It's not often that hotels have something to celebrate when it comes to the sharing economy, but a recent survey of Millennials placed Airbnb dead last as a preferred accommodation type.
The results come from the Resonance Report's 2015 Portrait of the U.S. Millennial Traveler which profiles the habits of 1,189 recent travelers in the all-important 74 million adults aged 18-34. This demographic is prized by travel marketers for its appetite for trends and its growing disposable income without such pesky anchors such as children and mortgages.
Tnooz covered the familial structure of these travelers last week; but what are their preferences when it comes to other areas of travel?
The report's tease suggests that this group is more complex and nuanced than the broad marketing brush gives it credit for:
This enigmatic group has been identified, stereotyped and analyzed in myriad and often contradictory ways. They’re selfish and they’re sharing; they’re lazy and they’re entrepreneurial. They’re labelled “boomerang” kids, yet some are just barely old enough to have left their parents’ home in the first place.
Across the board, though, we discovered that Millennial travelers don’t easily fit any single stereotype we’ve heard about. In fact, Millennials who travel are quite different than Millennials as a whole.
The biggest difference from common wisdom is that shared accommodation listing services such as Airbnb were the least popular choice for accommodation. And that's despite the fact that 40% of the surveyed Millennials used the service often or regularly yet only 11% said that it was a preferred option, eclipsed by hotels (54%), friends and family (37%) or camping (24%).
For hotels, this heartening result must be backed up with a complete understanding of what this specific demographic expects from the hotel experience. Of course, different surveys feature different results, but one commonality is now the full expectation of free internet access.
Another twist is that privacy came second to internet in this particular ranking. Another common theme in the "targeting Millennials" rulebook is that this demographic covets large social spaces over large rooms. This means that the rooms can get smaller while the social areas grow. While "privacy" is a broad term that also could mean a desire to simply escape, there is still nonetheless an innate desire for privacy within this demographic.
The blog announcing the report pointed to an emerging hotel brand named Drift that combines the local hospitality of Airbnb with the standardized amenities of hotels to create an Airbnb-focused hotel experience. A modern hotel, according to Drift, "doesn’t provide the traveler with their experience - it only creates a space to encourage it.” That's the new reality of the Millennial traveler.
The popularity of "all-inclusive packages" should also be noted, given that this hotel package has traditionally been seen as less desirable by the in-the-know generation. Perhaps there is now a time for design-forward hotels to reconsider how food and beverage play into the wider picture for guests of a certain age.
The bigger picture reveals that shorter, cheaper trips are in vogue with the Millennial traveler, likely due to the fact that they are only just beginning on the career path. Cars, buses and trains are therefore a more popular means of conveyance as well.
Those surveyed were filtered by income and travel habits, so respondents had an income of at least $35k and had travled more than 75 miles from home in the past year.
NB: Surprised kid image courtesy Shutterstock.