The travel industry shows signs of recovery as more people become fully vaccinated and desire to travel strongly. Google has shared data that the global searches with queries ‘travel to’ and ‘can I travel’ are witnessed to grow 100% and 800% respectively. Booking.com also sees the recovery of searches for stays on their platform. As a property listing your offers on Booking.com, you should look at some data-backed insights collected by this OTA and tips. Then you can make the most of this returning demand and get more summer bookings.

1. Growing searches for stays in June, July, August and September

It indicates that the search volume on Booking.com has bounced back to the same period of 2019. More than one-third of the current searches are about stays for this summer season. After the long stay-at-home period, people are more likely to have a strong desire to ‘escape from home’ and are eager to start their first trip ever since the pandemic when the restrictions are lifted. Thus, we anticipate that the summer months from June to September will be explosive with travel bookings.

Increase in searches for stays on Booking.com

Tips for property owners:

In order to capture the upcoming wave of travel demand, especially for summer 2021, you should:

1. Check your rooms/units listing on the extranet. You need to update the listing such as room name, types, description, amenities that you offer. Families will be major guests in this season. Thus, do not forget to have a policy and rate specially applied for children.

2. Load rates and availability for months in advance. In order for lookers to be able to book your rooms, you should load rates and availability for the listing. Travellers booking in the last minutes or in the early months ahead of their trips can be your potential guests. By extending the availability beyond the short-term, you can capture both of these types of bookers. Let’s say, 16 months in advance seems to be an appropriate period that you can set the clear availability for your property. Moreover, the occupancy level for each listed room along with relevant rates based on the added person beyond the threshold is also an element of the update.

3. Update policies. Any changes of policies such as property rules, booking deposits, or cancellations should be updated so bookers can be well aware of them before making the decision.

2. Flexibility drives booking decision

Booking.com has revealed that 90% of travellers are seeking to book with properties having flexible policies. The flexible factors here are about the ability to cancel the booking a few days or even 1 day before the arrival date due to a change of plan. People like the option and the volatile situation of COVID-19 has made this preference even stronger. If your property does not provide these policy types, you will miss the opportunity to gain travellers’ bookings.

Tips for property owners:

1. Offer flexible rate plans. It is going to be one of the best hooks to convert the bookings in high uncertainty. You can combine this with a non-refundable booking policy to limit the revenue loss. By applying this rate type, you can make your deal more attractive and stay in front of more travellers who usually search for this flexibility.

2. Modify the booking dates. Another way to balance between getting bookings and securing revenue is by providing flexibility in changing booking dates. For example, Booking.com gives you two options on their extranet – change reservation dates and request date change. The flexible date change can help you better respond to guest’s requests to reschedule their plans and reduce the cancellation rate.

3. Update policies. Any changes of policies such as property rules, booking deposits, or cancellations should be updated so bookers can be well aware of them before making the decision.

3. Increasing demand for longer stays

Booking.com states that they are receiving a higher number of bookings for 7 days and more than they did in the same period of 2019. According to Euronews.Travel, more travellers will take longer stay holidays as they choose to ‘work from holiday’ or work remotely.

Tips for property owners:

1. Add your long-stay rate. You should create long-term rate plans such as weekly or monthly rates to appear in these travellers’ searches and get more chances to attract them.

2. Highlight your facilities and amenities benefits. The long-stay guests tend to pay more attention to facilities and amenities at the property so make sure that you have all featured details in your listing.

3. Provide self-service and privacy.

4. Concerns for health and safety measures

Travellers are more sensitive to safety after the pandemic, which is shown through their preference for booking with properties having strict health and safety measures in place. Thus, you must build the confidence for travellers to book your rooms by making them know what practices are applied to keep your property clean and safe.

Tips for property owners:

Display your measures. Let’s ease your guest concerns by displaying your safety measures in the listing and this can help you get more bookings compared to those properties which don’t.

Update health and safety measures on Booking.com extranet

5. Major bookings through app and mobile

There is a significant number of travellers being active online through their mobile devices. More than two-thirds of bookings on Booking.com are made on mobile and travellers also book through its app.

Tips for property owners:

Add the mobile rates. You should not miss the reach to these huge potential guests by creating special rates for searchers on mobiles. This will give you the chance to capture 28% more mobile bookings.

Hotel Link’s Channel Manager helps connect your property with different OTAs in the world and support the promotions setup right on our extranet. Contact us for a free consultation.