Survey reveals 84% of Millennials love a good quickie getaway

SAN FRANCISCO – Now more than ever, consumers crave quick, bite-sized experiences to keep up with their fast-paced lifestyles, and travel is no exception. Nearly all Americans (90%) prefer short getaways of three nights or less vs. a longer vacation, with Millennials in particular fueling the dramatic rise of the quick getaway trend, according to a new survey by online travel site Hotwire.

 

Even more notably, Hotwire found it’s not just short trip durations that are trending amongst younger travelers. Survey results revealed that Millennials have no problem waiting until the last minute to book their travels, embracing both short booking windows and short trips with spontaneous, 2-3 night “quickies.”  In the past year, an overwhelming 84% of survey respondents between the ages of 23 to 38 have booked a trip one week or less out from their departure day, and 40% say they have booked the same day. However, not everyone is as spontaneous as this generation — the survey reveals nearly 1 in 4 Americans have yet to take a spontaneous trip. As experts in last-minute travel, Hotwire wants to make it easy for everyone to “make it a quickie,” and has ranked the country’s best cities for a 72 hour or less getaway. 

 

To create the “America’s Best Cities for a Quickie Index,” Hotwire analyzed more than 10,000 internal and external data points across 250 cities based on three factors: Best Bang for Your Buck (value-20%), Ease of Arrival (convenience-20%) and Things to Do (leisure-60%) to identify the top major, mid-size, small town, and itty-bitty cities that make it easy to get in and out while still finding great last-minute deals. 

 

Major Metropolises Population: 600,000+ Las Vegas, NV Los Angeles, CA  San Diego, CA Houston, TX  Dallas, TX  Philadelphia, PA  New York, NY  San Francisco, CA  Washington, D.C. Austin, TX

Mid-Size Must-Sees Population: 599,999 – 300,000 Atlanta, GA  Miami, FL Tampa, FL St. Louis, MO New Orleans, LA  Minneapolis, MN Cincinnati, OH Milwaukee, WI Pittsburgh, PA Albuquerque, NM

Small Town Favorites Population: 299,999 – 150,000 Orlando, FL Richmond, VA Boise, ID Salt Lake City, UT Reno, NV Chattanooga, TN Madison, WI Birmingham, AL Springfield, MO Spokane, WA

Itty Bitty Cities Population: <150,000 Newport Beach, CA Branson, MO Charleston, SC Sarasota, FL Savannah, GA Asheville, NC Palm Springs, CA Santa Fe, NM Wilmington, DE Monterey, CA

 

When it came to ranking the best cities for a “quickie,” these top 40 cities scored big in the following categories: 

– Lowest average hotel daily rate

– Lowest average airfare ticket price

– Short flight time (number of flights from top 50 U.S. airports that are 3 hours or less) 

– Short drive time (number of top 50 U.S. metro areas within 250 miles) 

– Shortest distance from airport to city center / downtown 

– Most number of bars and restaurants 

– Most things to do (sites and attractions) 

– Least number of rainy days  

 

“We love that people are becoming more flexible when it comes to booking travel, and that travelers are getting more comfortable with the idea that you don’t have to plan in advance to save money, since the opposite it true!” said Neha Parikh, president, Hotwire. “The typical Hotwire customer is super savvy and spontaneous because they know there are incredible last-minute deals to be found. In fact, more than 70% of Hotwire in-app bookings are within one day of departure! That’s why the goal of our Make it a Quickie campaign is to share with more people how simple it is to get away on an unexpected, amazing trip, for much less than they thought.”