Principles of Management: Analyzing Airbnb's Authenticity Claims

This essay examines Airbnb's claims of providing 'authentic' travel experiences, arguing that these are primarily a marketing ploy designed to attract consumers seeking to live like locals. The essay explores how Airbnb's practices commodify both people and places, offering accommodations and experiences that are often staged rather than genuinely immersive. It highlights the changing priorities of modern travelers who seek off-the-beaten-path destinations and local interactions, and how Airbnb capitalizes on this trend. The essay critiques the concept of authenticity in tourism, suggesting that true cultural immersion is difficult to achieve and that Airbnb's approach often results in a superficial experience. The paper also discusses the commodification of local communities, and how Airbnb's model can lead to the commercialization of places and people. It concludes that Airbnb's promise of authenticity is largely a marketing strategy that creates a false sense of cultural immersion and contributes to the commodification of both the places and the people involved, ultimately chasing a wild fantasy.

Running head: PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT
Principles of Management
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Airbnb was founded in the year 2008. Their mission is to provide authentic and
sustainable travel experiences thus creating a world where everyone is included and belong
anywhere they want. Their packages include unique stay and activity experiences as well as a
close contact with the locals (About Us - Airbnb Newsroom., 2019). Most of their property is
hosted by the owners themselves. These people are a part of the local community that they
live in and Airbnb believes that staying in those places ensures that the travelers have an
authentic experience. There have been criticisms that this concept popularized by Airbnb as a
marketing ploy and visitors and travelers are only chasing to fulfill their fantasies (Vannini &
Williams, 2016). In this essay, it has been argued that the authentic experiences as offered by
Airbnb are truly a ploy to attract more consumers. It is also established here that the
consumers in questions are only pursuing the idea of living the life of the locals. Moreover,
the authenticity concept of Airbnb and its impact on the commodification of people and place
has been evaluated.
Airbnb provides their services in 191 countries. They provide unique
accommodations like, tree houses, beach houses, castles, heritage buildings, tents as well as
all kinds of luxurious stays. Along with that they provide personalized services, city tours,
adventures and sports activities. The main idea is to provide an ‘authentic’ and local
experience to the visitors. The travelling priorities have changed significantly nowadays.
Earlier people focused on the popular tourist places and the accommodations that they chose
used to be at the most convenient location. Now, millennial are more interested in visiting the
off-beat places, tasting local cuisine, mingle with the local community and look at their
culture closely. They want to visit their local markets and learn about their life. Airbnb has
tapped this market and come up with a unique idea where they play the mediator between the
travelers and the hosts, claiming that this leads to ‘authentic’ experience that they are looking
for.

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Authenticity is an arguable concept in tourism. It generally means real. In tourism,
when travelers experience the real activities and aspects of the local culture, that experience
can be called authentic (Croes, Lee & Olson, 2013). In most cases, the authenticity provided
in tourism are staged, which means that service providers create or stage the some aspects of
the local culture in order to give the tourists an apparent impression of real. Airbnb too, has
adopted this concept. They include hosts from around the world and claim that through them,
the travelers will experience the local life. While this is partially true as travelers are given
the option to choose places that have a certain charm to it, it remains to be seen how much
inclusion they are experiencing.
In terms of authenticity of experiences, the proximity of nature is offered by many
tourism companies including Airbnb. This is achievable as this is easy. The resorts and other
nature camps, the tree houses and forest tents all contribute to the authenticity of experiences
(Ram, Björk & Weidenfeld, 2016). Many scholar believe that, the aspect of authenticity is
limited here and the idea of inclusion and real local experience is still a myth. Culture in a
community is a very continuous concept. It evolves constantly and inclusion happens through
time and familiarity. With this understanding, it becomes easy to understand why the ‘real’
cultural experiences are impossible to achieve.
In any culture, it is quite impossible to include people in short notice and within a
short amount of time (Palomera, 2014). This is more true for more closed culture where
people share a close bond with each other in the community. Thus, if a tourist is visiting such
a place, it is not possible for them to think of them as their own. The tourist will remain an
outsider. Though they might show hospitality and generosity, the true lifestyle, rituals and
customs cannot be experienced by the traveler. Moreover, the properties and the adventures
that they provide are provided by people that have already been commercialized. The cultural
experience that the travelers are looking for will be available to people that are not exposed to

