Impact of Covid 19 on sales performance of an Airbnb

This research proposal aims to identify the challenges faced by Airbnb during COVID-19 and its impact on their sales performance. The study will use primary and secondary sources to gather relevant and reliable data. The proposed research question is 'What are the major challenges faced by Airbnb during COVID-19 and how these challenges have affected the performance of the organisation?' The chosen organisation is Airbnb, and the research will focus on the impact of COVID-19 on its sales and business performance. The study aims to recommend ways and strategies to increase sales performance by decreasing the effect of COVID-19 on the organisation.

Identifying a Research Question for the
Dissertation/Project
WORKSHEET FOR RESEARCH DISSERTATION
PLAN
This template is to assist you in preparing your Research Dissertation Plan. Your research
Plan is the foundation of your dissertation. Please bring the sheet with you to the research
tutorials to demonstrate your progress – this is a record of your work-in-progress
Student’s Name Supervisor
Student’s
Number Date Allocated
*2 What are the
possible sources of
your research
question?
These may include
academic subjects you
have studied, your
(business related)
personal experience,
your future career
intentions. Above all
the topic should
arouse and engage
your interest.
The main reason of selecting the title that is impact of
COVID-19 on sales performance of an Airbnb because it is
related to future career intentions. The future career intention
is increasing the sales in working organisation.
The whole research proposal is based upon primary and
secondary sources for collecting appropriate information to
meet objectives and targets in a systematic and proper
manner.
The secondary sources include books, articles, newspapers,
journals, publications as these sources have great piece of
information related to the impact of COVID-19 on sales
performance of Airbnb (Hu and Lee, 2020).
The primary sources are great to gather data from chosen
respondents who are directly working in the chosen
organisation that is Airbnb.
The topic that is impact of COVID-19 on business and sales
performance of Airbnb is of great interest because the global
pandemic has negatively impacted every sector. COVID-19
came up with sudden restrictions that ultimately lead
organisation to shut their operations.
T*3 What is your
proposed research
question?
This states the
The research problem question that is related to business
problem for the research is “ What are the major challenges
faced by Airbnb during COVID-19 and how these
challenges have affected the performance of the
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business problem –
add a comment – what
is the anticipated
benefit that may result
from investigating the
problem
organisation?”
The selected problem of the research is appropriate with the
present time because COVID-19 has negatively impacted
organisation in this uncertain time. With the assistance of
current research organisations of same sector could get apt
data to adopt particular ways and methods to reduce the
effect of COVID-19 on organisation.
The major benefit that could be achieved by investigating
the current problem is ways and strategies that could help in
increasing the sales and business performance by decreasing
the effect of global pandemic COVID-19.
*4 How has the
problem arisen?
Provide the contextual
background to the
problem –
Summary of
organization and
summary of the
problem
Background to the problem
The problem of the current research is effect of COVID-19
on sales and business performance of the Airbnb. The issue
or problem has started when COVID-19 had taken bigger
picture and made people unwell. This forced government to
come up with sudden restrictions of lock down that
ultimately stopped the operations and activities of Airbnb.
Government has made rules and regulations that had put
restrictions on travelling of people. People have become
more conscious about their health and avoided travelling and
staying in other places.
Summary of chosen organisation
The chosen organisation in the current research is Airbnb, it
is an American company that operates in the marketplace
through online platform for activities of tourism, home stays
for vacation rentals and lodging. It comes under industry of
lodging founded in August, 2008 at San Francisco,
California. The founder of Airbnb is Joe Gebbia, Brian
Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk and the headquarters is also
situated in San Francisco, California. This is the platform
that is is easily accessible through mobile app and website.
Summary of the problem
Airbnb Inc. had to see major downfall in sales and business
performance because of the restrictions of lock down
imposed by the government of different countries. The
restrictions of lock down made people to not step out from
their home so that spread of coronavirus could be controlled.
This has decreased the number of travellers which has
reduced the bookings at Airbnb as people do not need to
book rental rooms as they were avoiding the situation of
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travelling from one place to another.
