A theoretical model of user acceptance of blockchain-based peer-to-peer accommodation

Abstract

Blockchain could disrupt traditional accommodation services by enabling safe, decentralised direct connections between guests and hosts. However, how users will accept and use blockchain-based services in tourism and hospitality remains unascertained. This study explores users’ perceptions of a blockchain-based peer-to-peer accommodation system and sets a theoretical basis to conceptualise the drivers of the acceptability of such a system. By using a grounded theory approach involving theoretical sampling and three steps of coding and constant comparison procedures, this study revealed that users were drawn to the system because it delivers desirable characteristics that are absent from existing services, such as further reduction of transaction fees, instant transaction settlement, wider income distribution, data integrity, algorithm autonomy, and smart protocol. Personal and social contexts were also found to influence users’ preferences for blockchain type and system ownership models. By offering key predictors and a theoretical model of user acceptance of a blockchain-based peer-to-peer accommodation system, hence taking a bottom-up approach to complement the highly top-down extant literature, this paper allows stakeholders exploring the use of blockchain technology in the tourism and hospitality sectors to have a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon.