Report shares state of homestay industry

A homestay industry report showed Beijing ranked second in the number of homestays in China, second to Chongqing and followed by Xi'an, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Monday.

Rooms, owners, environment, transportation as well as supporting facilities are what tourists paid the most attention to when choosing homestays, according to the report by Beijing International Studies University. Since homestays are non-standard accommodation facilities, most homestay hotels are incomplete in services other than accommodation.

It also showed searching for homestays increased year by year, and recently keyword searches for "homestay" appeared more frequently than "hotel". Products at homestays are popular among travelers.

The report indicated there exists a huge market potential in developing high-end homestays and currently economical homstays occupied a comparatively large market share.

Based on data analysis from 31 provinces in China, the report showed that male guests aged 20 to 29 years old were the main demographic of homestay users, and users in general are getting younger.

Airbnb, an online global homestay service portal, is popular among young users, the report showed. Travelers in family trips, friends and couples traveling are frequent users who prefer to choose homestays.