Tourist properties rentals gain ground worldwide, as more and more travelers become familiar with and begin to trust this type of accommodation. All available evidence suggests that this phenomenon will continue to expand from year to year. Companies that operate within this so-called economy of sharing, such as Airbnb, expand to business travel, limiting even more the scope of traditional hotels. For these reasons, it is absolutely necessary that the institutional framework in Greece regarding tourist properties rentals to be tabled in Parliament, must include arrangements that ensure fair competition between all forms of accommodation.
The rapid growth of the sharing economy was recorded in the Allianz Travel Insurance Sharing Economy Index which revealed that twice as many Americans will use hybrid market for summer travel in 2016.
As Daniel Durazo, director of communications at Allianz Global Assistance USA put it: “We’re at an interesting intersection right now between sharing economy and traditional services. The playing field is quite level with many Americans having an uncertainty about which services provide the better experience, which opens an opportunity for the lesser known sharing economy to take a bigger stake as awareness continues to increase. There was already significant growth in use, familiarity and trust of the sharing economy over the last year showing that these services are not a fad and have great potential for longevity.”
According to the survey:
- One in three Americans (36 percent) say they are likely to use sharing economy services such as Airbnb, HomeAway, Uber or Lyft during their summer vacation this year. This is up from last year when just 17 percent of Americans said they were likely to use these services.
- Millennials continue to lead the sharing economy trend with 65 percent aged 18-34 saying they are likely to use these services (up 37 percentage points from 2015), compared to the 33 percent aged 35-54 (up 16 points) and the 14 percent aged 55 or over (up eight percent) who are likely to use sharing economy services. Americans with an annual income of $50,000 or more (38 percent) are more likely to use sharing economy services than those with an income less than $50,000 (32 percent).
- American millennials continue to increase in familiarity with 86 percent saying they are familiar with the sharing economy services offered (up 28 percentage points from 2015), compared to the 67 percent aged 35-54 (up 14 points) and the 49 percent aged 55 or over (up 20 points).
- America is also becoming more aware of the variety of sharing economy services available with Uber topping the list with 62 percent of Americans saying they are familiar with the service (up 27 points from 2015). Airbnb is up 16 points with 35 percent familiarity and Lyft rose 19 points to 34 percent familiarity. Additionally, HomeAway (18 percent; up eight points), GetAround (11 percent; up four points) and Feastly (10 percent; up six points) all experienced growth in familiarity.
- 48 percent of Americans find sharing economy services such as Airbnb, HomeAway, Uber or Lyft to be trustworthy, up four points from 2015.
- More Americans feel the sharing economy provides better value (26 percent; up nine percent) and a more authentic local experience (22 percent; up 10 percent), however they still prefer traditional services such as online services like Expedia.com, using a travel agent, or booking directly with a hotel, restaurant or car service for providing the better overall experience (25 percent), quality product (31 percent), booking (31 percent) and customer support when things go wrong (40 percent).
Consequently, hotels must urgently seek to integrate dynamic local experiences in their range of services…
