If staying in vacation apartments used to be the choice of a "minority" in the past, now opting for non-traditional accommodations like apartments, villas, or guesthouses instead of hotels has undeniably become a fashion.
In March after the Spring Festival, many people choose this time to vacation in Sanya because flights are cheap and the crowds are relatively fewer. During the Spring Festival, this southernmost resort destination in China is almost fully booked across all hotels, with the entire city bustling with travelers who have come to celebrate the New Year, families after families from all over the country.
Alongside celebrating the New Year on the road, "opting for apartments over hotels" has also become a popular trend.
Sanya is the region where China’s vacation rental market started earliest and developed most maturely. Many property developments in Sanya are purchased by out-of-towners who don’t live there much themselves, but instead rent them out for most of the year. As a result, what you see most in every part of Sanya are real estate sales ads and apartment rental ads.
Tujia.com, a booking platform doing related business, also started in Sanya three years ago. During the last Spring Festival, Tujia.com saw record-high bookings in Sanya, more than double compared to the 2013 Spring Festival.
Sanya Tujia Yalong Bay Standalone Mini Villa
Weekend family trips drive growth from first-tier to second- and third-tier cities
Statistics from the National Tourism Administration show that the two fastest-growing segments in the tourism market are outbound travel and urban peri-urban tourism. Over the past decade, with the explosive growth of private cars in first- and second-tier cities, the potential for weekend family trips around these cities has gradually been unlocked.
A typical example: the Liu family, who live in Beijing’s North Third Ring Road. Both spouses work in companies, generally keeping nine-to-six schedules, with a child over five years old who is usually taken to kindergarten by grandparents. On weekends, besides tidying up the house and giving the grandparents a break, the couple also needs to think about taking their child out to play. Especially in a city like Beijing, only by going to the suburbs can they enjoy fresh air and let their child get close to nature. In the past, the suburbs only had scattered resorts and agritainment spots to choose from, but in recent years, the Lius have noticed that there are many more vacation homes—apartments or villas—in Beijing’s surrounding suburbs and nearby destinations like Baiyangdian, Qinhuangdao, and Beidaihe, which are within a two- to three-hour drive. These vacation homes offer good quality, plenty of space, and excellent value for money.
A reporter browsing Tujia.com found many vacation rental properties around first-tier cities. Around Beijing, there’s the Baiyangdian Meilu Villa, perfect for family weekend getaways and also suitable for colleague gatherings. Meanwhile, in second-tier cities like Hangzhou and Chengdu, there’s also a rich selection of vacation homes. For instance, near Hangzhou, Qiandao Lake offers the Suiyuan Villa; near Chengdu, Qingcheng Mountain has the Qingchengjun Villa.
Clearly, family weekend trips have become a shared choice for urban families in first- and second-tier cities.
Diverse themes make vacations more personalized
Besides the surge in demand for family weekend trips, another factor driving the popularity of vacation rentals is the shift in how people travel. Over the past five years, the mainstream travel style has transitioned from traditional sightseeing to deeper leisure travel. More and more tourists prefer to go to a destination they love, slow down, immerse themselves in the local life, and deeply experience the local culture and customs.
There’s no doubt that travel and vacationing are becoming increasingly personalized.
"To meet the personalized needs of travelers, we’ve launched many tailored products. For example, we have golf-themed vacation villas. You know, for people who love playing golf, the most frustrating thing is having to rush from home or the hotel to a suburban golf course early in the morning. But if you can stay near the golf course, you can leisurely have breakfast before heading out to play—the state of mind is totally different. We also have many other themed vacation homes, such as ocean-view series, hot spring series, and ski series," introduced a Tujia.com spokesperson.
Browsing related news, reporters also found that even more unique offerings like RV campsites, seaside cabins, and snow lodges are available on Tujia.com, and their booking performances are all very strong.
From vacation to business travel, Chinese accommodation habits are quietly changing
While meeting people's vacation needs, "vacation rentals" not only cover holiday-type stays but are also reshaping people’s choices for business travel.
Business travel accommodation options are generally divided into two types: short-term business trip stays and medium- to long-term project-based stays lasting over a week. For short-term business trips, employees usually choose star-rated hotels or budget hotel chains based on company travel policies, while for medium- to long-term project-based travel, traditional hotels cannot meet guests’ needs for cost-saving amenities like laundry or cooking, where serviced apartments have an advantage. Research reports from Analysys confirm this: data targeting users in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen shows that 33.55% of users opt for serviced rental accommodations for periods of 7–14 days.
A Tujia.com spokesperson stated, "In fact, for short stays of 1–3 days, our average booking data has been consistently growing. One possibility is that many business travelers, after experiencing vacation apartments, choose serviced apartments for business trips due to their great value, privacy, safety, and often convenient transportation."
This shows that from novelty to trend, vacation rentals are gradually becoming a sweeping phenomenon.