Holiday rentals versus hotels: who wins the duel?

The holiday booking figures for France are in at last. We now know whether the French favour holiday rentals or hotels. Care to take a guess before you read on?

A preference for holiday rentals

This year again, among the French, it is holiday rentals that come out on top! According to Europ Assistance: "Only 29% of French holidaymakers will sleep in a hotel during their stay this summer, compared with 46% on average for Europeans".

And that is despite the clear rise in rental prices! Up 9.4% for houses in the mountains, up 7.6% in the countryside and up 7.2% for the seaside.

Among the most sought-after regions, we find unsurprisingly: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (excluding the coast), the region growing the fastest at +49%, followed by the Côte d'Azur (+37.5%) and Corsica (+26%) (compared with 2019).

Is this really a falling-out with hotels?

According to the agency, the French are not turning their backs on hotels, but they really are very attached to holiday rentals.

The main explanation is said to lie in the impressive choice of rentals on offer. In France, there are around four million second homes. That adds up to quite a few options!

More and more, we want to feel at home, cocooned with a garden rather than tied to the timetable of a hotel. If you are going to travel in your own country, you may as well do it in a house! And what do you think? When you go on holiday, where do you choose to sleep?

If this topic interests you, we also have an article on the tourist accommodation figures for 2021.