Online vacation rentals, second home owners, Islantilla and Albufeira sense of place

What is it about?

This paper is based on a review of owners’ perspectives of two sun and golf destinations – Albufeira (in the south of Portugal) and Islantilla (in the south of Spain), using a cross-regional sample, based on owners’ descriptions collected from ownersdirect.co.uk (online vacation rental platform). The aim is to understand the owners’ vacation rentals descriptions depicting their perspectives in categories such as sense of place, hospitality and house facilities. This exploratory research departs from grounded theory, which means that no presuppositions were set. The qualitative feedback from the study reaffirms that the sense of place is not a static concept, as Albufeira and Islantilla owners’ descriptions bring together emotional and cognitive elements personalizing their properties and the surrounding environment. The results suggest that togetherness, relaxation, continuity and place attachment are the most highlighted points when announcing their properties, particularly in Albufeira.

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Why is it important?

The analysis of this phenomenon through an innovative design that puts together textual analysis of the owners’ online vacation rental description and the virtual environment is one of the main contributions of this paper. The limited descriptions of the destination give rise to the absence of the sense of place from a local perspective to the owners of a second home in those destinations. This may be one of the reasons that they opted to rent their homes.

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