In 2014, a dip in the domestic segment led to a poor performance in the overall hotel market; total trips fell by 2.9% to 59.5 million. However, this is expected to recover in 2015, with total trips predicted to rise by 5.7% to 62.9 million. Based on anticipation of a strong performance from the inbound segment, coupled with a growth in pipeline supply, Mintel expects the market to increase to a total of 69.5 million trips taken by 2020.

Airbnb-style lodging accommodation is still in its infancy with just 3% penetration, although this is up from 2% a year earlier. This is likely to grow with the amendment of the 1973 Greater London Council Act in the summer of 2015 which means Londoners can now legally rent their properties to holidaymakers without fear of prosecution.

Hoteliers will need to address the issue of third party booking agents as 33% of consumers use this method compared to 36% who book direct. One way of doing this is incentivising consumers to book direct, allowing them access to customisable services and products. To do this, it will be important to secure the right kinds of customer data to ensure services can be personalised and tailored to each guest. While most are open to sharing at least some kind of data, they are particularly cautious about sharing their location and social media information, both valuable forms of data for the customisation process.

The market section of this report examines hotels, motels and guesthouses in the UK used by both domestic and foreign tourists for any leisure, business and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) purposes. The consumer section examines a range of issues related to the UK consumer when staying in commercial accommodation including:

• Accommodation types stayed in over the last year

• Attitudes towards spending on hotels

• The hotel booking process

• Attitudes towards sharing data with hotels

• Modern versus traditional hotels

• Technology in hotels

• General attitudes towards hotels including preferences for staying in Airbnb-style accommodation over traditional hotels.

This report also uses performance indicator figures from hospitality intelligence company HotStats. HotStats provides a profit and loss benchmarking service to hoteliers from the UK, Europe and the Middle East, enabling monthly comparisons of performance against competitors. The company provides in excess of 100 performance metrics, covering 70 areas of hotel revenue, and its database holds 1,650 properties representing 360,000 rooms in 200 markets across 100 different brands.

For further information visit www.hotstats.com, email enquiries@hotstats.com or call +44 (0)20 7892 2234.

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