Understanding the profile and motivations of travellers who choose hotels versus tourist rentals in major Latin American cities is key to designing destination strategies and to build a balanced, quality-oriented lodging mix, as highlighted in the latest report from Mabrian, the global travel intelligence and destination strategy partner.
Hotels remain the most popular accommodation choice for travellers visiting Latin America’s main capitals, but short-term rentals are gaining ground, attracting two very different traveller segments: high-spending international visitors, as well as domestic or regional travellers with more moderate purchasing power.
This is the central finding of our latest report, “El Alojamiento Urbano en América Latina: Perfil del viajero y preferencias” (Urban Lodging in Latin America: Traveller Profile and Accommodation Preferences). The study analyses demand profiles for hotel and tourist rental offerings available via the most relevant online lodging and travel agencies (OTAs), across eight Latin American cities —Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Lima, Quito, Bogotá, Medellín, Montevideo, and Rio de Janeiro—, based on cyclical data.
For the destinations analysed, this report “has strategic implications and provides insights into the need to define regulatory and product balance policies that recognise the complementarity of a mix combining hotel beds and tourist rentals,” notes Carlos Cendra, Partner and Director of Marketing and Communications at Mabrian.
The weight, relevance, and role assumed by each of these options in diverse destinations “must respond to the goal of capitalising on international markets with greater purchasing power, offering diverse alternatives for domestic tourism, and, more broadly, building a balanced accommodation supply, adapted to the destinations’ tourism development goals,” Cendra explains regarding the results of this analysis.
Strong Domestic and Regional Markets, Key to Lodging Demand
Our data shows that hotels remain the leading accommodation choice among travellers visiting these Latin American capitals, accounting for between 60% and 80% of stays in the destinations analysed. Montevideo is the city with the strongest hotel demand (87% of the total), and in almost all destinations hotels are the preferred option for both domestic and international visitors, especially for short stays and business trips.
Another noteworthy conclusion from the study is that tourist rentals are attracting a high-income international travellers, primarily Americans, who rent entire properties for couples, families and groups of up to five people.
Across all the cities studied, domestic tourism remains the primary source of lodging demand, with a particularly significant market share. Following domestic demand, one or two recurring international markets typically appear, most often the United States and nearby or neighbouring Latin American countries.
There are two exceptions to this demand pattern: Buenos Aires and Medellín. In Buenos Aires, short-term rentals and other more affordable alternatives are the preferred lodging choices for domestic travellers, with only 37% choosing to stay in hotels during their visit to the Argentine capital. Moreover, Medellín is the only city where an international market (the United States) ranks first in short-term rentals demand, followed by domestic tourism and travellers from Mexico.
“Natural” Segmentation to Meet Demand Needs
“Our study shows that demand requirements are creating natural segmentation patterns in each of these destinations, adapting the available accommodation supply and the specific conditions of each city to the needs of each traveller profile,” notes the Mabrian spokesperson.
According to the report, hotels are the most popular lodging alternative for couples visiting these cities, an option also preferred by business travellers: in fact, between 20% and 30% of hotel guests in the analysed destinations stay for work purposes. The most in-demand categories are 3- and 4-star hotels, although American travellers show a stronger preference for 4- and especially 5-star properties.
Short-term rentals are the most common option for families or small groups of 3 to 5 people, or even couples planning longer stays. Guests typically prefer entire properties (between 70% and 90% of the total), a trend more pronounced among international travellers. Another key finding is that, on average, 60% of tourist rental users report high or very high incomes, with a slightly higher share among international visitors.
Our data intelligence shows that “the accommodation mix in Latin American urban destinations is becoming increasingly complex and faces decisive regulatory challenges that will shape its future”, states Cendra. However, “at the same time, new hotel models and alternative accommodation formulas are creating opportunities—whether to attract emerging traveller segments, diversify carrying capacity, or even develop tourism in lesser-known destinations, in a more agile way.” To achieve this, Mabrian’s expert advocates for an “integrated, data-driven strategy is needed to establish the right balance between hotel accommodation and tourist rentals, based on evolving demand trends and the specific conditions of each destination.”