Understanding commercial hosting in food experiences an ethnography of host–guest dynamics in the private domain

This article explores how the global platform Eatwith mediates encounters between strangers through home-based dining experiences, reframing the boundaries between private hospitality and professional service. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews in Paris, Rome, and Barcelona, it analyzes how commensality fosters an ephemeral sense of equality that conceals economic transactions. Hosts and guests co-produce 'authentic' interactions through emotional labor, narrative performances, and reciprocal gestures that mask the commercial nature of the exchange. While the platform's payment system and vetting processes professionalize and legitimize home dining, they risk eroding the intimacy they promote through standardized marketing and review mechanisms. This tension reveals a paradox: as platforms scale social hospitality, they risk hollowing out the very spontaneity and affective warmth they promise. The findings engage classic anthropological debates on gift, reciprocity, and the tourist gaze, showing how commensal gatherings transform tourists from passive observers into participants, reconfiguring local life as both intimate and marketable. The paper argues for a critical rethinking of platformed social encounters, highlighting how digital infrastructures reshape notions of trust, authenticity, and sociality in contemporary tourism. Ultimately, Eatwith exemplifies the ambivalent promise and pitfalls of commodifying the home as an authentic stage for global encounter.