Recebido em 22.02.2020
Aprovado em 15.04.2020
Avaliado pelo sistema double blind review Editor Científico: Marlusa de Sevilha Gosling
ISSN 2525- 8176
DOI: 10.29149/mtr.v5i2.5940
IMPACT OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS ON ACCOMODATION OFFERS: COMPARASION BETWEEN BOOKING.COM AND AIRBNB
IMPACTO DAS PLATAFORMAS DIGITAIS NA OFERTA DE MEIOS D E HOSPEDAGEM: COMPARATIVO DE VENDAS ENTRE BOOKING.CO M E AI RBNB
André Riani Costa Perinotto (perinotto@ufpi.edu.br ) Universidade Federal do Piaui, Brasil
Samuel Belfort Simões (samuelbelfort@hotmail.com ) Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Brasil
Samuel Mesquita de Sousa (samuel.mesquita@outlook.com )Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Brasil Solano de Souza Braga (solanobraga@yahoo.com.br )Universidade Federal do Delta do Parnaíba, Brasil
ABSTRACT
This study aims to compare the way Booking.com and Airbnb present their
offers related to the Praia de Cumbuco - CEARÁ, the first being an Online Travel Agency - OTA and the second a platform created with a focus on the shared economy. In line with this understanding, a bibliographic analysis is carried out on the related topics, as well as a comparison between the
information made available by the technological platforms in question. Therefore, it is noticed that, despite having more recent operations in Brazil, Airbnb has a greater quantity and diversity of accommodation offers compared to Booking.com. A case study is carried out at Praia do Cumbuco,
but it is believed that this result reflects, more broadly, the offer of UHs from Booking.com and Airbnb in Brazil.
Keywords: Tourism, E-commerce, Shared economy, Cumbuco.
RESUMO
Este estudo teve como objetivo o objetivo do estudo foi comparar o modo
como Booking.com e o modo como o AirBnb apresentam suas ofertas acerca da Praia de Cumbuco – CEARÁ, sendo a primeira uma Online Travel Agency – OTA e a segunda uma plataforma criada com foco na economia compartilhada. Alinhado a esse entendimento, foi realizada uma análise
bibliográfica sobre os temas relacionados, bem como uma comparação entre as informações disponibilizadas pelas plataformas tecnológicas em questão. Diante disso, percebeu-se que, apesar de ter atuação mais recente
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no Brasil, o AirBnB possui maior quantidade e diversidade de oferta de
hospedagem em comparação ao Booking.com. Foi realizado um estudo de caso na praia do Cumbuco, mas acredita-se que esse resultado reflete, de forma mais ampla, a oferta de UHs da Booking.com e a AirBnB no Brasil.
Palavras-chave: Turismo, E-commerce, Economia Compartilhada, Cumbuco INTRODUCTION
The beginning of the 21st century was marked by the evolution of the internet, allowing a faster connection between people and between companies, and between companies and companies. This was a very important milestone in how commercial transactions were made, opening doors to new market segments with new companies. In the field of tourism, this evolution is observed in smart tourist destinations (smart destination), which indicates the use of technologies - sensors, tags, codes and systems - with a high potential to enrich the tourism experience of visitors and improve the destination’s competitiveness (Malta et al., 2018; Brandão et al., 2016).
The changes brought by the evolution of the internet were also drastic in the Marketing area. However, just experiencing, having information, viewing photos and videos was not enough, the tourist needed to book immediately. It was then that On-line Travel Agencies (OTAs) appeared.
Through OTAs it is possible for the user to make a hotel reservation anywhere in the world and in a very quick and simple way. The popularization of OTAs in Brazil started around 2007 and, after almost 10 years, it has become one of the main distribution channels for housing units in the hotel segment. A survey conducted by TripAdvisor (2013), cited by Malta et al. (2018), highlighted the use of smartphones by tourists to contract various types of services, such as searching for and booking hotels and means of accommodation.
Global phenomena such as economic crises, climate change and uncontrolled growth of the world population are contributing to these changes, no longer focused on "having" but on "using". This is only possible
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because of the excesses generated year by year due to the individuals' exaggerated behavior in possessing goods. This accumulation of assets such as beach houses, apartments and vehicles is now being exchanged or rented for less than the market value, in many cases reaching zero cost. It’s the emergence of Shared Economy, or Collaborative Economy.
