So I think, the narrative needs to change and it needs to be seen as a really positive and important sector of the tourism industry just like the winery, just like the tour operator, just like the motels and hotels, you know, tourists have changed and actually they are not drawn to the motels and hotels style of travel anymore and you can't turn around, point the finger, at you know, other sectors and short stay and say, you know, it’s our problem. The bottom line is what people want, what tourist want and if they are changing, you know, what they like and how they travel, that’s not us… but that’s the market, that's how it changes and that is what is happening and you can't do (anything) about that except being positive and adapt and change to that market, instead of saying, you know, things are different from 10 years ago, they probably are, so, you have to change, as the market changes [18].
Changing times requires altering belief system, traditional orientation, nomenclature and activities, and technology. Our research demonstrates that people, location and employment emerged as a critical social driving force for short stay accommodation in the Margaret River. Although, there are certain encumbrances to the functionalities of Airbnb to effectively accommodate people in Margaret River, and many of these claims are circumstantial and before the formation of Airbnb. Most revolve around the 2004 incident, which took place when the local government permitted homeowners to accommodate schoolies (students on school holidays). Apart from that historical incident back in about 2004. When people started doing some short stay accommodation in the residential areas in town, one weekend, all the schools came down and they had a fantastic weekend tightly run amok, vandalized a heap of things, created problems, had big parties [1,2]. The schoolies chaos has caused a silent resistance on legislation for the short stay market in residential areas. Despite the establishment of several mediating factors, such as digital platforms, management firms, reviews, and managers to mitigate against the reoccurrence of such incidences (Jackson, 2019; Loney & Birch, 2021). Yet the limitation clause in Margaret River still subsists notwithstanding enforceable units to implement the zoning laws are non-existence. Thus, demonstrates the bias in local politics, policymakers, and lobbyists of hotels towards providing a level playing field for all agent and agencies or department to enforce extant laws for short stay providers, particularly those utilising Airbnb.
Although analytics and other digital platforms have accumulated for itself some negative image. The legislative protocol for thinking about digital ecommerce, should be applied in the accommodation sector as well. Having clear dynamics in tourists’ preference, councils through regulation are striving to enshrine the ‘rigiditisation’ of digitalisation regarding short stay providers. Rather than sort new approach for perceiving, monitoring, and enforcing bylaws for the short stay ecommerce. Despite, people/ guests are the main social drivers for short stay market in Margaret River, yet there are no laws guiding the operations of the guests. For instance, as a passenger on Uber, the passenger is responsible for wearing the seatbelt and when they fail to abide by the rules, fines are applied to the passenger and not the driver. Same should guests on Airbnb apartments, for example, laws guiding repeating a particular host, number of times the guest is able to book for an apartment per year. This will also enable the local government to have an easy access toward monitoring and the enforcement of bylaws.
In furtherance to the discussion, three critical factors that shapes the social fabric of society regarding digital platform for accommodation, namely, regulation, management firms/ managers, and the operators of the ecommerce venture.
Regulation
Local laws on digital platforms and regulation in this regional Australian area are neither progressive and inclusive, nor counter-disruptive and intrusive, rather they are reactionary. While firm disruptive activities have no bearing on local government, the disruptive shock short-changes the revenue accruing to the local government, but also a treat to local businesses and markets, due to their size and scalable effects. Oskam (2020) argues that Airbnb operators is likened to microentrepreneurs, and thus regulating the sector harshly will not be perceived as a public good. Nonetheless, local government in regional areas still applies limitation or prohibition laws on Airbnb operators (NSW Government, 2017, 2018). This shows that the government at local levels either lack of creativity or nonchalant about new procedure in providing legislative guidance to the digital future. Thus, creating a gap in leadership, and in providing legislative byelaws in digital commerce, and a fundamental reason why many regional local governments are engaged in legislative window shopping. For instance, the conflict between unhosted and hosted should have been moribund, however, the NSW operation working document, from which most regional areas take clue for regulation, still differentiate between hosted and unhosted. A participant in analysing the confusion surrounding hosted and unhosted, stated if you are seriously thinking about hosted and un-hosted accommodation that's another stinking point that seems to be brought up amongst most of the accommodation providers. You know, if really when you think about it, if you are un-hosted accommodation provider, it means you were not just actually living here on the ground. So, you still must get someone to manage your property and that manager has to be in Margaret River because part of your license is that you must have someone within certain km radius that is available (rather responsible) for that property. Hence, you’ve got all the operators like, you got private people managing properties, you've got short stays, you've got in-house holidays, you’ve got private properties, being managers who manage properties [18]. Participant 18 demonstrates that governments and policymakers are not at par with digital regulatory tenets by providing unison agreement that integrates the concerns of the platforms, regulators, managers, hosts, and guest.
