Booking.com unveiled its top ranking properties worldwide this week through its Guest Review Awards, and in doing so, highlighted an ever-growing preference towards alternative accommodation and away from traditional hotel stays.
The most noticeable shift in the rankings is seen as as apartments overtook hotels for the very first time, taking up 30% of the awarded spots. More notably still, out of the five top-awarded accommodation types, four were not traditional hotels either. Instead, the rankings were made up of apartments, guesthouses, B&Bs and holiday homes (private accommodation).
Of the top ten properties to receive an award in Singapore, for example, there are three apartments, two hostels, one B&B and just four hotels.
These findings are unsurprising when looking at Booking.com’s earlier research conducted with 19,000 travellers across 26 countries – which revealed that one third of respondents would prefer a holiday rental over a hotel in 2018, and that 21% would consider listing their own home on a property rental site in the next year. An impressive 40% also expressed a desire to stay in a unique form of accommodation during their next trip too.
It is quite apparent that traditional hotels may find themselves on the back foot, as what consumers want in a hospitality experience continue to change.
To be recognised with an award, properties had to have an average review score of 8.0 or higher based on at least five reviews. Rankings were determined based on over 140 million reviews. This year 549,937 properties in 218 countries and territories are being given an award.
The top countries that received the most recognition in Booking.com’s Guest Review Awards are primarily European, specifically: Italy (81,603), France (33,500), Spain (29,598), Germany (25,969), Croatia (24,395), the UK (21,655), Poland (18,391), Russia (18,300), and Greece (17,361). The United States (30,502) also ranked very highly.
