Consumer heterogeneity for shared accommodations at pre-and-post adoption stages: Insights from travelers in Shanghai, China

Abstract

As shared accommodation has become one of the most important market developments in the tourism industry, numerous contributions have emerged regarding travelers’ motivations to choose shared accommodation. A debated question, however, resides in the heterogeneity of travelers based on motivations. This paper aims to reconcile opposing perspectives by comparing motivation segmentation at two distinct phases of the adoption of this accommodation option: (i) before the first travel–potential users showing interest (n = 420) and (ii) after the first travel–current users (n = 420). Factor analysis, combined with clustering, is applied to both samples to identify underlying motivations and traveler segments. Interestingly, we find that factors defining choice motivations are relatively stable throughout the adoption process, but the heterogeneity of motivations among travelers is higher in users, increasing from three to six clusters. This suggests that travelers’ motivations are dynamic and dependent on the phase of adoption.