The best-known companies worldwide use sophisticated platforms, similar to OTAs, to reach the ends of this economy, those who need the service or good, and those who have them in excess. The biggest example in the tourism area is AirBnB, a platform where it is possible to rent apartments for short periods at a much lower cost than the market, or to make available some property that is out of use to generate profitability with reasonable prices, but with a lot of turnover. However, it is noted that some OTAs, noticing this trend, are also making properties available based on Shared Economy on their platforms. The price determinants of AirBnB listings are still in the early stages of studies, and potential markets are still poorly explored (Cai et. Al., 2019).
Thus, Booking.com was selected because (Petry et al., 2016, p. 30 “Booking.com stands out as one of the leading companies in hosting related information in the world”, as well as in Brazil, a fact that legitimizes the choice of this site as an object of study. The company was founded in 1996, headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and has expanded ever since. Longer in the market than AirBnB, Booking.com already stood out in the market in 2016 when it operated “in 63 countries, managed 165 offices and offered more than 694,103 properties in 215 different countries” (Petry et al., 2016).
In a complementary way, with sun and beach tourism standing out in Ceará, although there are other segments and, due to the interest of researchers in Shared Economy or Collaborative Economy, supported by the development of Cumbuco beach, Caucaia-CE. Therefore, this work is structured with the theme of Shared Economy and Cumbuco beach. It is important to mention that the different accommodations from the emerging
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AirBnB offer a unique economic sharing platform, in which tourists can co - create their travel experiences with different participating groups (clients x clients, clients x company and even clients x residents) (Lin, et al., 2019).
The co-creation of values produced by tourists when sharing their impressions on the internet and establishing a relationship between consumers was pointed out by Coelho et al. (2018) as an important factor in the choice of services to be purchased. The authors also point out that the protagonist assumed by tourists has become relevant for the differentiation of an organization dictating new relationships B2C (Business to Consumer) and C2C (Consumer to Consumer). Reaffirming this importance, Guerra et al. (2015, p. 312), when analyzing social media in the context of tourism products consumption, states that these “act to create an interface for co-creation of tourism products, but such a result only occurs if the company is attentive to customer posts, and if they are ready to give the necessary feedback ”.
In this work, the objective of the study is to compare the way Booking.com and AirBnb present their offers in Praia de Cumbuco - CEARÁ. Ceará is an important national and international tourist destination, and its capital, Fortaleza, consolidates itself as the main receiving and distributing center for that flow of tourists, with great infrastructure and equipment (Araujo, 2011). The OTAs that stand out the most in the state are Booking.com, Decolar and Hotels.com. For this study, the researchers delimited a comparative analysis of an OTA in relation to AirBnB. Thus, an OTA was chosen due to its greater relevance, with the criterion of supply volume.
Thus, the development of this work (in its complete format) is based on a bibliographic and comparative survey between the two platforms on the themes in question. In this study, the following topics will be discussed: a) E - commerce and Tourism; b) The new wave: the shared economy in hosting - AirBnB; c) Methodology d) Analysis of Results.
CEARÁ, CEARNS COAST AND CUMBUCO BEACH
Ceará was a pioneer in the northeast region regarding tourism planning. In 1989, the state already presented innovative public policies, such as PRODETURIS, when “the speeches for the Brazilian Northeast turned to a
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new representation of the region's image, linking it to a positive view of the semiarid” (Araújo and Dantas, 2015, p. 227). According to Dantas (2010), the aforementioned project values beaches as a political commodity before PRODETUR / NE I and II.
In Ceará, as well as in the Brazilian Northeast, the coast is the main area for attracting leisure and tourism. Thus, due to its geographical conditions, the State of Ceará has stood out in the national and international scenario for the practice of this sport, with special emphasis on the Cumbuco beach. The Government of the State of Ceará (2017), considers that the state, a major tourist attraction for Brazilians and foreigners, has several elements (beaches, cuisine, people's hospitality and handicrafts) that complement the landscape, which captivates visitors. “The State of Ceará, located in the Northeast Region of Brazil, has an area of 146,000 km2, with 573 km of coastline, an average temperature of 28ºC, constant winds and presents 2,800 hours of sunshine per year” (SETUR / CE, 2018). Fernandes (2014), points out that the state stands out as a tourist destination for sun and beach, business and events and adventure.
