Private Accommodation in Tourist Destination Offer – the Case of Dubrovnik

For a long time basic accommodation capacities represented the dominant type of accommodation in tourist offer, while at the same time complementary accommodation capacities were neglected. However, recently there has been a growing interest for complementary, substitute types of tourist accommodation, both in the Republic of Croatia and in Dubrovnik, where since 2000 a significant increase of over night stays has been registered, especially in private accommodation. In this paper rooms, apartments, studio apartments and holiday houses owned by physical entities are referred to as private accommodation. Private accommodation enables tourists to engage in everyday life of local residents, learn about history, tradition and culture of a destination. Thus, a tourist may experience and taste the beauties and attractions of a place, truly enjoy autochthonous products and services, as well as obtain genuine knowledge on authentic attractions and tourist offer of a destination. Inadequate offer of private tourist accommodation has negative influence when forming the overall tourist offer of a destination. Poor quality of accommodation units, unprofessional conduct of holders of tourist accommodation offer towards consumers and lack of interest for the needs and wishes of the consumer of this complementary accommodation have all contributed in creating a bad image on this kind of accommodation in tourist offer. Consequently, this paper aims, by analysing the consumers of private tourist accommodation, to point out the importance of private accommodation in overal tourist offer of a destination, to prove that private accommodation tourist offer attracts an increasing number of tourists, and propose to local tourist administration directives on how to create a more efficient procedure in order to ensure a more efficient and better quality administration of tourist private accommodation offer, aiming to improve the overall tourist offer at a destination.