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The Design Journal
An International Journal for All Aspects of Design
ISSN: 1460-6925 (Print) 1756-3062 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfdj20
Sharing Economy for Tourism and Hospitality: new
ways of living and new trends in interior design
Luisa Collina, Laura Galluzzo, Giulia Gerosa, Maddalena Bellè & Maria Lidia
Maiorino
To cite this article: Luisa Collina, Laura Galluzzo, Giulia Gerosa, Maddalena Bellè &
Maria Lidia Maiorino (2017) Sharing Economy for Tourism and Hospitality: new ways of
living and new trends in interior design, The Design Journal, 20:sup1, S3448-S3463, DOI:
10.1080/14606925.2017.1352848
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2017.1352848
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa
UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis
Group
Published online: 06 Sep 2017.
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Design for Next
12th EAD Conference
Sapienza University of Rome
12-14 April 2017
doi: 10.1080/14606925.2017.1352848
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Sharing Economy for Tourism and
Hospitality: new ways of living and new
trends in interior design
Luisa Collinaa
, Laura Galluzzoa*
, Giulia Gerosaa,
Maddalena Bellèb
, Maria Lidia Maiorinob,
a
Design Department, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
b
College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, China
*Corresponding author email: laura.galluzzo@polimi.it
Abstract: This paper describes a research conducted in the last year at the Design
Department of Design, regarding design and sharing services, especially in the
hospitality field.
The term hospitality is used here with a wide meaning, coming from the idea that
“Real hospitality is not just welcoming people in on the first night, but liking that
they come back and stay, fitting into the city, making their own contribution and
making the place their own” (Leadbeater, 2009).
Collection and analysis of more than 61 examples of hospitality sharing services was
a useful tool to understand the current international scenario. The collected case
studies were presented on 6 positioning maps regarding six specific themes of the
study.
Keywords: Sharing Economy, Services design, Space design, Hospitality
1. Framework
For what concerns sharing economy, the goods who registered an immediate adhesion and a growth
as shared goods (be it peer-to-peer or business to person) are the durables ones like cars and real
estate, mainly because of their wide underuse and high costs of maintenance for the owners.1
Furthermore,
“The sharing economy has tapped into temporal ‘waste’, converting excess capacity to value and
unearthing massive utility from what we already have. As a global community we have so much, but
much of what we have we are not using to its capacity, including talent, goods and services. Existing
online platforms already address some of society’s urgent needs, especially for urban dwellers. With
platforms like BlaBlaCar, Neighborly, Huertos Compartidos, Couchsurfing, FabLab and Open Explorer
we are already developing a new kind of social operating system, enabling us to solve local issues
while opening a global dialogue. Tighter connections shift our social operating system from an
orientation of the individual to the power of peers in collaboration.” (Gansky L. 2015, pgs 80-83)
1 Dominici G., Roblek, V., Lombardi, R. (2016), “A holistic approach to comprehending the complexity of the post-growth
era”, in Erçetin Şule, S. (Ed.), Chaos, Complexity and Leadership, Springer International Publishing AG, Chem, pp. 29-42.
S3448
LUISA COLLINA, LAURA GALLUZZO, GIULIA GEROSA, MADDALENA BELLÈ, MARIA LIDIA MAIORINO
As for hospitality in tourism, two major sharing-based service typologies can be identified, both
related to the typical IT based structures: client-server and peer-to-peer. Both typologies are
interlinked with two broader families differing one from the other by their economic approach.
Michel Bauwens2
defines them as extractive and exploitative sharing forms, what he calls
“netarchical capitalism”, and cooperative sharing forms who create a matrix that identifies the
stakeholders and the possible economic exploitation of the shared good. An example of cooperative3
peer-to-peer has been, until 2011, Coachsurfing: a project created by American programmer Casey
Fenton in 2003 and born as a non profit tool aimed to connect people willing to exchange hospitality
