industry compared with the traditional hospitality industry. Local government (and local marketing organisations) can initiate and facilitate training programs to improve hosts’ services and expertise during a pandemic (Zhang & Tang, 2021).

It is worth noting that different types of tourists value different safety practices. For example, some tourists valued all safety practices; some tourists valued information on their destinations’ COVID-19 regulations but did not value information about safety measures; some tourists valued the protection aspect, but did not value information and hygiene; and other tourists valued all information, practices and safety measures, but did not value protection aspects. P2P accommodation providers need to be aware of the different tourist types and their valued safety practices to enable them to customise their services to better target tourist markets in pandemic and post-pandemic times (Petruzzi & Marques, 2022).

In addition to cleaning policies, the buffer policy (the number of hours between last guest check-out and the next guest check-in) requires P2P accommodation providers to carefully determine the guests’ needs and communicate with them (Lee & Deale, 2021). Due to safe travel considerations, providers should carefully create, effectively implement and clearly articulate their cancellation policies (Lee & Deale, 2021). Strict policies against last-minute cancellations by the hosts, and refund policies that are favourable to guests rather than to hosts during a pandemic should be adopted. Appropriate and timely financial compensation and free cancellation policies during a crisis benefit the resolution of issues related to guests’ dissatisfaction with refunds and reduce customers switching behaviour due to undesirable outcomes obtained by guests. These policies could be part of crisis management policies and strategies (Sthapit et al., 2022).

3.2 Supply adaptation strategy

The P2P accommodation market responded to the logic of the laws of supply and demand. Therefore, to successfully operate P2P accommodation businesses, hosts must adapt to the economic conditions of the cities and countries in which they operate (Benítez-Aurioles, 2022). A supply adaptation strategy to address the decrease in demand (especially by professional hosts) during the pandemic was to attract a more stable demand accompanied by more competitive prices and longer stays (Hesse & Vilchez, 2022). For Airbnb hosts who remained active on the platform, focusing on longer stays was a possible strategy (Gyodi, 2022). To address the challenges during a pandemic, Airbnb should adjust its rental policy to enhance safety and health by shifting its policy towards longer-term rentals to provide some security of booking, and to mitigate some income losses (Stiubea et al., 2022).

Transfer from the short-term rental market to the long-term rental market was also a strategy (Hesse & Vilchez, 2022). Cities and urban planners should use this opportunity to review existing regulations and explore how to shift short-term rental using a more sustainable approach. Considering the low demand for short-term rental during the pandemic, introducing incentives for professional hosts to rent their properties to long-term tenants (e.g. local residents) should not be difficult (Gyodi, 2022). During the pandemic, Airbnb created a demand-oriented campaign aiming to explore longer stays. Airbnb hosts advertised short-term rentals to a new group of people, including international students, digital nomads, and high-income expatriates. In this way, Airbnb created a new market, and a new demand with new lifestyles (Sequera et al., 2022). This experience is worth further exploration by practitioners and researchers.

The need for physical distance was an important factor concerning travellers when booking hotel rooms or shared accommodation. During the pandemic, tourists tended to prefer entire properties over traditional hotel rooms and shared accommodation in Airbnb. Hosts should prioritise entire property rentals instead of renting rooms in the properties separately. In addition, women appeared to be more concerned about shared accommodation after the pandemic, and this demographic difference is worth considering when applying supply adaptation strategies (Bresciani et al., 2021). Moreover, renting an entire house, compared with renting rooms in the properties separately, generates less revenue. This impact needs to be taken into account in hosts’ business models when applying supply adaptation strategies (e.g. from shared property to entire property) (Bresciani et al., 2021). In addition, operating more isolated types of properties (e.g. villas) was more successful than other types of properties during the COVID-19 crisis (Turk and Sap, 2021).

Furthermore, entire apartments in the proximity of natural amenities, therefore providing more isolation for guests, were more successful than other types of properties during the pandemic. Guests shifted their preferences in P2P accommodation from locations next to popular tourist attractions to those near isolated natural amenities (Türk & Sap, 2021). Comparing different cities in a country also confirmed the shifting preferences for the locations of P2P accommodation during the pandemic; some cities (e.g. major cities like Warsaw and Krakow in Poland) experienced further decline in P2P accommodation activities while some other cities (smaller tourism cities in areas of natural beauty) had an increase in the volume and dynamics of P2P accommodation activities (Kowalczyk-Anioł et al., 2022). This offers a great opportunity for local authorities to promote tourism development in rural areas to stimulate rural economics (e.g. by creating job opportunities, and avoiding the increase in vacant properties and subsequent decline) and reduce development gaps between regional and urban areas (Türk & Sap, 2021).

