Share This! Private Accommodation & the Rise of the New Gen Renter

Renting a home, condo, apartment, villa, cottage – or for that matter, a castle – is nothing new in the travel industry. In 2008, Phocuswright's U.S. Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Change identified a segment of the accommodation sector that was large, well established and undergoing rapid change from offline listings to online marketing and – more slowly – booking. But now the very conception of a rental is quickly transforming, as is the rental traveler.

Within just a few short years, the remarkable growth of HomeAway and Airbnb has sparked nothing short of a global phenomenon, spawning myriad imitators, numerous legal actions and intense industry scrutiny. Municipalities and traditional travel industry sectors are still coming to grips with the implications of private homeowners and even renters turning their abodes into part-time (or full-time) businesses.

Phocuswright's Share This! Private Accommodation & the Rise of the New Gen Renter (Global Edition), a new study surveying nearly 2,000 travelers, delves deeply into the use of private accommodation in travel and defines the new rental traveler. Examining the attitudes, aspirations, expectations and behaviors of renters and non-renters alike, this report provides critical insights into how, when and why travelers do and do not choose rentals vs. hotels, what influences their decisions, where they shop and book, and what renters want.

"There is a new generation of renters who are a breed apart from the larger traveler population," said Douglas Quinby, Phocuswright's vice president, research. "They are younger, extremely digitally engaged and have very distinct travel wants and aspirations that stand apart from hotel guests and older rental travelers. In short, it's not your mom's vacation rental anymore."

Share This! Private Accommodation & the Rise of the New Gen Renter provides deep insight into the U.S. rental traveler. The study explains who they are, how they travel, what they want, and how they shop and book. The report also delves into the competitive overlap with hotels, including the extent to which renters consider and stay in hotels, whether non-renters consider private accommodation, and the potential impact of rentals on the traditional hotel market.

Topics covered in this report include:

• Historical context of the vacation rental and private accommodation markets
• In-depth analysis of the rental traveler and New Gen Renter segments
• Six key travel attitudes of the New Gen Renter
• To rent or not to rent: traveler decision dynamics around private accommodations vs. hotels
• How rental travelers shop and book accommodations

Understand the new rental traveler and explore emerging trends in terms of demographics, travel behavior and use of consumer technology with Phocuswright's Share This! Private Accommodation & the Rise of the New Gen Renter.