for free that was converted in 2011 in a for-profit corporation.
Flat sharing is also spreading more and more thanks to platforms permitting to share full apartments
placing themselves in different positions within the matrix depending on the pursued approach and
purpose. From AirBnB to flatshare, spareroom and houseshare, nowadays it is more and more
common to use sharing platforms in the hospitality field, not only for short stays, but even for
temporary residence. Italy as well has seen a rise in temporary social housing solutions as the Sharing
Hotel Residence in Turin, inaugurated in September 2011 to fulfil hospitality needs for medium
length stays at controlled prices.
Still within the hospitality field, we also find important experiences linked to the catering field. A
good example are Gnammo’s home restaurants and personalized guided tours as the ones offered by
Stand By Mi - never a stranger with us4
, where private citizens offer their time to help in the
discovery of the city and its hidden corners, permitting to travellers to see it through the eyes of
those living it every day.
In this ever changing panorama, it is interesting to try making order and sorting the existing services
available on the market, trying to separate them by typology and, above all, trying to distinguish all
platforms on the base of the variable parameters we will present further on in this paper.
2. Serse Research
The research, focused on shared hospitality services, is part of the wider research project “Multidisciplinary
Design of Sharing Services” financed by the FARB 2014 grant whose purpose is a firsttime
exploration of so called shared economy through different disciplines linked to the design world
such as: services design, space design, and communication design. The pivotal characteristic of this
research is, in fact, its multidisciplinary approach, something that gives us the opportunity of having
different perspectives within the same project.
The first analysis to be carried out had the purpose of creating a map of the existing sharing services,
categorized following different logics (e.g., the type of relationship between users, business model,
incentive system, etc.). In the next section the analysis carried out will be examined in detail focusing
on shared hospitality services. The other explored fields range from sharing services in the world of
transport, space sharing, to an overview on service sharing platforms on a full spectrum (food,
learning, culture, sport, etc.).
2 Founder of “P2P Foundation” and theorist of the new collaborative economies.
3 Rifkin J., La società a costo marginale zero. L'internet delle cose, l'ascesa del Commons Collaborativo e l'eclisse del
capitalismo, Milano, Mondadori, 2014.
4 Mainieri M. (2013), Collaboriamo! Come i social media ci aiutano a lavorare e a vivere bene in tempo di crisi, Hoepli,
Milano.
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Sharing Economy for Tourism and Hospitality: new ways of living and new trends in interior design
The following steps of the research envisaged a detailed analysis of single case studies, focusing on
some best and worst practices to take as example for future services and for the designing of future
sharing services. After that an analysis of the socio-economic impact vas carried out, with particular
interest to the local area, the people’s community involved and the relationship between physical
and virtual spaces, an essential aspect for most sharing platforms.
One of the issues arisen in the different steps of the research was the centrality of the word “trust”
when referring to sharing services. Moving from this finding, the last researching phase will focus on
this aspect and its effects on the future of planning sharing services.
This paper presents extracts from the first part of the research: the creation of a map of the existing
sharing hospitality services.
3. Research approach: methods and tools
As it was said, in order to understand the dynamics of hospitality sharing services nowadays, a
specific case studies research was conducted. Prior investigation focused on literature review
followed by a collection of sharing services that was made on a global scale. As far as data collection
tools were concerned, the conduction of the research involved the development of a suitable system
in order to properly categorize the information gathered.
Each case study related to the hospitality
topic, was deeply analyzed and collected according to different features:

