Airbnb’s effect on the hotel industry could be even longer-lasting than originally thought.
The eight-year-old home-sharing company has become an increasingly popular alternative to hotel rooms, and travelers seem to stick with it once they try it, according to a new survey from Goldman Sachs obtained by Bloomberg. Conducted by managing director Steven Kent and his team, the survey polled 2,000 consumers.
Specifically, the survey found that 79% of consumers who hadn’t used Airbnb or other “peer to peer lodging” sites prefer traditional hotels, but that number dropped by half to 40% for those who had. “We find it interesting that people ‘do a 180’ in their preferences once they use P2P lodging. They move directly from preferring traditional hotels to preferring P2P accommodations,” reads the survey results.
The survey also found that more consumers are familiar with and users of services like Airbnb, HomeAway, and FlipKey. Last year, 11% of survey respondents said they had used such services, while 16% said they had in the last quarter of 2015. Familiarity with them jumped from 24% to 35% during the same time period.
The survey’s results also show that it’s not just Millennials using Airbnb. While 67% of respondents between 18 and 24 said they had used a home-sharing service in the past year, 75% of those between 25 and 34 said yes, and 64% of those between 35 and 44 also had. Among those older than 44, the use ranged from 29% to 23%.
Roughly 70% of respondents with income between $70,000 and $119,000 said they had used these services in the past year, higher than any other income bracket.
Founded in 2008, San Francisco-based Airbnb is now valued at more than $25.5 billion, much higher than the $3.9 billion Expedia (EXPE) paid to acquire HomeAway in late 2015. The company has been the target of the hotel industry’s growing frustration with alternatives to its services.
