Be Social! The Impact of Self-Presentation on Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Revenue

Abstract

Online peer-to-peer platforms empower individual users and facilitate value-oriented exchanges. Personal profiles are the main point of contact with consumers on these platforms. Although individual sellers can use these profiles to market their own products, the optimal communication strategies that maximize their revenues remain uncertain. In line with construal-level theory, a self-presentation strategy that reduces social distance might increase sellers’ revenues. An empirical validation, based on 6,074 Airbnb listings, affirms that self-presentation that evokes social values leads to higher revenues. The length of the self-presentation also exerts a notable impact. Specifically, an inverted U-shaped effect on revenues reaches its peak at 424 words. This research has rich managerial implications, in that it demonstrates how sellers on peer-to-peer platforms can increase their revenues simply by emphasizing social values in their self-presentations.