Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Blur Lines in New U.S. Accommodation Market

In our Skift Research Global Travel Outlook 2022 report, we presented that 2020 was the most challenging year for the travel industry till date while 2021 will be remembered as the inflection point of the pandemic, with the industry edging up to 70 percent of the pre-pandemic activity. Looking ahead into 2022 and beyond, we are optimistic in our latest report "U.S. Accommodation Sector Market Estimates 2022" for a short-term and long-term travel recovery with forecasts for all major travel sectors to grow this year.

The hotel industry, in line with the overall industry, registered an unprecedented decline in revenue in 2020. But Skift Research estimated that the global hotel industry witnessed a significant hike in performance with year-over-year growth of 35 percent in 2021 and is expected to grow at 55 percent in 2022, reaching $450 billion. 

Short-term rentals came through 2020 better than hotels, registering a decline of 33 percent compared to a decline of 60 percent for hotels. We estimate that in 2021 the sector registered 42 percent growth, moving towards bookings returning to