Is Airbnb taking out the hotel industry? According to a recent survey “from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shows that once they (consumers) switch, they don’t go back to hotels,” as reported by Bloomberg Business. More and more people not wanting to go back to hotels after using Airbnb is certainly some troubling news for the hotel industry.
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Is Airbnb Taking Out The Hotel Industry?
“If people have stayed in peer-to-peer lodging [P2P] in the last five years, the likelihood that they prefer traditional hotels is halved (79 percent vs. 40 percent),” the data showed. “We find it interesting that people ‘do a 180’ in their preferences once they use P2P lodging. They move directly from preferring traditional hotels to preferring P2P accommodations.”
The growth in the industry was on full display at this year’s Super Bowl. Airbnb, one of the most well-known P2P sites, anticipated 15,000 people booking home rentals for Super Bowl 50 in the Bay Area, four times more than the previous game in Phoenix. With a $25.5 billion valuation, the company is worth more than Macy’s Inc. and Best Buy Co. combined.
My take
I obviously am a very avid collector and redeemer of hotel points. Mrs. Weekly Flyer and I have redeemed some insane number of points at some of the finest SPG, Hyatt, IHG and Marriott properties around. But, as we get older and now have 2 kids, we are finding the hotel options available to us as a family of 4 more limited and find ourselves opting for Airbnb over hotels when we travel as a family mainly to get more space, a kitchen and more! Unless we can redeem for a big enough suite and confirm it before we get there we are booking Airbnb more and more. This article speaks to exactly what we have been doing and apparently a lot of other folks have been as well.
Bottom Line
Certainly, hotels still have a spot in our travel plans especially if we are traveling without the kids and when I travel for business, of course I am in a hotel every time. But, Airbnb is rivaling my hotel bookings this year, with only 1 out of 5 of our family trips for the first half of the year booked at a hotel. Wow! How about you? Do you find yourself in line with the results of this survey? Do you AirBnB? If you haven’t tried it yet, you can get $20 towards your first Airbnb rental when you sign up here.
About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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I will say that I agree with you, I still have my share of hotels (primarily promotion related) but for my 30 day Asia trip coming up in May I will be stay exclusively in Airbnb rentals.
I am a full time Airbnb Superhost, and so many of my guests (50%+) say it is their first time using the service. I love it
We’ll use airbnb’s whenever we have an extended stay in one location, but since we often hop around on vacation with our kids, we’ll stay in a hotel if staying for less than 3-4 nights. For stays longer than that, having a kitchen and actual bedrooms can really make a difference.
I wouldn’t bother with Airbnb in Asia since hotels are so cheap there, but in overpriced countries in europe, or in Australia for example, it’s a great alternative to save on daily rates, often paying less than half for comparable quality accomodations in same location. I used airbnb even for 1-night stays and it worked out great, there’s always a host willing to do that.
I use hotels for short stays and vacation rentals for large groups or long stays. I’d rather use HomeAway or VRBO and get a whole home vacation rental. Airbnb fees are outrageous. I don’t want to see the hosts clothes in the closet and toiletries in the bathroom either.
until hotels can guarantee suite upgrades when making a reservation, Airbnb gets most of our family travel which adds up to about $5000 a year. And if Airbnb can start a loyalty program, my use would double. My favorite hotel chain looses out about 40 nights a year when I travel with family because I prefer a house over a room for the same price.