Based on its latest data, it says the trend relates to British holidaymakers travelling both in the UK and overseas.
Comparing summer 2019 bookings with summer 2018, the company says it is seeing a move away from short-stay bookings and city breaks, which tend to be in apartments, to 7 to 14-night stays in villas with private pools.
“Rather than booking cheap apartments for a short duration and doing multiple trips, we’re seeing British and Irish guests looking for a longer holiday and spending their money on a higher quality property,” said Danny Waine, commercial sales manager UK & Ireland.
“This might be for villas with private pools abroad, or holiday homes by the sea or lakes across the UK and Ireland.”
For summer 2019, short-stay bookings are down to 23% of the business compared to 27% in 2018, while 29% of guests are staying in four or five-star properties, up from 24% last summer.
The group’s Holiday Home Report also looked at destinations and found that the top four countries – Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland – are forecast to grow 26% combined this summer.
But it expects bigger growth in bookings to Croatia (76%) and the UK (122%).
The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece are also growing, based on figures so far.
“The growth seen in Croatia, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece is mainly due to an increase in sales of new luxury villa product, whilst in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium this is largely thanks to newly introduced Holiday Parks, which have been added in the last 12 months,” said the report.