The municipality of Caucaia, located on the west coast, part of the metropolitan region of Fortaleza, currently presents itself as one of the main tourist hubs in Ceará, being one of the most visited cities by tourists entering the state (FIGURE 1). Being considered one of the main tourist destinations in Ceará, indicated in government research as one of the largest in terms of visitation, after the state capital - Fortaleza (Mota, 2013), and being one of the best places on Earth to practice kitesurfing (Herculano, 2013).
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FIGURE 1: Cumbuco's location
Map base source: Coelho, 2017, p. 20
E-COMMERCE AND TOURISM
E-commerce is conceptualized as any type of commercial practice performed in an electronic environment, with the application of communication and information technologies (Guimarães and Borges, 2008). Regarding the competitive advantages provided by technology, Lovelock and Wirtz (2006) are categorical in stating that as a distribution channel, the Internet facilitates the information flow, negotiation flow, service flow, transaction flow and promotion flow.
This new way of doing business is not so new, the full transactional capacity (online e-commerce) was planned for introduction in 2000 (Middleton, 2001). Tourism is one of the industries that have benefited most from the advent of information technology, the internet and e- commerce itself:
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The tourism sector is a major incorporator of technology, in its various segments, its growth always depends on the capacity for innovation and the use of technology to improve management, develop new products, improve communication, optimize travel experiences and personalization of attendance (Guimarães and Borges, 2008, p. 10).
The tourism sector and, more specifically, the hotel sector are particularly affected by eWOM, “a virtual word-of-mouth” (Mellinas et al., 2016). Millions of travelers write comments about their travel experiences, apparently getting nothing in return. This provision of data through reports, comments or experiences will affect the decision-making process of the potential consumer, making these social networks “an environment capable of transmitting confidence or satisfaction to an establishment or product towards the market” (Mendes Filho et al., 2017, p. 195). This altruistic phenomenon is considered an online reproduction of similar phenomena of friendship and collaboration that exist offline or in the "real world". This passion for sharing experiences and opinions creates large databases that allow quick and easy access by companies and academics, that extract information about customer satisfaction in the hotel sector.
Furthermore, Guimarães and Borges (2008) point out that travel agencies see the Internet as a major threat, given the potential brought by the network in concern to disintermediation. Ramos et al. (2011), despite agreeing with this view, claim that, in many cases, it represents the creation of new distributors and types of online intermediaries. This is the case with Online Travel Agencies, the well-known OTAs, therefore, we worked on this article with Booking.com, one of the best known.
Despite the agencies’ apprehension at the time of the creation of the OTAs and the e-commerce environment, Middleton says that there was no way to predict the extent to which those changes would occur. Even admitting an optimistic view, the author, when discussing the beginning of the 21st century, considered that “it is still impossible to predict the extent to which the Internet will replace the traditional B2C distribution channels and
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achieve the claims of its protagonists, besides the expectations of their investors’ profit ”(Middleton, 2001, p. 307).
Other characteristics about the internet impact on tourism are listed by Ramos et al. (2011) as: globalized competition; high fragmentation of suppliers; high bargaining power of sales channels; idle management and the emergence of purely online players, as it is one of the most favored segments by e-commerce. This latter impact refers to OTAs (online travel agencies) and other platforms.
Middleton finds on the internet an ally for smaller companies “The development of destination marketing systems with access to online marketing and reservations is another collaborative route for smaller companies with a clear growth potential” (Middleton, 2001, p. 407). However, what Middleton did not know was that, in addition to small businesses, individuals would also directly benefit from the internet and its e- commerce platforms, the same ones that served as the basis for the Shared Economy.
