TravelClick Data Suggests that Hoteliers Need to Focus Efforts on Inventory Management as Pace of Bookings Levels Off
NEW YORK – February 17, 2015 – In the fourth quarter (Q4) 2014, online channels – which include Online Travel Agents (OTAs), hotel websites (Brand.com) and global distribution systems (GDS) used by travel agents – continued to grow in popularity among individual business and leisure travelers, according to data from the TravelClick North American Distribution Review (NADR; First Quarter 2015). The TravelClick NADR aggregates hotel bookings by channel for the transient segment (individual leisure and business travelers).
In Q4 2014, the OTA channel (which includes Expedia, Hotels.com, Bookings.com, etc.) experienced the largest jump in bookings, with a 12.7 percent increase compared to last year. Brand.com room night bookings (reservations made directly through a hotel’s website) increased year-over-year by 6.8 percent. The GDS room nights were up 4.6 percent. Hotel Direct (calls directly to the property and walk-in customers) and calls to a hotel’s 800-number, the CRO channel, decreased by -5.2 percent and -5.3 percent, respectively.
“These numbers reflect the trend that hoteliers are optimizing RevPAR through channel management and inventory allocation,” said John Hach, Senior Vice President, Global Product Management at TravelClick. “It is clear that hoteliers are maximizing their efforts where they can get the highest average daily rate (ADR), like through their own websites, dominant OTAs and the GDS channel. The TravelClick NADR data also reflects the fact that travelers continue to look online to book hotel rooms and we expect this trend to continue throughout 2015.”
Looking ahead, OTAs will continue to see strong ADR growth in Q1 and Q2 2015 which is tracking at 7.1 percent and 7.6 percent respectively, based off of reservations currently on the books. ADR for the second quarter is also growing for the other channels, up 3.9 percent for the GDS channel, 6.3 percent for the hotel direct channel, 4.7 percent for Brand.com and 4.5 percent for the CRO channel.
Share of Transient Rooms Sold by Channel
The table illustrates the share of transient room nights by channel based on actual reservations.
“The most recent results reinforce the need for hoteliers to closely monitor advance booking pace across all channels. This is especially important throughout 2015 as demand is not increasing at the same pace of the previous year,” said Mr. Hach.
