Factors Influencing the Accommodation Prices of Romanian Rural Tourism

Abstract

The hedonic pricing model posits that the price of a given product or service is an aggregate of several distinct characteristics that define it. In the context of tourism, this approach can be used to assess the prices of accommodations in a given area or market. This study explores the main determinants of tourism prices in the Brașov area of central Romania, a county that ranked as the second most visited area in Romania in 2021 based on the number of arrivals according to the ordinary least squares regression model on a sample of 398 accommodation units of different types. The main finding of this research paper is that prices are strongly influenced by luxury amenities and that prices tend to rise in lower-population-density areas, which we associate with rural areas. As previously noted in the literature, monetary values can be assigned to incremental changes in the independent variables, with the most significant changes deriving from the inclusion of spa, sauna and restaurant services in the tourism offer of accommodation units.