The resilience of the lodging industry during the pandemic: Hotels vs. Airbnb

The adverse impact of the recent pandemic on the lodging industry has largely been based on anecdotal evidence. The extent to which different parts of this broad industry were individually affected by the COVID-19 pandemic also remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the various sectors of the lodging industry to identify patterns that may not be consistent with the idea that the entire hospitality industry was negatively affected by the pandemic. The results show that while the COVID-19 pandemic did have a generally negative effect on lodging demand, hotel room and peer-to-peer accommodation property bookings were not affected equally. Importantly, it appears that these variations were attributable, at least in part, to state-level variations in policy that made travel and hospitality services relatively more (or less) difficult for consumers to obtain. Theoretical and managerial implications are extensively discussed.