Vacation homes in Germany

An online survey

​​​​​​Keywords: Online-survey ・ Value creation・ Guest structure・Travel behaviour of Germans・ Representative of the population

Challenges

Market research data for tourism in Germany are predominantly available for commercial establishments with a bed capacity of 10 or more. The numerous smaller establishments, mostly family-run, therefore systematically fall through this grid, although they presumably make an important contribution to tourism value creation.

These establishments are professionally marketed by FeWo-direkt (a Vrbo brand and part of the Expedia Group), among others, which has already repeatedly conducted a study for the Spanish market focusing on vacation homes/apartments. Similar findings are now to be obtained for the German market.

Our goal 

This study, commissioned by FeWo-direkt, aims to answer the following questions in particular:

• How does the guest structure differ between vacation homes and hotels?
• What demands and expectations do vacationers in vacation homes have of their stay and their accommodation?
• How do vacation home regions profit from travellers? What are the value-added effects in this sector? And finally: How significant is the vacation home market compared to the hotel market in Germany?

Our approach

In order to ensure a certain comparability to the already existing results from Spain, the questionnaire will be adapted accordingly and adjusted to the conditions in Germany.

Study design

• Method: Standardized and fully structured online interviews
• Field period: September to October 2019
• Target group: All persons living in Germany between the ages of 18 and 75 who speak German sufficiently well and who have spent a vacation with at least one overnight stay in Germany in a vacation home or hotel in the last two years (September 2017 - September 2019).
• Quota: According to the actual population distribution in Germany (gender, age and federal state).
• Realized target group interviews: n=3,049

„Vacations in vacation homes in this country are booming: Germans spend more than 10 billion euros a year while vacationing in a vacation home, thus supporting the regional economy in German vacation regions. With revenues of around four billion euros, local gastronomy as well as the local food retail trade benefit the most from vacation home tourism. This is the result of a recent analysis by the Institute CENTOURIS at the University of Passau, commissioned by FeWo-direkt®, an expert in family vacations in vacation homes for more than 20 years."

[FeW0-direkt press release]   

Further information:

• Press release
• Media reporting