Tourist accommodations segmentation based on Booking.com attribute ratings. Are the adults-only accommodations different?

Abstract

As tourism has become one of the largest industries in the world, tourism companies have found the need to differentiate themselves through specialization. Consequently, several customer segmentation models have appeared in the industry, using variables such as age, group composition, and reasons for travel. Amongst these models, the adults-only accommodation model has recently become popular and is growing significantly. However, the academic world has not examined this option in detail. This article is one of the first to analyze this business model. To that end, we examine Spain and its primary main sun and beach destinations, comparing a sample of adults-only hotels with hotels without a similar restriction. Our results show that adults-only hotels have significantly higher online ratings than their equivalents. We discuss the implications of these results for academics and practitioners.