Airbnb doesn’t pose a big threat to hotel industry: analyst

Euromonitor expects that both hotels and vacation rental accommodation types will see similar growth, with hotels growing by 20% over the next five years, and rentals growing by 19%. While the success of Airbnb has elevated the profile of the vacation rental market, it is a market that has always existed—its distribution has merely improved with easy…As a result, the vacation rental industry isn’t expected to significantly cannibalize hotel industry sales.

Leisure travellers is where both accommodation types compete heavily. There has been a shift to more family and multi-generational travel…It is this segment that the hotel industry will need to try a bit harder to win over.

Hotels can respond to this by promoting their extended stay brands to more leisure travellers and emphasising the family friendliness of their properties—providing unique activities such as specific outings for children that aren’t available at vacation rentals…overall, hotels must leverage their greatest advantage over the vacation rental industry: standardised service.