3.3 Stakeholders, roles and prospects

To facilitate prompt communication with customer service representatives, platforms need to offer more resources on communication channels, e.g. providing multiple contact channels via phone, e-mails and websites, and developing live chat functions on websites (Sthapit et al., 2022). In addition, according to Hossain (2021), establishing effective communication channels between different stakeholders is important since there was criticism related to miscommunication which resulted in increased panic and uncertainties, increased operational costs, and slower business recovery. It became evident that decision-makers within the sector did not take into account the opinions of service suppliers and receivers and the information between hosts and guests was insufficient and non-transparent. However, it is vitally important to incorporate crisis communication and the dissemination of transparent information into crisis practice for P2P accommodation. Authorities need to be aware of the crucial role of all parties in crisis management planning for the wider hospitality industry at different levels. This includes planning in preparation for future crises. Indeed, authorities need to create a culture of crisis preparedness in the industry to prepare for future uncertainties (Hossain, 2021).

Professional hosts constituted a great share of the P2P accommodation industry (Zhang et al., 2021). Compared with non-professional hosts, professional hosts reacted faster to the market, and benefited more from dynamic pricing strategies. In the post-pandemic era, it is likely that professional hosts still constitute a great proportion of the market (Boto-García, 2022). However, professional hosts have not received much scholarly attention regarding their roles in crisis management (Zhang et al., 2021), and therefore, further research is needed to fill the gap. During COVID-19, P2P accommodation hosts used different decision-making logic: hosts who aimed at seeking profit found it difficult to enter the market and survive due to a lack of capability to offer unique experiences to targeted guest segments in an unstable period; hosts who retained their desire to rent unused rooms survived and planned to maintain operations in the future; hosts who committed themselves to offer unique experiences enhanced their service quality during the COVID-19 crisis, further strengthening their capabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic played an accelerator role for the P2P accommodation industry by keeping hosts who offered P2P accommodation in line with the original features of the sector. In the future, P2P accommodation platforms need to focus on encouraging hosts and developing unique cultures and experiences, since offering a unique experience for guests, and linking with other aspects of the hospitality experiences are advantageous for P2P accommodation compared with traditional hotels (Zhang et al., 2021).

In the pre-pandemic period, many P2P accommodation platforms rapidly grew and became highly profitable, and their hosts easily earned more than they expected. However, working during the pandemic put hosts at risk. On the other hand, not working meant no income and no financial support for their families. Balancing health and livelihood during the pandemic was a key concern for P2P accommodation hosts (Hossain, 2021). The P2P accommodation industry experienced the most significant job losses and income decrease. Hosts had no or very limited financial resources available to alleviate these negative impacts, and many had to close their activities completely or partially. The issues of mental, psychological, and physical health within the COVID-19 setting require examination (Sigala, 2020; Xu et al., 2021). Also, some mechanisms, policies and support are needed to protect hosts’ incomes (Ghaderi et al., 2022; Hossain, 2021). However, many hosts experienced a long waiting period for the government to update their rules, procedures and portals. Large platforms introduced long- and short-term strategies to deal with the crisis and to justify that they were not greedy firms seeking profit instead of caring for the well-being of people and communities (Hossain, 2021). It has been pointed out that the P2P accommodation market has been developed ahead of the regulations, especially those needed to protect the rights of hosts (Zhang et al., 2021).

Governments can regulate P2P accommodation platforms, requiring them to treat their hosts as employees so as to prevent financial hardship that may be experienced in a crisis like COVID-19 (Hossain, 2021). In addition, as mentioned previously, since there are different types of hosts with different decision-making logic, it would not be desirable to apply a one-size-fits-all approach (Zhang et al., 2021). Moreover, different stakeholders viewed governments’ role in the crisis differently. Large platforms followed governments’ recommendations regarding hosting, cleaning and social distancing, while property management companies and short-term rental associations expected governments’ financial intervention and support. Short-term rental host associations also expected to be given institutionalised power to allow their recommendations to their members to become the principles for the entire short-term rental industry (Miguel et al., 2022). The roles of stakeholders from their own and other stakeholders’ perspectives need further investigation. Figure 2 provides a framework describing the overview of P2P accommodation during the COVID-19 pandemic, summarising the key stakeholders, responses and crisis management strategies, as well as lessons learnt and opportunities for the future of the sector.

Fig. 2
figure 2

The developed framework of the overview of P2P accommodation during the COVID-19 pandemic

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4 Conclusion

This paper provides an overview of the ad hoc responses and crisis management strategies applied by key stakeholders in the P2P accommodation industry during the COVID-19 crisis. Building on the existing literature on the pandemic-hospitality nexus, experiences and lessons learnt for coping with the COVID-19 crisis by the P2P accommodation sector were summarised. We also discussed the key concerns of the P2P accommodation industry when moving forward after the crisis.

