For marketers in the travel and hospitality space, the findings suggest that reputation built through guest experiences now carries more weight with Gen Z than traditional brand recognition.
Beyond reviews, Gen Z travelers also place a high value on practical amenities. Nearly half (48%) say features such as a pool, gym or breakfast influence where they stay. Free breakfast (56%) and free WiFi (50%) rank alongside loyalty rewards (48%), while social media influences just 12% of booking decisions.
The study also highlights several trends shaping how the next generation of guests book travel:
- Hotels lead but no longer dominate. Only 43% of Gen Z default to a hotel, while 27% say it depends on the trip and 21% choose Airbnb, leaving most of this generation open to alternatives on any given trip.
- Loyalty appetite grows with age. Interest in rewards programs nearly doubles across the cohort, from 13% among 18-to-20-year-olds to 24% among 25-to-29-year-olds, along with rising interest in upgrades, flexible cancellation and early or late check-in.
- Reviews and breakfast are universal. Both hold steady as top factors across every age band, making them table stakes rather than differentiators.
- U.S. and Canadian travelers diverge. Canadian Gen Z lean even harder on reviews (66% versus 57%) and are more likely to skip loyalty programs entirely (21% versus 13%), while U.S. Gen Z place more weight on free WiFi (57% versus 43%) and digital check-in (25% versus 12%).
- The trip itself is about meaning, not status. Beyond booking, 84% of Gen Z say the most meaningful trip is one that changes how they think, and 79% value experiences they do not photograph over getting great photos.
“Gen Z is one of the travel industry’s most important growth audiences, but many assumptions about how they make decisions no longer hold,” said Paula Catoira, chief marketing officer, Rival Group. “Reviews, recommendations and authentic experiences carry significant weight. Understanding why those choices are made requires ongoing conversations rather than occasional surveys.”
The qualitative findings underscored how grounded and practical Gen Z has become about where they stay. One participant described the ideal trip as “a great place to stay in a prime location,” while another pointed to “stress-free planning, making the most of my time and staying in a nice hotel.” The emphasis was on function, location and value, rarely on a brand name.
The study surveyed 878 Gen Z participants aged 18 to 29 across the U.S. (443) and Canada (435) from Rival’s proprietary panels in July and was conducted using Rival’s conversational research platform. It captured both quantitative and qualitative feedback in a single 10-minute conversational survey.
Tags: Gen Z Paula Catoira, Rival Group
