The “beauty premium” phenomenon : appearance discrimination in the P2P market

Abstract

The online P2P accommodation market, including Airbnb, encourages accommodation hosts to upload profile photos. However, the inclusion of a profile photo may carry consequences such as appearance discrimination. Using secondary Airbnb data from Beijing, China, this study investigates the presence of the “beauty premium” in the relatively low-priced accommodation market and examines the extent to which consumers discriminate based on hosts’ facial appearance from a supply perspective. Three experiments were conducted to respectively examine the impacts of hosts’ facial beauty on customers’ willingness-to-pay, boundary conditions, and underlying mechanisms. The findings emphasize the importance of hosts’ visual self-disclosure in reducing appearance-based discrimination. By providing practical implications for P2P platform operators and accommodation hosts, this research contributes to a better understanding of appearance-based biases in the online accommodation market and reveals strategies for mitigating negative effects.