Impact of smart door locks on traveler satisfaction on accommodation-sharing platform: An empirical investigation based on generalized random forests

Abstract

When deciding on accommodation-sharing platforms, travelers face safety uncertainty because they need to trade or live with unverified strangers. Considering that accommodation-sharing platforms are introducing smart door locks to reduce safety uncertainty, this study contributes to the service-dominant logic framework by introducing uncertainty-mitigating factors that enhance satisfaction in an accommodation-sharing context. Using a dataset on a quasi-experimental design and applying generalized random forests, the results reveal that travelers’ satisfaction increases with room services with smart door locks. The positive effect decreases when room hosts have high credit scores or rooms use real pictures. This study contributes to the literature on uncertainty in the service-dominant logic framework and has methodological implications in using machine learning methods to identify causal relationships. Our findings also provide practical implications for accommodation-sharing platforms and hosts.