Work for Stay: Balancing Reciprocity in Accommodation

The sharing economy has reshaped tourism accommodation, fostering work-for-accommodation exchanges, where travellers trade labour for accommodation as a tourism experience. We conceptualise work exchange sharing accommodation as a reciprocity-oriented tourism form. Using social exchange theory, we investigate how perceived congruence and incongruence between travellers’ giving (labour) and taking (lodging and experiences) influence satisfaction. Analysing 193,707 traveller reviews, we find a non-linear satisfaction curve, peaking at moderate balance but declining when exchanges become excessive. Notably, travellers report higher satisfaction when receiving slightly more than they give. These insights deepen understanding of exchange dynamics in sharing economy tourism, highlight perceived fairness in host–traveller interactions, and offer practical implications for travellers, hosts, and platforms in promoting sharing economy tourism.