The Price Effect on Property Image Quality in Rural Airbnb: Theory and Evidence From Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT We study the effects of rental prices on property image quality under the theoretical framework of a peer‐to‐peer market equilibrium among a platform, guests, and farmers. To examine the theoretical predictions, we use individual‐level data from the rural Airbnb platform in Shanghai, China. We measure the property image quality by computer vision. Based on this, our empirical findings further confirm that an increase in rent leads to higher property image quality scores. This positive price effect on property image quality is generally robust and holds in two‐stage least squares regressions that control for geographic heterogeneity.