THE NEW WAVE: SHARED ECONOMY IN ACCOMMODATION - AIRBNB
AirBnB emerged in the new wave called Shared Economy or Collaborative Economy. However, before delving into the AirBnB topic, it is important to understand what is Shared Economy. Thus, Vera and Gosling (2018, p. 448) describe the shared economy as:
Sharing as the act and process of distributing what is ours to others for their use and/or the act and process of receiving or taking something
from others for our use. Collaborative consumption is defined by the author as events which are coordinated among consumers for the acquisition and distribution of a resource based on a fee or other form of remuneration, such as barter, trade and exchanges involving non - monetary compensation. The difference between the two concepts is that collaborative consumption involves a fee or other form of remuneration, but sharing does not involve a fee. These two consumer behaviors are inserted within the context of the shared economy.
Still, according to Vera and Gosling (2018), the innovations and convergences of sharing and collaborative consumption in tourism differ from
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traditional accommodation options, as they admit a high coefficient of personalization of the tourist experience, such as AirBnB, for example.
Thus, according to Branco (2019), shared economy ensures diligence in favor of the demand for values that have long been neglected by hyperconsumism, performing the circumspection of active participation and collective responsibility that communities used to accommodate, thus seeking to improve events that are not supported by resource management from previous generations.
However, while any innovative business model requires disputes between specialists and mention of traditional models, discussions do not come close to the disruptive potential with the market. The suggestion of the shared economy encompasses some measurement difficulties, as a de facto and legal business, in this case regarding the regulatory factors (Branco, 2019).
Tourism, which involves diverse and distinct activities, is one of the most affected areas by the shared economy (Cai, et al. 2019). In this case, AirBnB, a leading accommodation platform, is a “creative destruction” for the traditional hospitality industry (Guttentag, 2015). Unlike hotels, the host- guest relationship at AirBnB is beyond the relationship between staff and customer. Both AirBnB hosts and guests look for more than functional values. Experiential value, authenticity, sociability and trust are at the top of the agenda for AirBnB users. In addition, AirBnB affects hotel performance (Cai, et al., 2019). For Chase (2015), one of the main vectors for Shared Economy is the excess capacity, that is, something that is not in use and can be used by others. The “excess” could then be purchased by other users. “Instead o f having 100% of a car and using it 1% of the time, it would be possible to make a much better alignment between use and cost” (Chase, 2015, p. 20). Expanding this perspective, Rifikin (2016) defines this change as a new
Industrial Revolution, this one by means of technological advances, mo re specifically through the access to global networks, in which almost everything is done via the internet. The author marks this new industrial revolution as:
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Internet of Things (IoT) - it is triggering the Third Industrial Revolution . The Internet of Things is already stimulating productivity to a poin t where the marginal cost of producing goods and services is almost zero, making them practically free and shareable in the emerging collaborative commons (Rifkin, 2016, p. 24).
With this new revolution, basic marketing concepts, such as Kotler's “fours”, are also undergoing changes, as Kotler et al. (2017) comment that today the most efficient distribution model is point-to-point, without intermediation. Parker, Alstyne and Choudary (2016) make an analogy of how many platforms a person can use, quoting the names of some of them and reinforcing a current change in personal experience:
We traveled in the car of a stranger (Lyft, Sidecar, Uber), hosted him in a spare room at our house (AirBnB), left our dog in his care (DogVacay, Rover) and ate in his dining room (Feastly). We allow him
to rent our car (RelayRides, Getaround), our boat (Boataround), our house (HomeAway) and our electrical equipment (Zilok). We entrust to strangers our personal experiences - and our own lives (Parker, Alstyne and Choudary, 2016, p. 78).
AirBnB, a platform focused on shared hosting economy, was founded in 2008 and is currently present in 191 countries. In just nine years of existence, we are facing a brand worth around US $ 31 billion (Dogru, Mody, and Suess, 2017), and which has hosted more than 300 million people across 191 countries (Branco, 2019). The company's founders are Brian Chesky (CEO), Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk. The third joined later, since Gebbia and Chesky had no skills for platforms development, as both were trained by the Rhode Island School of Design. The two brought in one of Gebbia's forme r flatmates, Nathan Blecharczyk, a talented Boston engineer who was in between two jobs (Gallagher, 2018).
The initial idea for the company was not very ambitious, the rent of inflatable mattresses in apartments during the conventions that filled the hotels of the city, and the company was called AirBed and Breakfast
[...] they refined the concept: it would be a way to find rooms durin g sold-out conferences around the country. They knew that such meetings could easily fill hotel capacity, creating the kind of demand that led them to close with the first three guests in San Francisco
(Gallagher, 2018, p. 34).