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this industry, thus having no access to the platforms that provide the services. This clearly
indicates that the experience that Airbnb talks about is more staged than it is real (Daugstad
& Kirchengast, 2013).
This practice of staged authenticity creates several problems. It is understandable that
all experiences cannot be recreated. Moreover, even if some communities are involved in the
main stream life, there are also many communities that maintain distance from
commercialization. This factor has large potential to disrupt the tourism as most travelers
nowadays are interested in unique experiences rather than visiting popular places (Chan et al.,
2016). They are even prepared to pay large sum of money for the taste of local culture. This
thirst of authenticity is born from the curiosity of the new generation tourists and their
interest in different cultures. Moreover, with the use of social media platforms more people
are now intrigues in these experiences. The companies like Airbnb, uses this behavior and
commercializes people and the places.
In order to provide an apparently authentic service, Airbnb uses the accommodations.
The distinct nature of the places provides the tourists with a setting of the ‘real’. They engage
the people of the locality, majorly the owners or the hosts of the property to work with the
guest and guide them in their itinerary (Crang, 2015). This inadvertently commodities the
people and the places. Earlier, these places were untouched and had a rustic environment.
Due to the continuous arrival of the guests, these are likely to lose that authenticity and will
slowly become commercial. Due to commercialization, they look and feel of the place will
change. There will be advertisements, facilities and up gradations that will destroy the
originality of the place.
In case of people too, the experience with the outside tourists and concentrating on the
profit-making aspect of hosting those places makes them money oriented. Moreover, the

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locals, that are the most important part of the experience for the tourists are also
commoditized by the tour managers and the tourists. Earlier people had to work ahrd to
experience a part of their culture. It was difficult to find the passage through which they will
be able to interact with them. The platform like Airbnb provides that passage in turn causing
commodification of these people. They understand that the more remote cultures need more
money for their advancements (Mkono, 2013). Thus, they utilize that need and impose on
them the duty of entertaining the travelers and include them in their culture. Whatever they
might do, the most important aspect that is missing in their motto is that it takes time for
anyone to become a part of a culture and even more for those people to appreciate and respect
that culture.
From the above discussion, it is evident that the promise of authenticity that Airbnb
makes, is nothing but a marketing ploy as the experience that they offer are staged and
remains far from inclusion. Their actions have created a false idea of authenticity and have
led to commodification of the people and the places that earlier held the signs of culture and
purity. The tourists all over the world are following this trend thus increasing this
commodification and chasing a wild fantasy.

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References
About Us - Airbnb Newsroom. (2019). Retrieved 5 September 2019, from
https://press.airbnb.com/about-us/
Chan, K. M., Balvanera, P., Benessaiah, K., Chapman, M., Díaz, S., Gómez-Baggethun,
E., ... & Luck, G. W. (2016). Opinion: Why protect nature? Rethinking values and the
environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(6), 1462-1465.
Crang, M. (2015). Travelling ethics: Valuing harmony, habitat and heritage while consuming
people and places. Geoforum, 67, 194-203.
Croes, R., Lee, S. H., & Olson, E. D. (2013). Authenticity in tourism in small island
destinations: a local perspective. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 11(1-2), 1-
20.
Daugstad, K., & Kirchengast, C. (2013). Authenticity and the pseudo-backstage of agri-
tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 43, 170-191.
Mkono, M. (2013). Using net-based ethnography (netnography) to understand the staging and
marketing of “authentic African” dining experiences to tourists at Victoria
Falls. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 37(2), 184-198.
Palomera, J. (2014). Reciprocity, commodification, and poverty in the era of
financialization. Current Anthropology, 55(S9), S105-S115.
Ram, Y., Björk, P., & Weidenfeld, A. (2016). Authenticity and place attachment of major
visitor attractions. Tourism Management, 52, 110-122.

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Vannini, P., & Williams, J. P. (2016). Authenticity in culture, self, and society.
In Authenticity in culture, self, and society(pp. 17-34). Routledge.