France: occupancy rate in the tourism accommodation industry 2016-2017

In 2017, the type of tourist accommodation establishments which had the highest occupancy rate in France were hotels. Hotels in France had an occupancy rate of 63.5 percent that year, a number which remained stable, compared to the year before. If hotels keep being one of the most favored type of accommodation for holidays, it appears that other options are emerging.

Are hotels losing the fights against rented homes?

In 2019, France had more than 642,770 hotel rooms, of which a majority was located in the Parisian area called Ile-de-France. Hotels are a popular accommodation type for tourists visiting France. It allows a lot of services but could also be quite expensive for a long stay. Thus, it appears that in recent years, other types of holidays accommodation are becoming more popular. In a survey from 2016, only 18 percent of responding French people chose hotels as the type of housing they would prefer for their summer holidays. In comparison, almost 40 percent of those surveyed declared that a rented house or apartment would be the perfect accommodation for their holiday destination.

Hotels are favored for short stays

Even though rented houses are becoming more popular, it appears that hotels still have some kind of added value that tourists favored, particularly during short stays. In 2017, studies have shown that the average number of days spent in hotels in France was lower compared to other type of travel accommodations. In France, a visitor spent in average 1.8 days in a hotel, while they stayed 3.6 days in average in other short stay accommodations. In 2018, there were approximately 214 million nights spent in French hotels, an increase of almost five million nights with 2017.