Report Overview

We launched a series of travel sector estimates in 2019. Owing to the pandemic, 2020 and 2021 witnessed a plethora of changes in the industry with respect to demand and supply. With this report, we aim to continue our efforts of providing market sizes for the travel industry. We are starting by focusing on accommodations, one of the largest and most important travel sectors.

Skift Research estimates that the total accommodation sector in the U.S. generated $319.9 billion revenue in 2021 and will increase by 13% year-over-year in 2022. Among that, short-term rentals — short-term lodging in private homes or apartments — reached nearly $57.7 billion. Market share of the short-term lodging sector increased from 10.5% in 2018 to 18% in 2021. However, we believe that the hotel sector will make a strong comeback in 2022, meaning we will see a much smaller growth in the share of the short-term rental sector. Owing to the pandemic, consumer preferences have been volatile the past few years. As the situation evolves, the composition of the industry with respect to how hotel and short-term rental sectors share the market will become more defined going forward.

We arrive at our proprietary estimates by analyzing relevant data aggregated in our previous reports, as well as many reputable sources, including the U.S. Economic Census, U.S. Census Service Annual Survey (SAS) and Quarterly Services Survey (QSS), and company filings.

In our U.S. Accommodation Sector 2019 report, we segregated the total accommodation sector into the traditional accommodation segment (comprising establishments primarily engaged in providing short-term lodging in facilities, such as hotels, motels, casino hotels, and bed-and-breakfast inns) and the alternative accommodation segment (private homes, apartments and campgrounds). In this report we will be referring to alternative accommodation as short-term rentals and the traditional accommodation segment as hotels, as in the past few years the short-term rental industry experienced an unprecedented boom in popularity and it’s not an alternative anymore. Furthermore, there is a clear convergence of the short-term rental and hotel sectors taking place.

What You'll Learn From This Report

  • U.S. accommodation sector market size estimates, 2018–2022
  • U.S. market size estimates for hotels and short-term rentals, 2018–2022
  • U.S. market size estimates for hotels and motels, casino hotels, B&B, and other traveler accommodation segments, 2018–2021
  • Key hotel sector operational and performance estimates for 2021, including number of companies, properties, and corresponding revenue
  • Analysis of the U.S. Economic Census data