• Typology (What the service offers to share.)

• Methodology (Which is the exchange modality.)

• Platform scale (Is the exchange among a specific community or a global/web one?)

• Description (Short abstract of the service.)

• Founder
Origin (Where and when the service was activated.)

• Languages (In which languages the service is available at present.)

• Business Model
Turnover
Devices (Digital or analogical,l and how do they work.)

• Number of Users
Relationship among the Users (Direct or indirect.)

• User Experience description

• Similar services
This categorization allowed a detailed and broad data collection divided in four macro areas:
• Sharing hospitality services
• Sharing transport services
• Sharing space services
• Sharing services in other fields (e.g. sport, food, culture, learning, etc.)
In this paper we present the analysis carried out on sharing hospitality services.
More than 60 case studies of sharing hospitality services were investigated.
The deep knowledge of
each case study features enabled a successive clustering: 22 macro-categories were defined. For
each of those categories a significant case study was underlined as the most representative among
its analogues, based on different features: offered service, exchange modality and user experience.
Identified macro-categories:

• Peer to Peer house rental Home Away (Vrbo / Vacation Rentals / Homelydays /
Tripping / Roomorama / Flipkey Home Escape)
• Peer to Peer house/room/bed rental AirBnB (House Trip / Wimdu / 9 Flats)

S3450
LUISA COLLINA, LAURA GALLUZZO, GIULIA GEROSA, MADDALENA BELLÈ, MARIA LIDIA MAIORINO
• Peer to Peer room rental with Host in Place modality Home Stay (Trampolinn)
• Peer to Peer luxury house rental One Fine Stay (The Unhotel)
• Peer to Peer family friendly house rental Knok
• Peer to Peer house rental for the academic community Sabbatical Homes

• Peer to Peer house exchange Scambio Casa (Love Home Swap / Guest To Guest / My
Twin Place / Night Swapping / Home Exchange)

• Peer to Peer co-working space/accomodation rental Outsite (Sundesk)
• Peer to Peer art gallery/accomodation rental My Home Gallery

• Peer to Peer students house rental Accommodation for students (Housing Anywhere)
• Peer to Peer bed rental during city events Bed Sharing
•
• Accommodation in exchange for household care and management Mind My House
(Trusted Housesitters / Housecarers)

