Household Digital Consumer Behaviour 2022

One in seven rented accommodation from a private person via a website or app

The sharing economy, also called the collaborative economy is based on shared resources, like a room, a service, reselling, a skill or a car, between individuals and facilitated by the internet, in its majority practice as a temporary exchange. Examples of these practices are Airbnb, Uber, My Taxi, Free Now, etc.

In 2022, just short of one in seven (15%) of internet users had rented accommodation (room, apartment, house, holiday cottage, etc.) via a website or app from a private person (for example Airbnb). This compares with just 4% of internet users in 2021 and 10% in 2020. However, although we saw an increase in the accommodation sharing/collaborative economy in 2022, people chose more so to arrange accommodation on a digital platform from a commercial enterprise (non-collaborative economy) such as a hotel, travel agency, etc. rather than from a private provider  – 44% of respondents booked accommodation in this way. Females were more likely than males to organise accommodation with a hotel, travel agency, etc. – 47% of females compared with four in ten (40%) males. See Table 6.1.

Just 2% of internet users engaged in transport collaborative economy activity by arranging transport from another private person (via a digital platform such as Uber, My Taxi, Free Now, etc.), compared with 1% of internet users in 2021 and 4% in 2020. See Table 6.1.

However, in the commercial sector (non-collaborative economy), over six in ten (61%) of respondents surveyed arranged transport from a transport enterprise (local bus, train, flight ticket, taxi ride, etc.) via a website or app in 2022, compared with 33% of internet users in 2020 and 18% in 2021. See Table 6.1.