New analysis from Savills and Vrbo reveals that internet access is not only the most important amenity for travelers when choosing to rent a vacation home but also for second home owners thinking about buying a new vacation rental.

For the Savills Second Homes Report Savills Research surveyed 7,800 property owners who list their properties on Vrbo in ten major markets (US, Canada, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, New Zealand and Brazil) alongside 6,800 travelers in the same ten countries who use the Vrbo platform for vacation rental bookings.

According to the Savills Second Homes Report, 64% of second home owners and 46% of travelers placed the highest importance when choosing a vacation home on having access to the internet, with any access being more important than high speed access, which ranked as the second most important amenity for over half (54%) of all owners responding to the survey and around a third of all travelers.

Other factors considered essential by owners vary by nationality. While 55% of Greek, 25% of Portuguese and 19% of Italian owners consider a balcony or terrace as essential, for American owners (47%), it's air-conditioning. British holiday home owners (30%) value access to a swimming pool and French (30%) look for reserved car parking. Looking at the preferences of travelers, parking, a patio or balcony and a TV are deemed most important.

Just under half of survey respondents who purchased a second home in 2019, did so with the intention of also renting it out on a short-term basis, instead of 'own use' exclusively as the primary reason for purchase.

Owners who choose to rent out their second home do so for a variety of reasons but a source of income and covering costs are the main drivers. Therefore, the health of the vacation rental market is increasingly important to these owners. The number of days a property is occupied and how this has changed is a good measure of the market, and the signs are positive. Across each country in the survey, a third of owners had seen their booking rates increase over the past year, while a further 45% said it stayed the same.