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The scarcity of traditional lodging facilities, not only during periods of major events, but also in cities where there was a ban on building new developments to control excess of tourists, also served as an opportunity for AirBnB to enter. “In Barcelona, there was a ban on the construction of new developments, then the demand was met by private apartments and the fight between hoteliers and AirBnB came” (Favila, 2018).
As a point-to-point accommodation company, that is, without mediation, price plays a vital role in AirBnB. First, price is a decisive factor for long-term success in the accommodation sector, and, in the era of Shared Economy, AirBnB is an important proportion of the hosting trade. Second, AirBnB is different from other hotel booking platforms and shows complexity in property attributes and host attributes (Guttentag, 2015), which requires special attention to prices. Third, many AirBnB hosts are not professional in terms of commercial operation and thus have difficulty in optimizing prices. According to the information available on the company's website, currently AirBnB has accommodations announced in 81 thousand cities in more than 191 countries, and more than 300 million have already traveled with AirBnB (AIRBNB, INC). "The estimate was that AirBnB would surpass t he venerable Hilton and Intercontinental hotel chain - the largest hotel operatio n in the world - in 2014, occupying more rooms per night around the world" (Rifkin, 2016, p. 272). One of the facts that drives this growth is that:
[...] when hotel chains like Hilton and Sheraton want to expand, they build new apartment buildings and hire hundreds of employees. In contrast, AirBnB grows with marginal costs close to zero, since the
investment to add another accomodation to its network lists is minimal (Parker, Alstyne and Choudary, 2016, p. 175 and 176).
Thus, Syllos (2018) illustrates an interview given to Panrotas magazine in its Distribution Yearbook, a picture of Google Finance from 10/15/2017, in which AirBnB, with a market value of 30 billion dollar,s is behind only two tourism companies: Priceline Group Inc (holder of Booking.com, with US $ 94.64 billion, and Marriott International, with US $ 43.87 billion (Syllos, 2018). T he trajectory of the platform was described by Paula (2015, p. 71):
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AirBnB arrived in Brazil in 2012, but it was only in 2014 that it became better known, during the Soccer World Cup. However, its heyday in Brazil happened in 2016 during the Olympic and Paralympic games. The website (AirBnB) also won a bid to provide up to 20,000 homes and rooms for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de
Janeiro, meeting the need to provide at least 40,000 beds in the city for the period of the games.
Still, Pinheiro (2017), through AirBnB data, exposes that in Fortaleza the growth is also high, 156% from July 2016 to August 2017, with more than 24,400 transactions and 1400 hosts, that is, people who provide their properties on the platform. Unfortunately, AirBnB data for the rest of Ceará, more specifically for Cumbuco, is not easily accessible.
METHODOLOGY
Through quantitative, descriptive research and data collection through observation. Thus, in descriptive research there is observation, registration, analysis, classification and interpretation, without the intervention of t he researcher, so the phenomena are studied but not manipulated by the researcher (Andrade, 2009). Thus, we sought to make a comparative analysis of room/beds offers at Cumbuco beach, located in the municipality of Caucaia, Ceará.
Due to the high seasonality of tourism in the place, this research was focused on three specific periods. The first one is the low season between the months of November 2018 (11/23/2018 to 11/25/2018) and December 2018 (12/14/2018 to 12/16/18). And the second one is the high season, in January 2019 (01/11/2019 to 01/13/2019).
In order to collect data through observation, the studied phenomenon and the appropriate focus to be adopted for the analysis must be proposed in advance. It’s also necessary to organize a plan with the mandatory analysis categories, besides architecting objectives prior to the research and conducting a sensible observation (Cano and Sampaio, 2007). This type of systematic observation allows the production of quantitative data.
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In this way, the data were collected in two sites where HUs are available in shared economy properties, and the research was carried out in the following AirBnB site: https://www.AirBnB.com.br. In the segment of OTAs , the chosen site was Booking.com, https://www.booking.com/. The search is limited to properties located on Cumbuco beach.