Research has shown that regulation impacts negatively on the host throughput and revenue (Abdul-Samad, 2016; Thomas, 2012). However, certain automated features on Airbnb influences guest choice for a stay on an apartment, such feature may comprise, flexibility accommodation cancellation, home feel, cost effective accommodation, and a general sense of freedom (Lin, Fan, Zhang, & Lau, 2019; Zhu, Cheng, Wang, Ma, & Jiang, 2019), because more than often, guests intend to spend more on experience, and less on accommodation.
Management firms/ manager
According to Ndaguba (2022) there are two kinds of guests: guest escaping urban living, and crowd, seeking quiet and exploring environment, while there are others, who crave for association and experience, with the intent of fanfare and chill. Management firms and managers carter for both guests, and they go further to bridge the gap between what microentrepreneurial scholars refer to unhosted accommodation and guest access. In essence, for accommodation providers considered unhosted, these properties are either managed by an individual (manager) with the requisite expertise (professional) to present a decent holiday home, or a management firm established for short stays and several players exist in Margaret River (Casamatta, Giannoni, Brunstein, & Jouve, 2022). There has been a growth in the numbers of management firms in Margaret River, due to the number of holiday homes which are unoccupied yearly. Management firms/ managers have been seen to provide the entire gamut for the operability of holiday homes. From picking the guest from the airport to drop-off, cleaning, welcoming, and community.
Zach, Nicolau, and Sharma (2020) argument on providing a conjectural dispute, which establishes a disparity between management firms who lease properties on peer-to-peer, and Airbnb (the platform) demonstrates that while management firms are unidimensional in providing access to guest, Airbnb operates a more complex business model with multiple actors as guests or providers (Dolnicar, 2018). This assertion limits the functionality of the management firms, as several management firms are also in the direct business of acquiring properties as well. In terms of capacity, management firms are also engaged in sub-advertisement of properties. Other functionalities of management firms and managers may be captured in the assertion drawn from participant 14, obviously after some due diligence about the owners, about the property and its suitability as a short stay, and as a property on our management firm. Then we would go to the neighbours and say, …We’re renting the house out. If you’ve got any questions at all give us a call. 7 days a week. So, they have an avenue to connect with us and if we have an issue then we try and change that. So we can adjust house numbers, we can control signage, we can control the T’s and C’s around the guest going in because we have a bond and if we can’t-which we’ve never gotten to the situation- if we can’t control that house and the effect on the community then we’d rather not have it, because that doesn’t do us any good either, so we’re not really interested in looking after houses that we can’t control the outcome but that’s such a small part of it; so, look I think overwhelmingly it’s a very positive, for most people in the community would view short stay as a very positive, of course there is some negative elements to that but that’s even far between [14]. This rapport creates both positive and harmonious relationships between the management firms and the community. In Margaret River research has demonstrated that properties with a management firm or manager have a higher rating, higher response rate, higher occupancy, and revenue rate per annum, increased visuality, a superhost status, and less cancellations (Ndaguba, 2022). A correlation also exist between increased revenue and wellbeing, which may also imply that increased spending in the community (Ndaguba, 2022). The idea of local prosperity is embedded in the promotion of the community and not merely individual upliftment or infrastructural improvements (Judd & Hinze, 2018). Nonetheless, the task of engaging with or negotiating among enduring tensions, and several contending groups that make up the polity is the duty of the government.
