This book explores how digital platforms in the realm of tourism and hospitality have shaped social and material worlds. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with hosts and guests, the book analyses the impacts of platforms on the scale of the city, the home, and the everyday life of individuals. The book first situates platforms within the broader history of digital developments in tourism and questions what is essentially new about these socio-technical formations? The following chapters demonstrate how platforms have affected urban housing, challenged the tourism sector, and transformed understandings of hospitality and home. This is illustrated through a case-study of Airbnb’s development and impact in Sofia, Bulgaria. The final chapters of the book reflect on the political dimensions of datafication processes and digital systems of measurement that underpin the platform’s workings, showing how the platform economies of tourism benefit their users in highly uneven ways.
Author(s): Maartje Roelofsen
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 137
City: London
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
1 Introduction
A Note on Methods
References
2 A Brief History of Tourism Platforms
The Dawn of Computer Reservation Systems
Platforms and Markets
Platforms and the “Sharing Economy”
Historical Context of Hospitality Networks and Platforms
A Brief History of Airbnb
Hosts, Guests, and Labour in the Airbnb Economy
Co-Hosts and Reproductive Labour
Airbnb’s Digital Architecture
Positioning Airbnb
References
3 The Socio-Spatial Impacts of Airbnb
Short-Term Rental Platforms and Their Impacts
Daily Disruptions of Everyday Life
Airbnb’s Impact on the Tourism and Hospitality Sector
Enforcing Rules and Regulations
Exploring the Socio-Spatial Impacts of Airbnb in Sofia, Bulgaria
Sofia
Sofia’s City Districts and Clusters
An Exploration of Airbnb in Sofia
Guest Reviews of Airbnb listings in Sofia
Airbnb Sofia’s “Local” Hosts
Limitations
Conclusion
Postscript
References
4 Airbnb-ed Homes and Everyday Life
Imaginaries and Spatialities of Home
Shifting Meanings of Home
Home and Capitalism
Home in Late Capitalist Economies
Home in the Sharing Economy and Tourism
Approaching the Home Through Performance
An (Auto)Ethnography of Home
Selecting Airbnb Homes in Sofia, Bulgaria
Researching the Airbnb Home
Setting the “Stage”: Material Accounts of (Post-)Socialist Homes
Energy Monopolies and the Visceral Home
Home Heritage
Sharing Home with Strangers
Bordering the Private and Intimate Spatialities of Home
Changing Relationalities of Home
Conclusion
References
5 Datafication of Everyday Life and Bodies
Introduction
Airbnb Datafication Processes
Silent Datafication and the Work of Being Watched
Airbnb’s Review and Rating Applications
The Deeper Politics of Reviews, Ratings and Rankings
Disciplinary and Regulatory Power
Safety, security and Coercion of Social Behaviour
Airbnb Search Revealed: Or, the Importance of Ranking Well
Concluding Thoughts: Airbnb’s Biopolitics
References
6 Conclusion
References
Index
