IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedlwp/2019-019.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What is the Value of Being a Superhost?

Author

Listed:
  • Aleksander Berentsen
  • Mariana Rojas Breu
  • Christopher J. Waller

Abstract

We construct a search model where sellers post prices and produce goods of unknown quality. A match reveals the quality of the seller. Buyers rate sellers based on quality. We show that unrated sellers charge a low price to attract buyers and that highly rated sellers post a high price and sell with a higher probability than unrated sellers. We fi nd that welfare is higher with a ratings system. Using data on Airbnb rentals, we show that Superhosts and hosts with high ratings: 1) charge higher prices, 2) have a higher occupancy rate and 3) higher revenue than average hosts.

Suggested Citation

  • Aleksander Berentsen & Mariana Rojas Breu & Christopher J. Waller, 2019. "What is the Value of Being a Superhost?," Working Papers 2019-19, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2019-019
    DOI: 10.20955/wp.2019.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://s3.amazonaws.com/real.stlouisfed.org/wp/2019/2019-019.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.20955/wp.2019.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allen Head & Alok Kumar, 2005. "Price Dispersion, Inflation, And Welfare," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 533-572, May.
    2. Chiara Farronato & Andrey Fradkin, 2018. "The Welfare Effects of Peer Entry in the Accommodation Market: The Case of Airbnb," NBER Working Papers 24361, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Becker, Sascha S. & Nautz, Dieter, 2012. "Inflation, price dispersion and market integration through the lens of a monetary search model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 624-634.
    2. Abdelraouf, Nadine & Noureldin, Diaa, 2022. "The impact of the exchange rate regime on the dispersion of the price-change distribution: Evidence from a large panel of countries," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. Alok Kumar, 2008. "Inflation And The Dispersion Of Real Wages," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(2), pages 377-399, May.
    4. Ashraf, Quamrul & Gershman, Boris & Howitt, Peter, 2016. "How Inflation Affects Macroeconomic Performance: An Agent-Based Computational Investigation," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 558-581, March.
    5. Ritter Moritz, 2010. "The Optimum Quantity of Money Revisited: Distortionary Taxation in a Search Model of Money," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, June.
    6. Lopez Cordova,Jose Ernesto, 2020. "Digital Platforms and the Demand for International Tourism Services," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9147, The World Bank.
    7. Wei Chen & Karen Xie & Jianwei Liu & Yong Liu, 2019. "How Incumbents Beat Disruptors? Evidence from Hotels’ Responses to Home-sharing Rivals," Working Papers 19-11, NET Institute.
    8. Huberto M. Ennis, 2009. "Avoiding The Inflation Tax," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(2), pages 607-625, May.
    9. Allen Head & Beverly Lapham, 2006. "Search, Market Power, and Inflation Dynamics," 2006 Meeting Papers 559, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Apostolos Filippas & John J. Horton & Richard J. Zeckhauser, 2020. "Owning, Using, and Renting: Some Simple Economics of the “Sharing Economy”," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(9), pages 4152-4172, September.
    11. Gulnihal Aksoy & Don Bredin & Deirdre Corcoran & Stilianos Fountas, 2016. "Relative Price Dispersion and In flation: Evidence for the UK and the US," Discussion Paper Series 2016_05, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, revised Dec 2016.
    12. Sheremirov, Viacheslav, 2020. "Price dispersion and inflation: New facts and theoretical implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 59-70.
    13. Siraj, Ibrahim & Hassan, M. Kabir & Maroney, Neal, 2020. "Product demand sensitivity and the corporate diversification discount," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    14. Tedds, Lindsay M. & Cameron, Anna & Khanal, Mukesh & Crisan, Daria, 2021. "Why Existing Regulatory Frameworks Fail in the Short-term Rental Market: Exploring the Role of Regulatory Fractures," MPRA Paper 106712, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Gyódi, Kristóf, 2021. "Airbnb and hotels during COVID-19: different strategies to survive," MPRA Paper 109333, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Matthias Wrede, 2022. "How Short-Term Rentals are Changing the Neighborhood," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 45(4), pages 417-443, July.
    17. Bibler, Andrew & Grigolon, Laura & Teltser, Keith & Tremblay, Mark, 2024. "Identifying Tax Compliance from Changes in Enforcement: Theory and Empirics," CEPR Discussion Papers 18805, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Baglan, Deniz & Ege Yazgan, M. & Yilmazkuday, Hakan, 2016. "Relative price variability and inflation: New evidence," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 263-282.
    19. Mark J. Tremblay, 2020. "The Limits of Marketplace Fee Discrimination," Working Papers 20-10, NET Institute.
    20. Maximilian Schäfer & Kevin Ducbao Tran, 2020. "Airbnb, Hotels, and Localized Competition," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1889, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ratings; Airbnb; Price Posting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2019-019. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Anna Oates (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbslus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.