Despite indications from past studies that young travellers are important contributors to the tourism industry, very little is known about this segment. In response to the call for better understanding of young travellers, this study presents a comprehensive evaluation of the factors that influence travellers aged 18-34 when they make decisions about commercial accommodation. While many studies have investigated what commercial attributes influence selection by various segments, including young travellers, there is a lack of studies conceptually incorporating the why factor—that is, personal purchase motives and constraints. Moreover, comparative studies between destinations are lacking for all segments (Cave, et al., 2008). Without sufficient proof, it is not wise to assume that results from one destination can be applied to another (Callan, 1996). It was also established over three decades ago that young travellers are not homogeneous (Vogt, 1976). Therefore, with these issues in mind, this study also intends to analyse how the heterogeneity of young travellers affects their accommodation selection, and compare findings between the geographically and culturally distant locations of New Zealand and Malaysia. The data for this study were gathered via an interviewer-completion survey that was mainly conducted in the international departure lounges of three airports: Christchurch International Airport in New Zealand, and Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the Low Cost Carrier Terminal in Selangor, Malaysia. In addition, for wider coverage, respondents were approached at a main bus terminal, also in Selangor. In developing the survey, a small open-ended section for accommodation attributes was incorporated along with Likert scale questions, where the findings from the former supported the latter and gave more confidence in the findings. This between-method triangulation approach revealed the possibility that green/environmentally friendly accommodation may be overly emphasised and need more reviews and validation if implemented by accommodation providers. Also revealed was the viability of including a presently overlooked attribute, ‘variety of facilities/services’, in future studies and its implementation by accommodation providers. A number of statistical tests were employed to analyse the data, from a basic descriptive analysis to pair-wise and independent t-tests and ANOVA using SPSS software, as well as linear structural equation modelling using AMOS software. As part of the framing process, the descriptive analysis provided the foundation for a comprehensive analysis by ranking the aggregated average mean values of dependent variables such as attributes location and cleanliness. The results showed that young travellers to Malaysia had stronger demands than those to New Zealand. Pair-wise t-tests were used to group dependent variables with the same intensity levels into ranked bands. Through this method, easy-to-understand bands indicating the intensity of the dependent variables influencing selections were…