*2 *3 *4 with contrbution from Jan Green (2013) Senior Lecture Glyndwr University Wrexham
What are the aims
of the research
study?
One research aim
which will be
reflected in the title
of your dissertation
Title:
The title of the research study is
“ Impact of Covid 19 on sales performance of an Airbnb”
Aims of the study:
The aim of the study is to
“To identify the challenges faced by Airbnb during COVID-19 and
its impact on their sales performance”
Research question:
 What is the major impact of COVID-19 on the booking of
Airbnb?
 What is the impact of COVID-19 on sales performance of
Airbnb?
 What are the ways for overcoming those challenges faced
by Airbnb?
 What are the ways for increasing sales performance after
COVID-19?
Quantitative
Study What are
the objectives of
your research
study?
What do you plan
to do during your
research?
(For quantitative research)
The objectives of the study are :
To identify the major impacts of COVID-19 on the booking of
Airbnb
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For quantitative
research list up to
up to three
objectives
the fourth objective
is to recommend a
course of action
To measure the impact of COVID-19 on sales performance of
Airbnb
To examine the ways for overcoming those challenges faced by
Airbnb
To ascertain the ways for increasing sales performance after
COVID-19
Based on the study findings it is expected to recommend ……
There are various ways that are recommended to organisations to
reduce the impact of COVID-19 on business performance is using
appropriate advanced technology so that refunding and cancelling
process could be done in fast manner.
Organisation must offer discounts on their tourists activities and
rental rooms so that youngsters could be easily attracted. There are
number of youngsters who are interested in engaging in tourist
activity after decreasing the effect of COVID-19.
Qualitative Study
What are the
supporting
questions of your
research study?
What do you plan
to do during your
research?
For qualitative
research list up to
three supporting
questions
the fourth objective
is to recommend a
course of action
(For qualitative research)
The current research also uses sources of secondary to answer the
pre-defined questions in an effective manner. The secondary
sources are very useful in the current dissertation because there are
various reputed publications that give appropriate information to
meet the objectives of research in an appropriate manner. Some of
the other secondary sources that are used to carry out information
are: books, articles, newspapers, reputed publications, business
sites.
The current research is planned systematically and properly by
determining needed resources and time limit to attain the pre-
defined objectives. Primary and secondary sources are used to
gather relevant and reliable data. Gantt chart is also used so that
researcher could have pictorial depiction of activities that need to
be performed.
The supporting questions of the study are
 Major impacts of COVID-19 on the booking of Airbnb
 Impact of COVID-19 on sales performance of Airbnb
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 Ways for overcoming those challenges faced by Airbnb
 Ways for increasing sales performance after COVID-19
Based on the study findings it is expected to recommend
What is the main
academic theme
of your proposal?
Include an
academic definition
of the key terms,
supported by
academic literature
cited using the
Harvard
referencing system
The main purpose of conducting the present research is to
determine the impact of COVID-19 on the bookings and business
performance of Airbnb. With this motive the present research
would clearly explain how COVID-19 has negatively impacted the
sales, reservations and bookings of Airbnb worldwide. There are
two other perspectives that are aimed to fulfil are personal and
professional perspective. In order to attain personal perspective I
have get to know about the impact of sudden restriction that could
help me in dealing with sudden problems and from the
professional perspective I have come to know about the strategies
that could be use to mitigate the effect of sudden restrictions on
business.
What Academic
theory underpins
the research
question?
This is addressed for each objective.
You should use evidence drawn from six recent academic
journals and texts to discuss the objectives; and therefore the
research question.
You should have at least two recent journal articles supporting
each objective if you have three objectives and at least three
journal articles supporting each objective if you have two
objectives.
Airbnb had suffered negatively due to the impact of COVID-19
because their customers have cancelled their bookings due t
restrictions of lock down. This decreased the business of Airbnb
because they got pressure of refunding amount back to customers
(MacInnes, Randle and Dolnicar, 2021). This has created chaos
and confusion in the management of Airbnb because people were
continuously raising complaints to get their funds back on their
reservations and bookings.