• Accommodation in exchange for skills and competences sharing Bed and Learn

• Accommodation in exchange for goods or services Baratto BB (Settimana Del Baratto /
BB25)
• Accommodation in exchange for goods or services
• Accommodation for students in exchange for social services Humanitas
•
• Free accommodation sharing Couchsurfing (Be Welcome / Trustroots)
• Free accommodation for students offered by retired people Prendi in casa uno
studente
• Free accommodation for artists during the Calitri Festival Calibri Sponz Fest
• Free accommodation for pilgrims of the Route of Santiago de Compostela
Hospidaleras Voluntarias
•
• Locals providing city tours Vayable (Sidetour / Anyguide / Get Your Guide)
• Locals providing typical gastronomic products All’oste che non c’è
• Condominium sharing services Abito
The macro-categories analysis was followed by a further deeper investigation.
In order to present
the present hospitality sharing services scenario the case studies have been analyzed with the
support of six positioning maps on the following research themes:
• Theme 1 - Type of service / What? (from "To Stay" to "To Do")
• Theme 2 - Geographical Scale / Where? (from Local to Worldwide)
• Theme 3 - Exchange mode / How? (Money / Spaces / Competences / Relations)
• Theme 4 - Type of community / Who? (from General to Specific target community)
• Theme 5 - Level of the relationship between the users / Why? (from No contact to
Interaction)
• Theme 6 - Service Activation Date / When? (Timeline)
Furthermore, the analysis has been extended crossing the different themes and representing them
on different diagrams. This method resulted in the discovery of the most interesting scenarios,
defined by the diagrams, and the more relevant characteristics of the hospitality sector.
S3451
Sharing Economy for Tourism and Hospitality: new ways of living and new trends in interior design
• Theme 1 - Type of service / What? (from "To Stay" to "To Do")
The first positioning map indicates the offering typology of each sharing service, in relation with the
user experience. The basic level of hospitality services is identified in the simple activity of renting an
accommodation as functional need (to Stay). The case studies that offer additional activities and
services to the bed rental are located on the other extremity of the map. Although the diagram
shows the preponderance of case studies related to the traditional and basic definition of hospitality
(intended as simple accommodation for the night), it is possible to notice the trend of different
sharing services in the offering of additional activities for the user. These activities have been
categorized according to different levels of necessity: notably a differentiation was made between
the sharing services that entail activities to do with the host (exchange of experiences, enjoy the
company, establish a relationship) and to do for the host (services required as commodity exchange).
Figure 1. Theme 1 - Type of service / What? (from "To Stay" to "To Do"): the offering typology of each sharing service, in
relation with the user experience
• Theme 2 - Geographical Scale / Where? (from Local to Worldwide)
The second positioning map presents the case studies according the geographical scale of the
services. This diagram considers the number of users and their networks, shifting from local realities
to global ones. For example the Calitri Sponz Fest is a village festival, with a specific and limited
number of participants and its accommodation service doesn't have a digital platform. On the other
S3452
LUISA COLLINA, LAURA GALLUZZO, GIULIA GEROSA, MADDALENA BELLÈ, MARIA LIDIA MAIORINO
hand, famous hosting services such as AirBnB are used worldwide through their digital platform with
a consequently high number of users.
Figure 2. Theme 2 - Geographical Scale / Where? (from Local to Worldwide): the case studies according the geographical
scale of the services
• Theme 3 - Exchange mode / How? (Money / Spaces / Competences / Relations)
The diagram related to theme 3 expresses the modality of exchange for each case studies. The
majority of hospitality services require a monetary exchange, but it is interesting to notice how,
instead, in the other case studies the exchanged commodity turns into intangible goods (services,
competences, relationships) that in a stronger way accommodate the innovative values of the
sharing economy.
S3453
Sharing Economy for Tourism and Hospitality: new ways of living and new trends in interior design
Figure 3. Theme 3 - Exchange mode / How? (Money / Spaces / Competences / Relations): the modality of exchange for
each case studies
• Theme 4 - Type of community / Who? (from General to Specific target community)
The fourth positioning map investigates the scale of the target. Specifically, the diagram defines to
whom the services are addressed. Starting from a general target, including every typology of user,
the map details services that are oriented towards specific target communities based on different
levels of exclusivity. The service One Fine Stay provides luxury house rentals: this peculiarity defines
a range of users, even if the target is still not explicitly specific. On the other hand, toward the
Specific Community extremity of the diagram, target communities become narrow and explicitly
defined. For example, more than 5 case studies are specifically addressed to students.
S3454
LUISA COLLINA, LAURA GALLUZZO, GIULIA GEROSA, MADDALENA BELLÈ, MARIA LIDIA MAIORINO
Figure 4. Theme 4 Type of community / Who? (from General to Specific target community): the scale of the target.
Specifically, the diagram defines to whom the services are addressed.
• Theme 5 - Level of the relationship between the users / Why? (from No contact to
Interaction)
Positioning map number 5 presents the level of relationship between the users. Even if the majority
of the hospitality sharing services is Peer to Peer, the level of interaction between the actors is not
always strong. Very often the agreement of the exchange happens through the digital platform
provided from the service: consequently the contact among the hosts is indirect and with a low (or
missing) level of interaction. On the other side, investigating the other case studies it is possible to
notice that the relationship between users assumes two main different aspects: it can be
spontaneous or required. Spontaneous interaction between users is a consequence of the case
studies in which the Host in Present peculiarity is expressed. Furthermore, the interaction between
user and host becomes a requirement when it is explicitly part of the service experience. Looking
back at the positioning map of Theme 3 - Exchange mode / How? (Money / Spaces / Competences /
Relations), evidence is found that when the commodity exchange is expressly based on the
establishment of a relationship (the case study Prendi in casa uno studente provides free
