With 90% of Travelers Booking Flexible Rates for This Winter and Longer Stays on the Rise, Booking.com Maintains its Outlook on Long-Term Industry Recovery
As the travel industry sets its sights on the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, Booking.com is sharing key booking trends, including the importance of flexibility and longer stays, to help its property partners prepare for the winter season, capture bookings and continue to rebuild their businesses.
Confirming earlier optimism that while slow, recovery is on its way, Booking.com is seeing that more than one-third of searches on the platform are for the upcoming winter months, back in line with the proportion of searches seen at this same point in 2019.*
This measured confidence in recovery is further reflected in Booking.com research which found that 71% of accommodation partners surveyed are cautiously optimistic about the future of their business and 62% expect to see an increase in interest for travel in 2021.
This optimism is reflected in consumer mindsets too as two-thirds of global travellers (66%) are feeling more hopeful about travelling in 2021.**
90% of travellers are booking flexible rates for this winter. Validating earlier indications that travellers value the ability to change dates or cancel now more than ever, Booking.com has revealed that 90% of travellers are booking flexible rates for this winter.*
If you would like to learn more about how to easily convert some of your rate plans to being flexible click here.
* “Winter [months]” defined as stay dates between 1 June 2021 – 31 Aug 2021
** Research commissioned by Booking.com and conducted among a sample of adults who are planning to travel in the next 12 months. In total 28,042 respondents across 28 countries and territories were polled (including 1003 from Argentina, 1002 from Australia, 1000 from Brazil, 1001 from Canada, 1000 from China, 1002 from Colombia, 1001 from Croatia, 1003 from Denmark, 1002 from France, 1005 from Germany, 1004 from Hong Kong, 1000 from India, 1002 from Israel, 1000 from Italy, 1000 from Japan, 1002 from Mexico, 1000 from Netherlands, 1000 from New Zealand, 1003 from Russia, 1000 from Singapore, 1003 from South Korea, 1005 from Spain, 1001 from Sweden, 1000 from Taiwan, 1003 from Thailand, 1000 from UK, 1000 from USA and 1000 from Vietnam). Respondents completed an online survey in January 2021. stats credits: Booking.com