Evidence
underpinning
Objective 1
One sentence explaining what the evidence says in relation
to objective 1:
To identify the major impacts of COVID-19 on the booking of
Airbnb
According to Nhamo, Dube and Chikodzi (2020), restrictions on
travel, measures of lock down and seriousness of COVID-19
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declined the bookings of Airbnb. In the earlier stages of COVID-
19 there were lower bookings as cancellations were more on pre-
booking at Airbnb.
Hence, it could be said that that COVID-19 has negatively
impacted the booking of Airbnb because travelling was totally
restricted in every part of the world.
Evidence
underpinning
Objective 2
One sentence explaining what the evidence says in relation
to objective 2:
To measure the impact of COVID-19 on sales performance of
Airbnb
According to Chen and et. al., (2020), COVID-19 is a global
pandemic that has diminished the level of people travelling in
one place to another this ultimately made people to cancel their
bookings. There is negative effect on sales performance of
Airbnb because there were no people who were booking rental
rooms, vacations and travelling activities. This ultimately
reduced the sales of Airbnb and had to deal with major losses.
Evidence
underpinning
Objective 3
One sentence explaining what the evidence says in relation
to objective 3:
To examine the ways for overcoming those challenges faced by
Airbnb
According to Bang Nong and Ha (2021), there are different
ways used by Airbnb to overcome challenges of COVID-19 so
that they could attract their customers in long run. Airbnb has
revised their cancellation policies so that their customers get
whole refund and post COVID-19 they could make bookings
again at Airbnb.
Airbnb also used artificial intelligence so that they could make
appropriate payments to their customers on their cancellation in
systematic and fast manner.
Evidence
underpinning
Objective 4
One sentence explaining what the evidence says in
relation to objective 4:
To ascertain the ways for increasing sales performance after
COVID-19
According to Dolnicar and Zare (2020), organisations like
Airbnb has used different ways to increase the sales performance
after COVID-19 so that more and more number of customers
could be attracted. Airbnb has come up with various discounts
and schemes on rental rooms and tourists activities so that
customers could make their mind to make more bookings.
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List the academic
journal articles
Use the full
Harvard
referencing system
REFERENCES
Books and articles
Bang Nong, N. and Ha, V.H.T., 2021. Impact of Covid-19 on
Airbnb: evidence from Vietnam. Journal of Sustainable Finance
& Investment, pp.1-14.
Chen and et. al., 2020. COVID-19 pandemic exposes the
vulnerability of the sharing economy: a novel accounting
framework. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, pp.1-18.
Dolnicar, S. and Zare, S., 2020. Coronavirus and Airbnb–
disrupting the disruptor.
Hu, M. and Lee, A.D., 2020. Airbnb, COVID-19 risk and
lockdowns: local and global evidence. COVID-19 Risk and
Lockdowns: Local and Global Evidence (November 28, 2020).
MacInnes, S., Randle, M. and Dolnicar, S., 2021. Airbnb
catering to guests with disabilities–before, during and after
COVID-19. First Published in 2021 by The University of
Queensland Copyright© The University of Queensland. 2021.
p.180.
Nhamo, G., Dube, K. and Chikodzi, D., 2020. Impacts and
implications of COVID-19 on the global hotel industry and
Airbnb. In Counting the Cost of COVID-19 on the global tourism
industry (pp. 183-204). Springer, Cham.
Ethical considerations
Consider issues of access to the participant
organisation and individuals
Draft letter requesting access to the organisation;
Draft a Participant Information Sheet and Consent
Form
Fill-in part of the university’s Ethics Form
Ethical Approval:
Explain how you
will obtain written
authorization to
collect research
data
Compulsory for all academic research
Organisational level: Who is your contact? How do you know
the contact? At what level are they operating within the
organization?
Individual level: Participant information sheet and consent form.
Issues related to implied consent (especially for survey
questionnaires)
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