accommodation for students in exchange of spending part of their free time with the retired
landlords, in order to keep them company), the level of interactions between hosts and users is
stronger. Finally, services such as Sundesk (that offers co-working spaces plus accommodations),
spontaneously enable connections between users themselves, since they allow the presence of
different people at the same time in the same location.
S3455
Sharing Economy for Tourism and Hospitality: new ways of living and new trends in interior design
Figure 5. Theme 5 - Level of the relationship between the users / Why? (from No contact to Interaction)
• Theme 6 - Service Activation Date / When? (Timeline)
Finally, the last positioning map, describes a temporal overview related to the origin of each case
study. It is interesting to note the 10 years gap between 1992 - when Scambio casa (Home swapping)
was born as one of the first hospitality sharing services - and 2002, when other services were born as
answers to specific needs (Sabbatical Homes, for academics, and Hospitaleras Voluntarias, for
pilgrims: both addressing specific communities commitments).
S3456
LUISA COLLINA, LAURA GALLUZZO, GIULIA GEROSA, MADDALENA BELLÈ, MARIA LIDIA MAIORINO
Figure 6. Theme 6 - Service Activation Date / When? (Timeline)
Moving from this first position maps, new ones were created by mixing information on the original
maps.
The first example links geographical scale and community typology. Obviously, where the larger the
geographical scale the broader is the users target, while on a local geographical scale the community
typology is more specific and thus linked by a common interest or activity. Most part of the existing
platforms are located in the first quadrant of the map, widespread at a global level and targeting a
broad range of users, as in the case of world-famous AirBnB.
S3457
Sharing Economy for Tourism and Hospitality: new ways of living and new trends in interior design
Figure 7. Mixing information on the original maps.Geographical scale and community typology
The second map - created mixing data on service typology and community typology - and the third
map - created mixing data on service typology and relations between users - show the trend of the
existing platforms: a broad target focusing only on the “to stay” as shared good, a place to sleep, for
platforms like AirBnB. Interestingly, we also see the increasing diffusion of sharing platforms
requiring a wider interaction and participation of the user in exchange for the accommodation:
looking after pets, cleaning, house caring... as exemplified by Mind my House.
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LUISA COLLINA, LAURA GALLUZZO, GIULIA GEROSA, MADDALENA BELLÈ, MARIA LIDIA MAIORINO
Figure 8. Mixing information on the original maps. Service typology and relations between users
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Sharing Economy for Tourism and Hospitality: new ways of living and new trends in interior design
Figure 9. Mixing information on the original maps. Service typology and community typology
These last observations can also be found in the two following maps, created by mixing data on
service typology, geographical scale and exchange method: the more the concerned communities are
small, specific and local, the easier it will be to obtain trust from the other and make a step forward
in the interaction between the stakeholders. In this case, the sharing will not be limited to a moneyplace
to sleep exchange, but will evolve into an exchange of activities, competences and relations!
The last map has been created in order to stress data from the case study and is referring to a
specific local community and to relations and competences sharing.
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LUISA COLLINA, LAURA GALLUZZO, GIULIA GEROSA, MADDALENA BELLÈ, MARIA LIDIA MAIORINO
Figure 10. Information map mixing Community, competences, relations and geographical scale
The results of these classifications have been useful in the definition of the following steps for both
the research and the experimentation. They also created the conditions for a deeper discussion on
relations between space and services design and shared hospitality, and even a first projection of
future scenarios.
4. Discussion and conclusion
As we have just seen, the wide classification carried out, the local dimension and the identification
within a specific community allows users to go beyond money-based sharing and leads to offer
others competences and relations.
This aspect is the most crucial, if we add to these two keywords the most important one: trust in the
other.
This aspect has been fully understood by AirBnB co-founder Joe Gebbia, who in one of his last
interviews5 states that AirBnB is more and more interested in the investigation of the new way of
living and the actual transformations of private spaces. Their presence at the last “House of Vision”
Exhibition in Japan demonstrates that they can really change our idea of domestic space in the
future. They are very interested on designing new form of “houses” starting from the idea of sharing,
5
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Sharing Economy for Tourism and Hospitality: new ways of living and new trends in interior design
and believing that people can trust each others. To investigate this field they launched an internal
division, “Samara”, that “is a design studio at AirBnB exploring new attitudes towards sharing and
trust. Samara builds hardware and software that support this direction.”
To imagine that future design scenarios ad domestic environment could be studied on the base of
the trust unknown people can have in each other is deeply stimulating.
We can conclude that the questions to which the next steps of this research will try to answer to
might be:
• How do domestic environment change basing on the new sharing hospitality forms?
• Which is the role of AirBnB and the other sharing services in the definition of new way
of living?
• How will the sharing of private spaces change in our apartments, and will it change
our way of living?
• What will be the role of “trust” in the new spaces we prepare to design?
This is a typical case of close relation between services design (the sharing hospitality platforms) and
space design (future scenarios in the domestic environment project).
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LUISA COLLINA, LAURA GALLUZZO, GIULIA GEROSA, MADDALENA BELLÈ, MARIA LIDIA MAIORINO
Masneri M. (2016), ”Airbnb, la casa del mondo”, in Rivista Studio, settembre, Milano: Studio
Editoriale.
Rifkin J., (2014), La società a costo marginale zero. L'internet delle cose, l'ascesa del Commons
Collaborativo e l'eclisse del capitalismo, Milano: Mondadori.
Tussyadiah, I. P., & Pesonen, J. (2015). “Impacts of peer-to-peer accommodation use on travel
patterns”, in Journal of Travel Research, New York.
S3463
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