The Rise of the Slomads
I recently read a research paper titled “Slomads Rising” that analyzes the average STR stay length from 2015 to 2025, with the goal of understanding how COVID reshaped traveler behavior. The headline insight is simple but powerful: people are staying longer. The average trip length is stretching, and the share of 28+ day stays is rising fast. Even after the world reopened, travelers didn’t return to short, transactional trips. They kept choosing to embed themselves somewhere for real stretches of time.
The paper argues that this marks the rise of a new traveler type: the “slomad.”
These are remote workers, creative professionals, and slow-traveling guests who choose destinations based on how well a place supports their daily life. They’re not looking for a few nights of escape. They want a temporary home that can hold work, rest, routines, and personal rhythm. And they evaluate a property the same way a homeowner would: light quality, usable workspaces, durable materials, a real kitchen, and rooms that support both solitude and gathering.
This shift has enormous implications for micro-hospitality. When a guest stays for a month, the stay is only partly about leisure. It’s also about identity, productivity, well-being, and rhythm. Properties that aren’t designed to support real living—good circulation, acoustical comfort, functional layouts, outdoor rooms, real materials—simply cannot compete for this type of demand.
This is exactly where HUTS’ approach fits the moment. Even when we design small retreats or hospitality-oriented ADUs, we design them as homes first. That means spaces that can flex between solitude and gathering, rooms that actually work for working, durable materials that feel grounded, and site plans that invite people to inhabit the land, not just observe it.
Our hospitality projects are all based on the same logic. We’re not creating two-night novelty experiences. We’re creating places people can stay for a week, a month, or a season—places designed for slow living, personal retreats, and small groups looking for meaning rather than speed.
“Slomads Rising” isn’t a quirky academic insight. It’s a blueprint for where hospitality is going. As guests stay longer, they choose properties that are better designed, more intentional, and more connected to their surroundings.
