We’re fast approaching one year since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, changing life as we knew it. The travel industry has been hugely affected, with consumers having to put holidays, time with family and far-flung adventures on hold. Love Home Swap wanted to find out from its members how they felt their experiences had been with the global home swapping platform during the pandemic, and how they plan to travel in 2021.
When asked about Love Home Swap’s service and reactivity during this period of crisis, the results were largely positive, with 70% rating over 5/10, and an impressive 22% of members voting the top score of 10/10.
Unsurprisingly for a community of travel-lovers, the survey revealed an ongoing thirst for travel. While many people stayed local when it came to holidays in 2020, over a quarter (28%) of Love Home Swap’s members travelled abroad, swapping properties in countries such as France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Budapest, Germany, Argentina and Dubai.
Casting an eye ahead, although 30% of members revealed they will plan trips 6+ months in advance, 23% said they were leaving things to the last-minute, and would book their breaks less than one month ahead of travel. This insight supports the emerging trends of consumers who are intending on booking last-minute trips when travel restrictions change, plus an uptick in those who are looking to the future, with travels planned for later this year.
Furthermore, 37% of members are considering taking longer trips in 2021, aiming to travel for 12+ days, with 67% wanting to travel for 7+ days at a time. When asked about their main criteria for future trips, the biggest priorities were free cancellation (62%), not being in a high-risk area for Covid-19 (52%) and being able to make last-minute plans (35%). 40% of members also want to avoid public transport and over a third (38%) will stay away from large cities.
Celia Pronto, Managing Director of Love Home Swap comments: “It’s really important to us that we’re listening to and learning from our members about their wants and needs, which is why we conducted this survey. We’re delighted that we received a largely positive response to how we’ve been running the service during this period of crisis – but we always want to push ourselves to do better, so we are looking at how we can do this. It’s also really interesting to hear about our members’ plans for 2021, and we can’t wait for restrictions to be lifted so we can help them fulfill their ambitions.”
Tags: Love Home Swap
