Millennial travel: Trends and statistics | Little Hotelier (2024)

What is millennial travel?

Millennial travel is undertaken by young adults born between the early 19080s and the mid-1990s, who value travel as an essential part of their existence and experience in life.

Millennial travellers have become a dominant demographic in the travel industry. They prefer to spend their money on experiences rather than large items. In fact, they’re more likely to take a holiday than any other generation. Like Gen Z, Millennials remain open-minded to new opportunities and activities. They are also more willing to pay more for travel, with many prioritising an important experience over the purchase of material goods.

This blog will give you a full overview of millennial travel and how to attract more guests from this market segment.

Why are millennial travellers important?

Understanding the motivations, preferences, and behaviours of millennial travellers is crucial for small businesses. As a small accommodation provider, you have a unique advantage because you offer a more personalised and authentic experience than many large hotel chains, which is highly desirable to millennials.

For hotels and B&Bs they provide a natural and very viable target, given their characteristics. They’re a generation that grew up with the internet and have become accustomed to the progress of technology. Being much more focused on experiences than materials, they travel frequently. Additionally, they’re the perfect age; young professionals who have established good careers and are using their income for fulfilling adventures.

What are the latest millennials trends?

Millennials tend to plan, research, book, and travel in particular ways – different from generations past. Instead of reading guide books and contacting agents at a brick-and-mortar travel agency, they are more likely to read online reviews and check out your social media profile.

Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok rule the roost for millennials who operate on the notion that anything worth doing is also worth sharing, and if they don’t share it to receive likes and comments it feels less meaningful.

To this point, millennial travellers rely heavily on their mobile devices in order to make their travel arrangements. They are likely researching their hotel options while walking from the office to the local cafe on their lunch break. They may make their reservation on the subway ride back to their apartment at the end of the day.

What is the most popular millennial travel agency?

It may come as a surprise, but younger travellers are now starting to develop a preference for traditional travel agents, even more so than older generations.

While the light of traditional travel agents appeared to have faded with the rise of online booking channels and metasearch services, they are now seeing an upswing.

Research shows that 38% of millennials and Gen Z are opting to use traditional travel agents, which is far greater than among their Gen X and Baby Boomer counterparts, at 12% and 2% respectively.

Millennials are discovering that travel agents are both convenient and cost-effective.

Even so, OTAs are still also a dominant method for millennials booking travel, with Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb all proving popular.

10 millennial travel statistics

Here’s a list of current millennial trends and travel statistics.

1. Millennials are now the largest generation in the US at 71.1 million or 22% of the total population
2. However, millennial spending over the next 10 years will be powered by Asia in particular. The lower middle classes from India, Indonesia, and China have a market share worth $20 Trillion.
3. On average, millennials spend $4141 per trip
4. At 35 days per year, millennials travel more than any other generation (Gen Z is at 29 days while Gen X is the lowest at 26 days).
5. As of 2022, 67% of millennials say they want to take a one-in-a-lifetime trip on the next adventure.
6. By the same token, 82% say they want to take a vacation that has minimal impact on the environment.
7. The most favoured destination for millennials is France, followed by Hawaii, Japan, The Caribbean, and Florida
8. More millennials are willing to travel alone, at 58% compared to older generations at 47%
9. A staggering 97% share their travel experiences on social media, sometimes even 2-3 times per day while travelling.
10. 78% of younger millennials say their main aim is relaxation when they take a trip.

Millennials hotel booking trends

So what are the millennial hotel trends that will particularly interest your property? To get you started on thinking about how you might attract and satisfy millennials, here are five more facts and figures:

1. Millennials are quite spontaneous and love booking last-minute, with 49% saying they had done so in the past 12 months.
2. 86% want to connect with local culture, food, and knowledge when in a new destination
3. More than half of them consider free wi-fi as the most sought after hotel amenity
4. 53% are likely to book their travel with an online travel agent, leaving plenty of room for hotels to score direct bookings
5. 68% of Australian millennials and 69% of GenZ say their perception of a property would change if it wasn’t using tech effectively

One of the biggest things to remember is that millennials are an ‘online’ generation; from researching, to booking, to ordering room service, they like to do everything online from their smart device or laptop. They’re also comfortable and accustomed to AI, so chatbots can be really helpful in securing their bookings and assisting with queries.

What is the customer journey for millennials when they travel?

The customer journey is all about the process someone takes from the time they decide they want to go on a trip to the time they reach your hotel. For millennials, it might look like this:

1. Dreaming stage

Since millennial travellers value experiences over possessions, holidays are top of mind. In fact, more millennials expect to go on a dream holiday in the future over buying a brand new car. And while they may be inspired by an upcoming public holiday – or a milestone they’d like to celebrate – millennials are inspired by their peers’ social media posts.

