Networks and hosts: a love-hate relationship

This chapter explores the love-hate relationship of some hosts with Airbnb. The Airbnb Host Forum in Tasmania (Australia) serves as the case study. The hosts who participate in this forum are passionate about their involvement on Airbnb, and advocate for it and its deregulation in their home state. But their passion goes well beyond vocally advocating for peer-to-peer accommodation networks. Like tiger salamanders, these hosts will turn on the facilitators of the online platform and attack them just as quickly as they will support them. This chapter explores this love-hate relationship and asks why hosts bite the hand that feeds them.