Trust transfer in peer-to-peer accommodation

Existing studies on peer-to-peer accommodation mainly focused on the effect of property- and host-level features on travelers' booking decisions. However, the spillover effect of one property on another property by the same host and the boundary conditions behind such an effect remain unexplored. Based on intra- and inter-channel trust transfer theory and by collecting data from Mayi.com and constructing a panel dataset, this study extends trust transfer theory in the context of peer-to-peer trading and identifies the boundary conditions under which trust transfer occurs: booking one property can spill over to the booking of another property by the same host, and similarity between properties and host quality can significantly strengthen this spillover effect.