Hotels versus the sharing economy, new survey targets millennials
As technology continues to advance at an increasingly rapid rate, critics have speculated on whether more traditional elements of the travel and accommodation industries will fall to the wayside. Various firms have conducted research on younger Internet-savvy generations to deduce which elements may be most affected.
Skift has launched a series of surveys on the holidaying habits of American “millennials”, referring to adults between the age of 18 and 34, hoping to identify some of these trends. So far the research has shown two findings: the generational use of travel agents and the preference of accommodation type.
When asked whether they “used a travel agent to book a leisure trip in the last 12 months” by Skift, 84.2 per cent of respondents said “no”. Furthermore, 5.9 per cent said “yes but not in the last 12 months” and 9.9 per cent said “yes”.
However, the survey also found that wealthier millennials earning more than US$150,000 a year were more likely to use travel agents (33 per cent) and 2.3 per cent more men booked via a travel agent than women.
The latest survey asked almost 1000 millennials which type of accommodation they chose to stay in during their last leisure trip. While 32.4 per cent said they stayed in a paid-for hotel, 17.9 per cent stayed with friends or family and just 3.9 per cent chose to use Airbnb.
A variety of factors seem to be weighing in on these statistics. According to the survey demographics, those earning more than US$75,000 are more likely to stay in a hotel, as are those aged 25-34 compared to the younger 18-24 millennial.
However, of those who opted for Airbnb there were twice as many older millennials than 18-24-year-olds. Suburban respondents also selected Airbnb five times more than rural respondents.
All this points to the strength of the traditional marketplace, meaning travel agents and hotels, over the online sharing economy. It could also suggest that the Airbnb sharing economy has a substantial potential for growth.
The surveys are web-based and were administered to more than 750 US adults between 18 and 34 in March 2015, via Google Consumer Surveys.
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