NEW YORK, November 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Today Booking.com, part of The Priceline Group [NASDAQ: PCLN], reveals new data on the vast number and variety of bookable rooms available across the 820,000 properties on Booking.com, as well as the unique places guests have chosen to rest their heads over the last year. Booking.com's 820,000 unique properties have 21 million bookable rooms worldwide, making the website the #1 destination for awesome, unique places to stay. Within the last year alone, 285 million guests - the population of the UK, Germany, France and Italy combined - have stayed in these accommodations through Booking.com, and over 1 billion guests have stayed at a Booking.com property since the site was born.

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When it comes to sheer choice of places to stay, Booking.com paves the way with 30 different categories to choose from. From igloos in Lapland to rustic tents in South Africa and magical caves in the heart of Turkey, its breadth of diversity leaves no accommodation stone unturned. In fact, more than 70% of the total properties available to book are from all of the categories beyond the traditional hotel.

Feeling Wanderlust? Just give the globe a spin and take your pick. Over the last twelve months Booking.com guests have stayed in hotels across 214 countries and territories, vacation rentals in 197 and at other unique properties (all category types outside of hotels + vacation rentals) in 208.  As homestays, self-catering alternatives and other unique stays continue to rocket in popularity, 28.6 million guests turned to vacation rentals over traditional hotels and 68.5 million chose to stay at a range of other unique properties that include guest houses, ryokans, bed & breakfasts and more*.

Findings show that intrepid travellers are not afraid to get their feet wet with over 150,000 choosing to rest their heads in boat stays, or get their hands dirty with over 720,000 choosing a farm for their holiday getaway*. So where's best to experience your perfect stay? The following countries lead with the highest number of bookings for different types of stay**:

• Spain is the leading country for guest house bookings
• Italy tops the chart for the most bed & breakfast bookings as well as farm stays
• The UK has seen the most hostel and inn bookings
• Sweden makes a splash with the most boat bookings
• United States is the leading country for hotel bookings
• Japan has the most Ryokan stays
• Morocco takes the crown for the most Riad stays

As travel becomes more accessible, travellers are not only being more adventurous in their choice of accommodation but also their destination. Booking.com guests have travelled to 38,000 cities for hotels, 34,000 cities for vacation rentals and 51,000 cities for all unique categories*, worldwide.

"Reaching these significant milestones highlights the incredible number and variety of well-priced, great places to stay on Booking.com, opening a world of possibilities to match people's personalities, desires and ambitions," said Darren Huston, Chief Executive Officer for Booking.com. "Travellers around the world are seeking out local, authentic experiences and stays to match. In the last twelve months, vacation rental properties on Booking.com expanded 66% and other unique accommodations categories like boats, ryokans, guest houses, bed and breakfasts, etc. have grown by 32%."

For a uniquely frictionless experience, Booking.com lists properties and rooms in real time, ensuring that the availability viewed is the availability people can actually get.  Contrasting the model of other websites that offer unique accommodations, the experience on Booking.com isn't one of simply classified ads that requires a constant back-and-forth of negotiations with the seller.  All rooms on Booking.com are instantly confirmed at the moment of booking.  And unlike other similar sites that charge experience-seekers booking fees, Booking.com ensures a completely fee-free experience for travellers all over the world.  

Bookable Room Data:

   
    Total Bookable Rooms                                      21 million
    Total Bookable Hotel Rooms                                14.4 million
    Total Bookable Vacation Rental Rooms                      1.8 million
    Total Bookable Rooms in Other Unique Categories of Places
    to Stay                                                   4.8 million

Notes to editor:

*Data from the Last Twelve Months (LTM) based on double occupancy and pulled from stayed transactions of guests who were checked out as of the end of September 2015

** Data is all net of cancellations

About Booking.com:

Booking.com's mission is to help leisure and business travellers, whatever their budgets, easily discover, book, and enjoy the world's best places to stay.

It guarantees the best prices for any type of property - from small independents to five-star luxury. Guests can access the Booking.com website and apps anytime, anywhere from their desktops, mobile phones and tablet devices, and they don't pay booking fees - ever. Booking.com is available in 42 languages, offers over 820,000 hotels and accommodations including more than 370,000 vacation rental properties and covers nearly 84,000 destinations in 220 countries and territories worldwide.  It features over 60M reviews written by guests after their stay, and attracts online visitors from both leisure and business markets around the globe. With over 19 years of experience and a team of over 10,000 dedicated employees in 170 offices worldwide, Booking.com operates its own in-house customer service team, which is available 24/7 to assist guests in their native languages and ensure an exceptional customer experience.

SOURCE Booking.com