Why Travellers Are Choosing Holiday Rentals Over Hotels

Why Travellers Are Choosing Holiday Rentals Over Hotels - While the rest of the world is used to looking at holiday rentals, or vacation rentals as they call them in the US, Malaysians and Asians are now also picking up this option. It’s no longer just looking at hotels and resorts as the go-to accommodation for getaways.

HomeAway is one of the players in the holiday rental market – in fact, they bill themselves as a world leader. After all, the company – now owned by Expedia – has over two million properties worldwide, and that includes rentals in 13 counties across Asia and Malaysia.

The company prides itself in offering options that cater to different group sizes and dynamics, budgets and occasion. Also, a large portion of their listing offers privacy because the host is not present on the property.

In a HomeAway survey conducted in the Asian market in 2016,  54% of travellers cited that the most important benefit of holiday rentals was that they were more affordable than hotels and proved better value for money.

Coming in second at 50% were the conveniences of a home – for example, being able to cook in an actual kitchen. Third in the survey at 48% was staying in the same property with family or big groups of friends.

Other home conveniences that counted included being able to do laundry. If you think it’s unusual anyone would choose to do household chores as a bonus, note that the 44% who cited this were homemakers who had kids with them on holiday.

Having the whole property to themselves was a big plus for 42% of the travellers, and the greater privacy that this offered appealed to 36%.

There was also the added space that 41% enjoyed as the accommodations were larger than a hotel room. And there was the possibility of saving money that 39% cited, because the cost of the rentals could be shared among their group.

Finally, 36% said they were able to experience living like a local when they stayed in a holiday rental.

So far, HomeAway has detected that Malaysians who use their service chose Malaysian rentals as their No. 1 selection for a holiday. This was followed by properties in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.