Airbnb Short-Sheeting Midtier Hotels

Airbnb Short-Sheeting Midtier Hotels
A survey shows the home-rental service is drawing customers from Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, Comfort Inn and others.


See article here:

www.barrons.com/articles/airbnb-short-sheeting-midtier-hotels-1447947825

The purpose of the study is to gauge awareness, intentions to stay and to track trends over time. We surveyed nearly 1,600 demographically diverse respondents across the U.S. to find nearly 500 who are aware of privately held Airbnb and take at least one trip per year that requires an overnight stay. Awareness of Airbnb is high and there is some substitution, which appears to be stable. Note, 70% of those aware of Airbnb and travel one night per year have household income of less than $100,000, and therefore the survey likely skews in favor of Airbnb and we would not extrapolate the sample size results.

Awareness of Airbnb is high and increasing among all consumers who travel (at least one overnight trip per year), 37% from 34% in August. Seven percent in our targeted survey of consumers have used Airbnb as a guest and approximately 51% of their Airbnb stays were a direct replacement for a hotel/motel. Overnight stays at Airbnb in place of a hotel/motel is steady/declining (51%), down from 53%/54% in the previous three surveys. Airbnb mostly replaces midtier and economy hotels, at 49% and 32%, respectively. Leisure travel features more prominently for increased Airbnb stays.

The most important drivers for selecting Airbnb over a hotel/motel are price (down to nearly 54% from nearly 63%), amenities (down to 50% from nearly 52%) and location of rentals (up to more than 47% from more than 36%). Nearly 30% of Airbnb guests say they intend on using Airbnb for leisure travel more frequently over the next six to 12 months (down from 43% in August but a bit above nearly 29% last March) versus 6.3% who say less (up from nearly 3%).

Airbnb is still a viable option for business travel according to Airbnb customers. Nearly 21% intend to use it more frequently for business travel over the next six to 12 months (down from 29%) versus only 2.7% who say less (no change). In general, nearly 30% of current customers say they intend to use Airbnb as a direct replacement for hotels/motels (down from more than 38%) versus nearly 9% who say less (up from nearly 3%).

What Type of Hotel Does Airbnb Replace?

Mainly midtier hotels but also economy hotels/motels and extended stay hotels: 49% of Airbnb guests say it replaces a midtier hotel (e.g., [InterContinental Hotels Group (ticker: IHG ) brand] Holiday Inn, [Hilton Worldwide Holdings ( HLT ) brand] Hampton Inn, [Choice Hotels International ( CHH ) brand] Comfort Inn, etc.; down from nearly 52%); nearly 32% say it replaces an economy hotel/motel (e.g., [privately held] Motel 6, [Wyndham Worldwide ( WYN ) brand] Days Inn, [Wyndham brand] Microtel, [Wyndham brand] Super 8, etc.; down from nearly 47%).

Prospective customers/guests plan to use Airbnb in the next six to 12 months. Nearly 8% of consumers who have not yet used Airbnb say they plan on renting a room/residence through Airbnb in the next six to 12 months (down from more than 8%); nearly 58% are not sure (up from more than 56%); nearly 35% say they do not plan to rent a room through Airbnb (down from more than 35%).

Consumers who have not yet rented via Airbnb still indicate that safety concerns (up to nearly 50% from nearly 39%) and concern that the photos online are not an accurate representation of the room (nearly 25%; no change) are the top reasons for not yet trying Airbnb.