(Yicai Global) June 22 -- As Chinese tourists have begun to seek individualized and diversified accommodation, the transaction volume of China's shared accommodation market is growing rapidly.

A research report shows that last year, China's main shared accommodation platforms provided about 3 million units of domestic housing resources, and the transaction volume of the shared accommodation market was approximately CNY14.5 billion (USD2.2 billion), up nearly 71 percent year-on-year. This figure is expected to reach CNY50 billion by 2020.

Tourism cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, capital of the southeastern Guangdong province, Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province, and Chongqing are the mainstream shared accommodation market.

Last year, about 78 million Chinese people sought shared accommodation, including about 76 million lodgers, mostly young people, showed the report issued by a government research institute.

People aged 18-30 accounted for over 70 percent of the total, data showed. Home-owners providing shared accommodation were largely young people with high education degrees. The average age of these participating home-owners was 33, with nearly 60 percent of them women, and about 70 percent had a university degree or higher. 

Lucrative Market

The report predicts that by 2020, the transaction volume of China's shared accommodation market may reach CNY50 billion; the number of shared housing resource units will exceed 6 million; and the number of lodgers will exceed 100 million, along with continuous improvement in the service standardization level of the industry.

Shared accommodation not only meets the need for accommodation but also boosts other consumption demands for leisure, catering, entertainment, and shopping, and brings large number of employment and revenue increase opportunities, the report said.

A survey conducted by Airbnb among Chinese lodgers indicates that 32 percent of them are willing to spend money on local catering, shopping, leisure, and entertainment, apart from accommodation, and 84 percent would like to participate in local cultural tourism activities. All these can translate into increased revenue for local areas.

Shared accommodation also plays a significant role in expanding employment and entrepreneurship channels and increasing the incomes of urban and rural residents. Last year, there were about 2 million people who provided services on major shared accommodation platforms, including home-owners, housekeepers, and photographers; on average, for every new home-owner that joins in, two new part-time jobs are created, the report said.

Shared accommodation has become a new mode of accommodation, but there are still some difficulties in its development. The service standardization level of the shared accommodation industry still needs to improve, and a new innovative regulatory model is required, the report suggests.

As private lodgings are mostly owned and operated by individuals, there is a lack of strict rules and regulations. Shared accommodation platform enterprises have realized the importance of quality and have begun to advance the standardization and normalization of the entire service process, including real-name authentication, safety and sanitation and service training, the report added.

Editor: Mevlut Katik