Abstract

This article presents the results of a study on Airbnb hosts and discusses findings regarding the perception of algorithmic mediation in the user-platform relationship; the experience of the algorithm in the everyday work management and the processes of building visibility and trust among users; and the surveillance mechanisms of hosts’ activity. A widespread awareness of the role of the algorithm emerges from the interviews, together with a difficult understanding of its concrete functioning in the various contexts in which it is applied. There is also evidence of the asymmetric nature of the communicative processes and the socio-technical platform affordances that enable them. Airbnb’s for-profit hosting emerges as a sui generis kind of platform labor compared to other algorithm-regulated on-demand services, as it assigns significant importance to caring for the space (both domestic and digital) and the guests