Over 50% Indian travellers prefer homestays, villas over hotels: survey

One in every two Indian travelers are looking to book an alternative accommodation like villas, homestays, hostels or cottages rather than a traditional hotel, said a survey by online travel aggregator MakeMyTrip.

The trend is led by millennials, who have shown higher propensity towards booking an alternative accommodation in India and overseas basis their varied travel interests, said the report titled ‘Where will India stay on their next trip’ published on Tuesday.

The Nasdaq-listed company conducted the survey between September and October across 3,000 Indian travellers between the age group 18 to 55 years. The survey showed that over 48% of the respondents are most likely to book an alternative accommodation for their next trip.

As per the findings, 55% of the surveyed has switched from booking a hotel to an alternative accommodation property during their last trip. Of these, about 46% booked an alternative accommodation for the first time in their travel history, it said.

“The diversified offerings from hospitality industry in terms of alternative accommodation option like homestays, villas, hostels, apartments, short-term rentals are playing an important role in meeting the evolving demands of travellers. The results of this study shows how this segment is gradually gaining a strong foothold in the market,” said Vipul Prakash, group chief operating officer, MakeMyTrip Ltd.

Around 70% of the respondents booked an alternative accommodation property during their last leisure trip, followed by people travelling for business/work, as the report.

“At a time when customers, especially millennials prefer experiential travel choices – alternative accomodations are offering quality yet economical, offbeat options and it is only set to grow more popular with Indian travellers,” Prakash said.