What Goes Around, Comes Around: The Effects of 360-degree Experiences on Peer-to-Peer Platform Behavior

Platforms for peer-to-peer accommodation sharing are flourishing and changing the overall tourism industry. Ever since, providers on those platforms use photos to advertise their accommodation. Due to the advancement of virtual reality technology, nowadays, it is technologically feasible to provide 360-degree photos with reasonable effort. Yet, popular platforms do not offer the possibility of providing 360-degree photos. To explore what effect an implementation of 360-degree photos could have on consumer behavior, this article sets out to investigate how different presentation formats (ordinary photos, 360-degree desktop, virtual reality) influence consumer perceptionwithin a laboratory experiment. Testing these presentation formats in a pilot study (N= 45), we observe significant differences regarding consumers' diagnosticity, enjoyment, and transaction intention, while trust-related variables did not differ substantially. With the outlined research endeavor, we expect to contribute to a better understanding of virtual reality's potential in the platform economy.