Travel Trends: How Corona Has Affected Accommodation Search Behaviour

The Corona pandemic has undoubtedly changed and affected the travel industry, and the hotels and accommodation sector is no different.

The team working on Yandex’s search product have analyzed the number of search queries for specific accommodation types during the second quarter of 2020, dominated by the enforced self-isolation period, versus the first quarter of the year which was relatively unaffected.

The table below indicates the change in search interest for the various types of leisure and holiday accommodations:

 Leisure/Accommodation Type  % Change in Searches (Q2 v Q1)
 Health resorts/Spas  -34%
 Recreation centers  +54%
 Rental flats  +30%
 Boarding houses  -22%
 Hostels  -8%
 Home rentals  +114%
 Guesthouses  -33%
 Cottages  +169%

Key takeaway, private accommodation rentals such as flats and houses (think Airbnb type), and cottages is booming as travellers want to avoid shared facilities with those outside of their immediate social bubbles.

Dan Taylor
Dan Taylor is an experienced SEO consultant and has worked with brands and companies on optimizing for Russia (and Yandex) for a number of years. Winner of the inaugural 2018 TechSEO Boost competition, webmaster at HreflangChecker.com and Sloth.Cloud, and founder of RussianSearchNews.com.