Digital fragmented statements and policies of the government makes it difficult to distil the gains of the short stay sector. As participant 18 noted, you cannot manage property in town, without employing the local people, so you have to employ cleaners, …use local suppliers I have to use the local tribes, I think … people just having issues with in-house short investors buying properties and just not living here [18]. In recent times, Margaret River has become one of the tourist destination areas with significant job opportunities but lack workers, due to incidence of Covid-19 pandemic absence of bag-packers, and inadequate social housing in regional Australia is heightening homelessness (Lefebvre, 2020; Ndaguba, 2022; Ndaguba, Brown, Jogulu, & Marinova, 2022a). Although, the assertion demonstrates that no one is left behind in the regional area, nonetheless the full potential of this region is truncated by shortages in human resource and technology. Invariably, limiting prosperity of the regional area to trickle down to other smaller regions.
The pride in local prosperity and participation involves purchasing goods and services that are locally produced, while also investing, diverting, and reinvesting in the local communities as a measure to engender sustainability of micro-entrepreneurs (Ndaguba, 2019a). As Wallace (1999) succinctly puts it, the community economic development is integral for sustaining local economies, and contribute towards gauging the perception of the social fabric of a free market in local parlance.
Short stay providers
The theme map for SSA in regional discourse (Fig. 3) establishes several correlation and associations, and one variable that remains reoccurring is the community. Another major relationship is between people/ guests and registration, which is moderated by fire, long-term rental, and non-registered, and mediated by experience economy. These insinuations establishes that the participants concern in this research regarding guest-registration relationship are fundamentally non-registered and non-resident providers giving a free hand to guest may lead to fire outbreak, and the possibilities of people seeking long-term rental for regional housing to be pressured.
Figure 6 establishes a stepwise effect of the SSA in MR, and argues that any form of limitation or prohibition, which are the two dominant types of regulation in the sector would reduce the trickle-down effect and potentials. Nevertheless, Figure 4 depicts an axiological representation of how the MR is influenced, by noting that Perth proximity accounts for a substantial social growth in MR, and that such relationship are not in isolation but is associated with cuisine, the landscape and beaches in the local area, and camping opportunities, as well as the availability of Airbnb in the area.
As a concluding remark, issues of regulation have continued to play a critical role in shaping SSA discourse, specifically in Australia, parliamentary submissions are on the rise (Brown et al., 2019; NSW Government, 2017, 2018; Shaw, 2019). However, by overconcentrating on producing a regulatory framework for managing the affairs and activities of the SSA, regional councils are missing the bigger picture of providing legislative leadership for the digital future in local parlance (see Fig. 3-6). With developments in smart cities, and aerotropolis, regional and metropolitan governments must reconsider what the digital future holds and how councils could better align themselves in embracing the future. Otherwise, local development will be hampered, and the means towards achieving smart regional interconnected areas become unsolicited.
Finding
This research provides twin layer of finding, the first is premised on the interaction of the nodes, and the latter is predicated on the role played by the short stay market to generate social pillars of microentrepreneur (Airbnb) research in this regional area.
Theoretical and managerial implications
The theoretical and pragmatic rational for assessing the social drivers of short-stay accommodation on the MR economy are threefold: local development as a unifier for engendering community economic development, increased local opportunities to ensuring that local participation is reinforced and local prosperity is engendered, and local market, which forms the bedrock of the notion of SSA.
Local development
The unifying concept for all things, communitarianism would include local participation, local economic development, and enhanced economic transformation. As well as increased economic opportunities, fiscal localism and the idea of buy-local, (re)invest local, and build local are under the caprice of local development and community economic development (Beel, Jones, & Rees Jones, 2016; Beer, 2014). Local development offers an avenue for engaging communities on regional development, and local entrepreneurship. Guests and guest behaviours are moderated by other social cognitive factors and the environment (Coffey & Polese, 1985; Michael, Christensen, & Overgaard, 2014).
In developing a conceptual map for local development in SSA (see Figure 7), we demonstrate that guests spending nature, monies accruing to hosts, the experience economy, Perth proximity to the regional area, holiday homes, managers and employment directly influences social and economic vivacity of the local area. While other variables as culture, owner, wine, and restaurants play a significant role in shaping how Margaret River benefits socially and economically from the short stay market.
Literature and the concept map have also demonstrated that there are a few outliers, which may constitute encumbrances to the demand of SSA, they include unaffordability and availability of long stay accommodation, incidences of fire outbreak, and non-registered members operating short stay accommodation. These three layers adds to the reason many people demand for strict regulation of the operations of SSA in residential areas, but for a regional area where the demand for accommodation outweighs the supply leaves more to be desired.
