New bookings are filtering through as hotels around the world prepare to reopen, data from Duetto’s latest Pulse Report shows. The latest edition of the Pulse Report published on June 11 looks at data from the weeks of May 18-24 (week 12) and May 25-31 (week 13). Set against the backdrop of the lifting of stay-at-home restrictions in the United States and the first phase of hotels reopening in Europe, this data shows the first signs of recovery, with pick up (new bookings) showing week-on-week growth across the board.
This initial wave of growing consumer confidence remains predominantly short-term at present, with the majority of consumers looking and booking for stays within a 30-day lead time. This behavior is possibly a result of concerns over a potential second wave of COVID-19 cases in some markets.
“This new booking activity helps hoteliers understand what type of business is potentially out there in their market and how they can capture it,” explained Duetto Pulse Report Author Hannah Weller Barrise. “As certain regions start to enter the next phase of recovery, those new bookings will start to pick up. What will be interesting to see is when they are picking up for, what stay months, what lead time, what length of stay, and where they are coming from. There are many questions that come when you start to see an uptake in new bookings that we are excited to study.”
North America has seen aggressive growth in new bookings week on week, even compared to the same time last year. Week 13 saw a 31-percent increase in new bookings compared to week 12. The final two weeks of May saw a substantial increase in demand, with casino resorts proving the standout segment, as many announced they would be reopening in June. Casino resorts saw a 53-percent increase in new bookings in week 13 over week 12 figures.
Latin America saw similar trends in pick up in the last week of May. Week 13 saw a 65 percent increase in new bookings compared to week 12. The Pulse Report authors noted that Latin America saw a lot of short-term group pick up, especially for June 2020.
Data for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) also showed a positive increase in new bookings. Week 13 saw a 314 percent increase compared to Week 10 (May 4-10) in volume of new bookings for stay dates in June through August.
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (the DACH region) has seen mainly short-term movement with June showing a 483 percent increase in new bookings compared to Week 10 (May 4-10).
Similar short-term trends were also seen in the Asia Pacific region, where 64 percent of all new reservations were booked for stay dates in the next 30 days.
“As markets start to reopen the demand is going to be limited because restrictions on international travel will still apply. We also expect only certain segments will be driving that demand, which is going to be domestic and very focused on weekends to start with,” added Duetto Pulse Report Author Juan Ruano.
The Duetto Pulse Report is based on weekly web traffic data from hotels using the Duetto platform.
