The Intertemporal Spillover of House Rules: How Governance Disclosures Shape Booking Decisions in Peer-to-Peer Accommodation

House rules are a central governance mechanism in peer-to-peer accommodation, yet prior research reports mixed effects on guests’ booking behaviors. We propose that these inconsistencies arise from overlooking the intertemporal spillover of rules, the extent to which the consequences of violation extend beyond the focal stay. Drawing on construal level theory, we distinguish between High-Spillover Rules, which protect long-term property quality and future guest experience, and Low-Spillover Rules, which regulate encounter-bounded behaviors and operational procedures. Using natural language processing and hierarchical regression, we analyzed 883 P2P accommodation listings from a Chinese context. The results show that High-Spillover Rules increase booking volume, whereas Low-Spillover Rules decrease it only when host identity-relevant expressions are absent. The second experiment, with 138 samples, provides causal evidence that these effects are mediated by perceived quality and perceived threats to freedom, respectively. A third experiment, with 183 samples, further demonstrates that host identity-relevant expressions attenuate both effects by weakening the quality-signaling advantage of High-Spillover Rules and reducing autonomy-related resistance to Low-Spillover Rules. This research advances understanding of governance disclosures in P2P markets and offers actionable guidance for rule design and platform communication strategies.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research
Published
2026-09-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer21090292
Primary Topic
Sharing Economy and Platforms
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

The Intertemporal Spillover of House Rules: How Governance Disclosures Shape Booking Decisions in Peer-to-Peer Accommodation

Lifei Bai, Xiaorong Fu, Doğan Gürsoy, Mengying Zhang et al.
Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research
Sharing Economy and Platforms
article

The Intertemporal Spillover of House Rules: How Governance Disclosures Shape Booking Decisions in Peer-to-Peer Accommodation

Lifei Bai, Xiaorong Fu, Doğan Gürsoy, Mengying Zhang, Xi Huang, Jialei Wang
article en

Abstract

House rules are a central governance mechanism in peer-to-peer accommodation, yet prior research reports mixed effects on guests’ booking behaviors. We propose that these inconsistencies arise from overlooking the intertemporal spillover of rules, the extent to which the consequences of violation extend beyond the focal stay. Drawing on construal level theory, we distinguish between High-Spillover Rules, which protect long-term property quality and future guest experience, and Low-Spillover Rules, which regulate encounter-bounded behaviors and operational procedures. Using natural language processing and hierarchical regression, we analyzed 883 P2P accommodation listings from a Chinese context. The results show that High-Spillover Rules increase booking volume, whereas Low-Spillover Rules decrease it only when host identity-relevant expressions are absent. The second experiment, with 138 samples, provides causal evidence that these effects are mediated by perceived quality and perceived threats to freedom, respectively. A third experiment, with 183 samples, further demonstrates that host identity-relevant expressions attenuate both effects by weakening the quality-signaling advantage of High-Spillover Rules and reducing autonomy-related resistance to Low-Spillover Rules. This research advances understanding of governance disclosures in P2P markets and offers actionable guidance for rule design and platform communication strategies.

Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce researchVol. 21(9)
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (CN), Washington Hospital (US), Chengdu Normal University (CN), Southwest Jiaotong University (CN), Sichuan Normal University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Sharing Economy and Platforms
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