Key stakeholders of P2P accommodation applied various responses and crisis management strategies. P2P accommodation hosts and property owners who continued short-rental operation adopted measures regarding hygiene and cleanliness, and health and health care, lowered prices to attract new guests, attracted domestic tourists, adopted untact hospitality (focusing on isolation and keeping distances), and made properties available to healthcare workers as free accommodation. Some P2P accommodation hosts and property owners who discontinued short-rental operation, either sold the property, completely gave up renting, waited to see how the situation evolved, or moved to the long-term rental market. P2P accommodation platforms, employees and managers developed hygiene and cleaning protocols, developed innovative solutions to ease hosting activities and support travellers’ changing needs, implemented crisis management plans and strategies, prioritised guests over hosts, communicated with hosts, revised cancellation policies on full refunds, provided travel vouchers, implemented schemes for helping hosts, introduced new functions on platforms to attract new groups of users, offered accommodation to key workers, and provided support to other stakeholders e.g. host help schemes. Policy-makers mainly focused on providing financial support and assistance, and provided recommendations regarding hosting, social distancing and cleaning.

The overview provides important policy and practical implications for post-pandemic accommodation operations and future disruptive events. Hosts could adopt supply adaptation strategies such as attracting more stable demand accompanied by more competitive prices and longer stays, transferring from the short-term rental market to the long-term rental market, renting entire properties, and advertising short-term rentals to new markets, including international students, digital nomads, and high-income expatriates. Establishing and maintaining close host-guest relationships are vital for successful operation during a pandemic crisis like COVID-19. It is essential to enhance efficient communication between hosts and guests, and platforms need to offer more resources on communication channels. Sustaining health and livelihoods during the pandemic was a key concern for P2P accommodation hosts, and further mechanisms, policies and support are needed to protect host incomes and rights.

Since guests’ awareness of self-protection was enhanced and safety and hygiene became a priority for hosts, it is important for platforms to focus not only on adopting hygiene and sanitation protocols, but also on marketing hygiene and sanitation protocols. In addition, providers should carefully develop, implement and articulate cleaning policies, cancellation policies, refund policies and buffer policies. Considering the low demand for short-term rental during the pandemic, incentives for professional hosts to rent their properties to long-term tenants (e.g. local residents) should be introduced. Urban planners and policy-makers should explore shifts to short-term rental using a more sustainable approach. Local authorities may also take advantage of travellers’ preference for P2P accommodation in rural areas during a pandemic by promoting tourism development in rural areas and stimulate rural economies. This would reduce development gaps between rural and urban areas.

The overview sheds light on P2P host practices during the pandemic and discusses the key concerns that need to be addressed as the world moves to a post-pandemic era. The paper advances the understanding of the relationship between the pandemic event and P2P accommodation, taking into account various stakeholders’ perspectives. In doing so, the study reveals a disparity in responses to the pandemic, leading us to map what was done to cope with COVID-19, the lessons learnt and concerns that need to be addressed. The existing literature largely focuses on operational responses to the COVID-19 crisis and remedy strategies. However, little attention has been paid to other areas, e.g. the responses and strategies employed to address the concerns, health and well-being of stakeholders in the P2P accommodation industry during the crisis. Researchers have indicated the necessity to urgently examine issues of mental, psychological, and physical health within the COVID-19 setting. Research on the health and well-being of stakeholders in the P2P accommodation industry could provide important implications for maintaining health and well-being during stressful times like the COVID-19 epidemic.

In addition, crisis management strategies to cope with the pandemic were adopted at different times with different COVID-19 situations in different countries. The unprecedented circumstances and impacts of COVID-19 in terms of breadth and depth offered a valuable opportunity to undertake comparative studies of the P2P accommodation industry in different areas in the globe. The impacts of COVID-19 are believed to be profound and long-term, and there may be structural and transformational changes to tourism and P2P accommodation, meaning that the outcomes for P2P accommodation operation, both helpful and harmful, need careful investigation.

Moreover, the impacts of supply adaptation strategies on other housing markets remains a topic for future research. In particular, the new trend in P2P accommodation of creating new lifestyle options with longer stays would unavoidably affect other housing markets, and this is worthy of exploration by practitioners and researchers. Furthermore, travellers’ preference for isolation and distance-keeping during the COVID-19 crisis created a great opportunity for both housing and tourism development in rural areas. Investigating the impacts of COVID-19 on P2P accommodation (as well as housing and tourism development) in rural areas and how to take advantage of the impact of COVID-19 and other similar crises have important practical implications for local authorities in, for example, the development of rural areas. Little attention has been paid to the responses or roles of other stakeholders in the P2P accommodation industry, such as service providers (e.g. management companies, short-term rental associations and cleaning service providers) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and future studies are needed in this area.