How Platform Exchange and Safeguards Matter: The Case of Sexual Risk in Airbnb and Couchsurfing

Recent work in CHI and CSCW has devoted increasing attention to how the design of network hospitality platforms shapes user experiences and relational outcomes. In this article, I interrogate how different risk factors emerge based on the type of exchanges these platforms facilitate. To do so, I juxtapose two prominent network hospitality platforms: one facilitating negotiated exchange (i.e., Airbnb) with another facilitating reciprocal exchange (i.e., Couchsurfing) between users. Homing in on sexual risk, an underexplored form of platform danger, and drawing on interviews with 40 female dual-platform users, I argue that the provision of binding negotiated exchange and institutional safeguards by Airbnb reduces risk through three mechanisms: casting initial guest-host relation into a buyer-seller arrangement, stabilizing interactional scripts, and formalizing sexual violence recourse. Conversely, Couchsurfing's reciprocal exchange and lack of safeguards increase sexual precarity for users both on- and off-platform. This study demonstrates how platforms with strong prosocial motivations can jeopardize sociality and concludes with implications for designs that better protect vulnerable user populations.