It’s Now Easier Than Ever for Travelers to Find The Perfect Home-Away-From-Home

Research from Booking.com shows that almost seven in ten (69%)^* global travelers plan to stay in an accommodation that has a host (whether that ‘host’ is an individual or a professionally managed property), and 41%^* think a welcoming host is the most important factor when choosing a holiday home. Hosted stays can offer travelers added benefits such as the comfort and privacy of a home-away-from-home as well as providing a genuine feel and experience of the local culture.

With a mission to make it easier for everyone to experience the world, Booking.com is continuing to invest in technology that helps take the friction out of travel, including a expanding the host profile feature to a broader range of alternative property types, and seamless contact options to equip travelers with all the information they need before booking a host-led stay. These features enable travelers to contact a host prior to making a booking - should they have any questions - as well as view host profiles to unlock key information from the host about themselves as a host, unique benefits and features of their property and the surrounding neighborhood. This is good news for the 44%^* of travelers who said it’s important for a host to have an easy and instant way to communicate directly with guests, and vice versa.

In general, hosted accommodations know how to deliver amazing hospitality to their guests as three quarters (75%) of all the awarded properties of the Booking.com's Traveller Review Awards 2020 are homes, apartments and other unique places to stay. To help travelers get the most out of their stay, Booking.com shares five top tips with travelers:

• Over six in 10 (65%)^* global travelers said they’d be interested in their host providing personalized maps and directions during their stay, to get the most out of your stay by reaching out to your host in advance to leverage their local knowledge while exploring a new destination
• Avoid overpacking by asking your host what is already provided in their property, for example toiletries, towels, electronics and travel adapters
• Use your stay as an opportunity to practice a foreign language by interacting with your host in their native language
• Over one third (34%)** of global travelers reveal that the interior design of a holiday home has an effect on whether they choose to stay there or not; so take advantage of staying in a home, apartment or other unique place to stay and use this as an opportunity to get interior design inspiration while staying there
• Find out more about your home-away-from-home’s surrounding area both in the host profile and on the Booking.com map feature to create peace of mind and get the feeling that you’re on vacation already!

Methodology:

^*Research was commissioned by Booking.com and independently conducted among 21,500 respondents (including 1,000 each from Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, China, Brazil, India, US, UK, Russia, Indonesia, Colombia and South Korea; and 500 each from Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, Croatia, Taiwan, Mexico, Netherlands, Sweden, Singapore and Israel). Respondents completed an online survey between 14 December 2018 and 14 January 2019.

^**Research commissioned by Booking.com and independently conducted among 18,500 respondents who were surveyed (1,000+ from the UK, US, Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, India, Singapore and Russia and 500+ each from Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, Croatia, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Thailand and Taiwan). Respondents completed an online survey in November 2017.