To share the immature economy and to offer students a choice of employment

Hospitality and tourism students have a variety of careers and places to choose from in their post-academic life, regardless of what they choose, and share the economy.

Hotel majors do not teach students how to "share the economy," but with the rise of websites such as Airbnb, students find that travellers have more choices in accommodation and customer experience.

The dilemma facing the university is how to explain to the students the changes that have taken place in the industry. And Airbnb's career choices for hotel and travel majors remain unclear, says Haemoon Oh, Dean of Amherst Hotel College at the University of Massachusetts.

"Sharing the economy is not mature enough to provide students with a clear choice of employment." "Oh said.

"While the size of the economy may be large, the opportunities offered to future graduates are limited," he said. Sharing the economy in the future may be included in our teaching course, but not yet. The impact of sharing the economy is growing. There are no professional studies to share the economy in the future, but not recently. It depends on the job opportunities of the students. ”

Oh, Airbnb and other shared-economy sites have not appeared in Amherst's campus job fairs like other hotel brands.

"Kimpton Hotels and other boutique hotels share a lot in common with the economy," says Oh, "and we find students interested in the professional choices offered by some of the more organized, larger boutique hotels." ”

Students don't seem to be paying attention to these shared-economy sites, and Oh says they don't ask questions about them in class. However, this topic has been discussed in some classrooms.

"Sharing the economy is just a concept of accommodation," said Oh, "and what we are teaching is not only for Airbnb but also for all hotel concepts." We don't need to teach Airbnb alone, it's just a new product in the growth field. Airbnb needs to form a system to encourage college students to become leaders. ”

In the world's most popular tourist cities, such as London, Paris and New York, the tourism industry has been developed, whether the traveler is staying in a hotel or choosing a Airbnb house. Knowing the traveler's accommodation experience and the location of the experience is more important than ever, and these sites provide a perfect example for students, says Carl Winston, director of tourism at San Diego State University.

"We've been talking about these sites and we've been talking about them," Winston said. "I think the reason we need to talk about this in class is that when we think about the taxi industry, the industry is highly regulated and the government has a lot of obstacles." ”

"The pricing model that accompanies the sharing of the economy is valuable. In the academic sense we call these sites ' perishable inventory ', we teach students these pricing concepts and tell them what the taxi industry should do. ”

Unlike students at the Amherst Hotel College in Massachusetts, San Diego State University is more interested in discussing sites like Airbnb, Winston said.

"These sites make it easier to explain basic economic concepts and how to sell hotel rooms in 40 countries," he said. But if you talk to the hotel owners, they think it's just a fad, and they don't think business travellers will use Airbnb. But I know a lot of business travellers are using Airbnb and enjoy it. ”

"Students think it's cool," Winston added, "which helps them understand dynamic pricing and revenue management, making hotel and tourism teaching much simpler." Uber is the easiest to understand because our students use the most. ”

The students don't want to work in companies like Airbnb or HomeAway, and Winston agrees that he doesn't think there is any job opportunity in the field. Winston also said his colleagues predicted that sharing the economy would account for the 1-3% of U.S. hotel accommodation.