The study allows to build knowledge from the comparative reasoning in similarities and differences, changes and repetitions detected comparing AirBnB and Booking.com when applying the selected variables daily rate x availability and type of accommodation :
It is by using a type of comparative reasoning that we can discover regularities, perceive shifts and transformations, build models and typologies, identifying continuities and discontinuities, similarities and differences, and explaining the more general determinations that govern social phenomena. (Schneider and Schmitt, 1998, p. 01).
Still, according to Fachin (2001) the comparative method consists of investigating things or facts and explaining them according to their similarities and differences. It admits the analysis of concrete data and the deduction of similarities and divergences of constant elements, providing indirect investigations.
The comparative method consists of looking for similarities and differences between two series of similar nature, taken from different digital social media (websites), to explain them (Schneider and Schmitt, 1998). This research follows the following steps: 1) Elaborate table in Excel for tabulation; 2) Start the research, simulating the behavior of a common user, always looking for 02 daily rates for two people; 3) To each result, the name, the segment and in which site it was found were listed; and, 4) Final information was generated, such as average daily rate per period and number of available rooms and beds, taken from the investigated sites. It was noted the importance of carrying out price surveys on the same day, given the high price fluctuation present in the market, which could compromise the result.
ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
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Based on the analyzed periods (23 to 11/25/2018, 14 to 12/16/2018, 11 to 13/01/2019), high season period in Cumbuco-Ceará, it is noted that that the number of categories and total units provided by AirBnB (30) is higher than those provided by Booking.com (05). Thus, it is understood that AirBnB is offering Housing Units - UHs on Cumbuco beach in a more broad and diverse way than Booking.com.
Graph 1 shows a comparison between the total number of units offered, regardless of the category, for each of the platforms under study, considering the 3 established periods. AirBnB with a total of 605 rooms and Booking.com with 285.
Graph 1: Number of categories available on the platforms
Source: AIRBNB (2018), adapted by the autho rs.
In Table 1 it is possible to see the distribution of the number of offered units, regardless of the category, by each of the platforms under study, in each of the established periods.
Table 1: Comparison of AirBnB x Booking.com offer by period
Source: AIRBNB (2018), adapted by the autho rs.
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AirBnB offers a total of 30 UHS categories, their types and quantities being: 2 for “ecological accommodation”, 223 for “entire apartment”, 2 for the entire bungalow, 8 for the entire cabin, 2 for the entire guests home, 79 for the entire house, 6 for the entire chalet, 63 for the entire condominium, 6 for the flat, 2 for the entire loft, 3 for the micro-house, 2 for “the whole place”, 2 for a shared room at hostel, 6 for shared room at home, 11 for shared room at inn, 1 for shared room at guest suite, 3 at apart hotel, 4 at hotel room, 43 for a room at hotel / hostel / house, 2 for private room at ecological accommodation, 9 private rooms in apartments, 22 private rooms in houses, 1 private room in country houses, 6 private rooms in guest houses, 2 private rooms in chalet, 72 private rooms in flat, 2 private rooms at inn, 2 for a private room in a guest suite, 2 for a private room in a tent and 21 for a “whole villa”. All of these accommodation options totaled 605 rooms.
It is worth mentioning that, although AirBnB has a more recent performance than Booking.com in Brazil, its growth is exponential in the segment of UHs reserves not only in Brazil, but also in several countries. The authors Gyódi (2017; Cai et al. 2019), when analyzing the trajectory of AirBnB, highlighted the low prices of the UHs offered on the platform as one of the probable reasons for its rapid growth. But it is believed that the proposal of shared economy and the diversity of UHs may be one of the characteristics that made the AirBnB platform successful, in addition to the prospect of the AirBnB travel experience being more complete, not just hosting, as is Booking.com.
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Graph 2: Number of offers by category on AirBnB
Source: AIRBNB (2018), adapted by the autho rs.
Booking.com provided 5 types of UHS in the following quantities and categories: apartment (164 total UHs), home (39 total UHs), hotel (10 total UHs), hostel (69 total UHs) and resort (3 total of UHs). The total number of UHs offered on Booking.com was 285 UHs. It is possible, through Graph 3, to observe the number of units offered by Booking.com, according to the categories defined by the platform, over the three established periods.
Graph 3: Number of offers by category on Booking.com
Source: AIRBNB (2018), adapted by the autho rs.
