The way we book our holidays and where we stay has changed dramatically since we all got the Internet. Any proof we needed has been amply demonstrated by some very pertinent tourism figures for Ibiza's busiest month, August.
Firstly, 22% less holidays were booked as package tours than the previous year, continuing a trend which has resulted in Ibiza having one of the highest proportions of independently booked holidays in Europe.
Secondly, even though there were 3% more visitors, Ibiza's hotels had around 13% less customers! Statistics point to the fact that more and more people are staying in 'holiday homes,' villas and apartments owned by friends or relatives or rented privately.
A few years ago hotel owners saw rental villas as the bête noire of the accommodation business in Ibiza as they were perceived as cheap, unfair competition to the hotels. These days the realisation has dawned that the decision to rent a villa is not based on price alone and that the two markets are extremely different.
For every reason that a villa is advantageous for one person, it's disadvantageous for another;
You have your own space and privacy, but you don't get to meet new friends.
You can eat when you want, but you have to shop and prepare your food.
You can lie in bed all day, but you have to make it.
And so on.
If villa holidays have a certain appeal to you then Spotlight has a selection of villas which are legally registered with the island's tourist authorities as holiday accommodation. From big to small, remote to not so remote and modern to traditional, there's a fair old choice, just take a look at our Villa page.