The likelihood percentage of related concept name for SSA demonstrates that the proximity to Perth is far more important than substitutive threat (see Fig. 8) (Aspebo & Kriegel, 2021; Sainaghi & Baggio, 2020).
Increased economic transformation, local market, and regulation
Research has shown that SSM stimulate local vivacity via increased guest presence, and spending. Nonetheless, there are few studies demonstrating whether property visibility may prompt increase guest stay, and revenue to the host.
A rise in visuality, and other enablers increases the throughput of guests to an accommodation. The short stay market offers people access to relatedly stress-free income for host, and cheaper for guest. Although the price point has created controversies between the traditional enterprises and the disruptive sector of accommodation provision. Despite the positive inclinations and several advantages to the traditional enterprise for providing accommodation of the short stay sector. There’s a little bit of negativity on anything really on change but there’s a bit of negativity around short stay but I just think it’s a very small part of the community and probably just divided by the lack of formal regulation [14].
Generally, research shows that properties that has a manager or where a management firm is responsible for, will inadvertently have higher rating, higher response rate, higher occupancy and revenue rate per annum, higher visibility rate, and be a superhost. For the manager or management firm to achieve these goals, recruitment of personals for the maintenance of the property is quintessential and understanding the dynamics of the market is imperative for maintaining or managing a flourishing property on the SSM. A stable economy and stagflation are twin factors which are antithetical to progress, growth, success, or development of digital firms. Thus, remaining or leaving in the past only wishes the future away, and depletes the morale of the present. The emphasise by Christensen and Raynor (2013) regarding sustaining innovation, extends, the ambit for disruptive firms to effectively reinvent themselves (Christensen, 1997). In the same vein that social and political events are re-evolving, optimal performance in the business world is still considered a metric for measuring success. Hence, any substance in laws and otherwise that limits, prohibits, or inhibits the efficacy for short stay market to perform optimally causes frictions that that needs to be eliminated. Intrinsically, laws that berates or reduces the potential of the short stay accommodation must be reconsidered more preferrable discontinued, at a time when digital markets are increasing gaining momentum (Herhausen, Miočević, Morgan, & Kleijnen, 2020; Morzhyna, Oliinichenko, & Postykina, 2019).
We can conclude that the short stay sector has created new economic frontiers and opportunities for local advancement in communities by empowering local individuals and firms. This shows that issues surrounding the operability and functionality of the short stay sector may have been misunderstood, overtime. As participant 18 no property within the short stay business can go unattended, since every property must either have a manager or owner onsite periodically. Despite, unhosted accommodation been physically visited and maintained, most regulatory framework remains unfavourable (see NSW Opinion Paper among others).
Further to the unfavourable conditions of unhosted properties, policy changes are necessary to activate and accommodation all players in the short stay sector. However, the lack of focus on the impact of the sector on local development or local economic development is concerning because the hospitality sector should be able to identify and use endogenous potentials and local resources of the communities in which they function. To build defined capacity and expertise that could improve the economic future and strengthen the sustainable finance and quality of life of its resident.
Lastly, improving the quality of life for residents, requires an increase in guest-stay throughput. Because the more guest-stay increases, the more opportunities for scaling different activities, and for community growth. However, stagflation is this possible, where there is a lack of collaboration, and equally, collaboration is challenged by inadequate level playing field between registered and unregistered providers. Nonetheless, appreciating the dynamics in the marketplace or market mix is a good place to begin the discussion. As the notion of regulation have been negative as exemplified in San Francisco. As noted by a participant the narrative needs to change and it needs to be seen as a really positive and important sector of the tourism industry just like the winery, just like the tour operator, just like the motels and hotels, you know, tourists have changed and actually they are not drawn to the motels and hotels style of travel anymore and you can't turn around, point the finger. The bottom line is what people want, what tourist want … what they like and how they travel, that’s not us (microenterpreneurs)… but that’s the market, that's how it changes and that is what is happening and you can't do (anything) about that except being positive and adapt and change to that market, instead of saying, things are different from 10 years ago, they probably are, so, you have to change, as the market changes [18].