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Based on Graph 3, it is possible to understand that Booking.com is working proportionally more efficiently than AirBnB on the issue of shared economy. More than half of its offers, regardless of the period analyzed, are owned by this segment, such as apartments and houses.
Thus, it is understood that AirBnB offers Cumbuco beach more widely than Booking.com. This numerical superiority can also be reflected spatially. By making a simple comparison between the location of the UHs offered by AirBnB (FIGURE 2) and Booking.com (FIGURE 3) it is possible to observe that AirBnB's territorial coverage is superior and also covers areas considered peripheral in Cumbuco. However, in both cases, AirBnB and Booking.com, the largest supply of UHs is concentrated in the most noble area of Cumbuco beach.
FIGURE 2: Offer on AirBnB: It covers practically the entire coast of Caucaia. Source: AirBnB
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FIGURE 3: Offer on Booking.com: concentrated in the central area of Cumbuco . Source: Booking.com
Based on the three analyzed periods, it is noted that the number of categories and total UHs provided by AirBnB is greater than those provided by Booking.com. These data are in accordance with a comparison made between Booking.com. and AirBnB in which Gyódi (2017) highlights the platform’s rapid growth and the diversity of UHs offered in Warsaw, the capital of Poland.
Corroborating with Branco (2019) it is indispensable for the competition of traditional hosting means that they reflect on their tactics to adapt and add to the virtual (digital) market. Because information and communication technologies are necessary for the promotion of their products and distinctive qualities, in addition to enhancing the attraction of guests through the internet. It is possible to observe the distribution of the quantity of offered units, regardless of the category, by each of the platforms under study, in each of the established periods. Within the context of technological innovations and the transformation of the distribution of tourism services, alternative means of accommodation have found a new opportunity to position themselves in the market (Buhalis and Law, 2008).
Direct sales through the internet have made it possible to eliminate intermediaries, such as agencies and tour operators, resulting in reduced costs. This disruptive digital innovation “threatened” the conventional hotel industry, as more and more tourists have chosen AirBnB over hotels in recent years (Guttentag, 2015). AirBnB acts as an alternative for temporary accommodation for tourists and can affect the growth of the hotel industry's revenue (Byers et al., 2016).
Based on research information and the results of published research on the topic, it is possible to note that, regardless of the period, AirBnB has a greater accommodation offer than Booking.com. Also, according to Lee and Kim (2018) in the context of AirBnB, the factors that influence customer
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satisfaction, loyalty and intention to visit again in the future are factors that affect guest satisfaction, which includes economic benefits, fun and amenities. Still, the determinants of satisfaction are cost saving, familiarity, trust, usefulness and loyalty.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
This study aims to compare the way Booking.com and AirBnb present their offers on Praia de Cumbuco - CEARÁ. Thus, it was possible to verify that, despite having a more recent performance in Brazil, AirBnB has a greater variety of accommodation categories, as well as a greater number of offered units, when compared to Booking.com, an OTA. During the study, it is also noticed that Booking.com, despite being an OTA, has incorporated platform characteristics based on shared economy.
The contemplation of AirBnB's potential, aggravated by a difficulty in standardization and the unpredictability of its increments, has sparked more questions - and occasionally fears - than answers. For this reason, more work with the objects of this study in areas besides Tourism, Hospitality and Accommodation should be discussed and studied, specially in the spheres of Law, Accounting and Economics. There are several paths to be revealed addressing the social behavior, humanity and configurations of social arrangement that can cooperate with the understanding of high adherence events, such as AirBnB.
Although the researchers of this study understand the relevance of the analysis of the prices of the offered units, they did not elaborate on this aspect, as it is not the focus of the article. It is noticed, however, that there is no clear influence of seasonality on AirBnB prices when comparing low and high season. Such finding raises the question "is this a characteristic of Cumbuco?", since in Fortaleza-CE the accommodation prices rise a lot in the month of January, that is, in the high season.
Finally, the literature review suggests that this pattern, in which AirBnB offers more UHs than Booking.com in the same destination, may also occur in
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other parts of the world. Could this be an indication that sharing platforms are currently more efficient in offering hosting services than OTAs? It is expected that more comparative studies can be carried out and contribute to the advancement of competitiveness, technology and logistics on both platforms.
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