After two years of pent up travel frustration, new flight and hotel search data indicate that consumers are planning to travel in the spring and summer of 2022.
NB: This is an article from OTA Insight
Despite lingering uncertainty in Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ongoing unpredictability surrounding Covid-19 travel restrictions, as many as 3 in 4 Europeans are planning spring and summer vacations to destinations across Europe this year.
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With high season fast approaching hotels across Europe have a chance to ensure they can maximise their bottom line, by targeting the right customer at the right time.
By implementing an effective commercial strategy at this early stage in the booking cycle, hoteliers have a unique opportunity to turn lookers into bookers, ahead of their competition, and still ensure they are selling their inventory at the optimum price.
Here we examine flight and hotel search data for Barcelona, Berlin, London, Madrid and Paris.
London
The arrival of the Omicron variant in London at the end of 2021 saw a massive drop in hotel searches – to levels as low as they were in March 2021. But, with restrictions easing for both arrivals and departures to London, there has since been a steady uptick in searches for both flights and hotels.
In fact, there have been 5 times as many flight searches as there were at the beginning of January, and OTA searches have increased 4 times since then. GDS searches have also picked up considerably, and are 7 times higher than what they were in January. The pickup in hotel searches from January gathered momentum quickly. However, like other destinations around Europe, the uptick was disrupted due to the conflict in Ukraine, leading to an instant 19% drop in flight searches at the end of February.
Momentum resumed in the second week of March, and despite all travel restrictions falling away since then, the pick-up in hotel searches has not quite reached the same level as it had been before the war broke out.
OTA and metasearch evolution London
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Search lead times have also shifted since March 2021. At that time, 73% of searches were for dates more than 90 days in the future. A year later, 31% of searches are for that same booking window. Currently, 37% of all hotel search traffic are for dates that fall in the in the 29 – 90 day window, up from 22% in 2021. While 10% of OTA searches were for dates in the 8-28 day window. And, while 10% of searches were for dates in the 8-28 day window in 2021, 24% of hotel searches are for dates within that booking window in April 2022.