This is why it’s so important for small accommodation providers to have an online presence, and use social media networks to your advantage.

2. Planning stage

After they’ve decided where they want to go, it’s time to plan all the elements of their trip itinerary.

Because the majority of millennials try to appear in control of their lives at all times, it makes them “chronic Googlers” – they seek information from all sources because they want to know that they’ve truly considered all of their options.

3. Booking stage

When the time has come to make a booking, millennials strongly value convenience – this is why they love technology so much. Technology is seen as an ‘enabler of greater control’, ultimately resulting in convenience for them.

Millennials value convenience so much that it is more important than price as a driver of their booking method. Small accommodation providers need to have a booking engine in place in order to provide a simple online booking process. Otherwise, they will drop out of the race.

4. Experience stage

The experience is everything to the millennial, and authenticity is essential. What’s seen as ‘authentic’ can vary, though – it can be living like a local, having their own independence, and finding ‘hidden gems’ when it comes to where they stay and what they do.

Millennials travelling habits

Every generation has slightly different ways of going about things. Unlike older generations, millennials aren’t as worried about planning trips down to the very last detail.

They also want to control their own circ*mstances, which is perhaps why 44% of all digital nomads are millennials. It makes them the generation most likely to adopt this lifestyle and signifies that properties who can accommodate this will be at an advantage.

One of the biggest habits a millennial has when they arrive at their hotel is to ask for the Wi-Fi password. They want to be constantly connected, sharing pictures and stories with their social media channels, or logging on to get work done.

Since this target group is incredibly tech savvy, it’s important that the hotel experience incorporates technologically-forward solutions.

How to attract more millennial travel groups

Capturing the attention of millennial travellers can be done in a lot of ways, but ultimately you’ll need a strong online presence.

This means having:

• An optimised website that’s functional on all devices and is search engine friendly
• An online booking engine setup to integrate with your website and handle multiple languages and currencies
• Strong online advertising via OTAs and metasearch
• The ability to take and process online payments seamlessly
• Active public profiles such as on Google, Facebook, and Instagram

It’s important that you give them every opportunity to learn about your property in-depth and be able to make a booking quickly and easily once they reach a decision.

Here’s seven other key areas you should be focusing on.

1. Maintain accurate inventory

Double bookings can be the height of inconvenience for guests, especially when there may not be many fall back options. Ensure your front desk system is communicating with your online sales channels via a channel manager. This will automatically keep your inventory up-to-date across all channels in real-time.

2. Make mobile booking possible

Millennials depend on their mobile devices, and they expect to be able to complete their bookings from their smartphone or tablet. It’s vital that your website and booking engine are optimised for this, or you’ll lose a lot of potential customers.

3. Make your offers authentic

Millennials are very enthusiastic about authentic experiences, investigating culture, and trying new things. Make sure when you advertise your property you are displaying what is unique about your destination and your B&B or hotel.

It’s likely your business will be highly connected to the local area so use this to your advantage when attracting this group of travellers.

It would also be a good idea to incorporate as much of your local culture into your hotel as possible to immerse guests in the experience. Standing out as a unique property will go a long way to attracting millennials, as will the presence of a vibrant common area.

4. Don’t discount the value of little gifts

Millennials are constantly wanting to share their experiences and tell their travel stories, especially on social media. Give them a reason to post a perfect picture on Instagram or share a nice moment on TikTok.

One way to do this is by leaving gifts on the bed or elsewhere in the room. Be it a box of chocolates, champagne, or flowers, it’s little details like this that millennials will look out for and broadcast to their peers online. Who knows, you could go viral.

5. Entice millennials with attractive deals

While millennials are ready and willing to spend money on travel, they’re always on the lookout for a good deal, and are happy to share them too.

Use promotions and package deals to further enhance the offer your property can make to them. Value is something they actively seek out so any perceived extra you can give them increases your chances of capturing a booking. For example, a discount when booking for a group could encourage millennials to get more friends together for a trip.

6. Align yourself with their preferences

Research amongst millennials reveals that they would like to use the following services through their smartphones when they stay in a hotel:

• Room service
• Wifi
• Watch TV and movies
• Connect a device to the TV or speakers
• Check in and check out
• Book external and internal facilities and activities
• Access the room

Utilising the best technology in the industry will help you accommodate their needs.

7. Encourage sharing and feedback

Give millennials every reason to share their experiences online with family and friends. Try to create ‘instagrammable’ spaces in your property or hold social events and activities that will make their stay more fun.

You should always remember to ask them to leave a review after their stay, because their peers will be checking these to help them make a decision.