This week in hospitality, Hotel News Now reports on how Airbnb and hotels are coexisting, Expedia and Egencia released their 2014 Mobile Index Report, and Advito, a business travel consulting firm, released its 2015 hospitality industry forecast.

Airbnb and Hotels

Hotel News Now recently released a special report, “The Impact of the Sharing Economy on Hotels: An Analysis of Airbnb and Alternative Accommodations.” The report uses analyses of the New York City and San Francisco markets as case studies. Overall, it appears that while there are some threats to traditional hospitality, Airbnb and hotels seem to exist primarily in different segments of the market. Here are a few of the highlights from the New York case study:

• A significant portion of Airbnb’s guests in NYC appear to be unlikely to use hotels: 19% of Airbnb’s guests in New York rent for 30 days or more, which is highly unusual for hotels.
• While Airbnb has some pricey options, it’s mostly a competitive threat to economy hotels.
• While Airbnb has a material presence in Manhattan, its real center of activity is Brooklyn. So, the city’s most hotel-intense neighborhoods tend to be Airbnb’s smallest sub-markets.

CLICK HERE to download a PDF of the report.

2014 Expedia/Egencia Mobile Index Report

Expedia/Egencia released their 2014 Mobile Index Report on mobile device-related behavior and preferences among travelers in North America, South America,Europe and Asia-Pacific. It appears that Expedia put out different press releases for different regions, as some of the press releases have slightly different information. Tnooz put together a nice infographic for the numbers and has some UK-specific numbers. PR Newswire UK‘s version of the press release has some more specific stats on UAE travelers. Bizjournals has a couple of stats that are APAC-specific. Here are some of the global highlights:

• 76% of travelers say that their smartphones are “very important/critical” to their daily lives. 70% say the same about their laptop, and 48% say the same about their tablet device.
• More than one-third (35%) of the world’s travelers use their smartphones more when they travel than they do at home.
• 86% of business travelers rate complimentary wifi as very or somewhat important when booking a hotel for business travel.
• 78% of business travelers have used their smartphone in a travel planning capacity and 71% use tablets.
• “Losing my mobile device” tied with “losing my luggage” in the list of top five travel fears for all travelers.

CLICK HERE for the PR Newswire UK version of the release. CLICK HERE for the Tnooz infographic.

2015 Hospitality Industry Forecast

Advito, a business travel consulting firm, released its 2015 Industry Forecast which provides hospitality companies with a benchmark they can use to project a price range for airline tickets and hotel rooms in major markets around the world.

Some of the forecast’s findings include:

• Demand in business travel is expected to grow in 2015. But, businesses remain cautious about spending too much too soon, so travel growth will be modest rather than spectacular.
• Overall airfares shouldn’t rise sharply except in the U.S. domestic market where consolidation has reduced competition.
• Hotels are seeking corporate rate increases of 6% to 8% on average. But will they settle for much less like they did in 2014? Travel buyers with a strong track record of meeting targets, coupled with favorable stay patterns, should successfully be able to contain rate rises yet again.

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