How Have Guest Behaviour Trends Changed in 2022?

“Lead times are definitely shorter, stays are getting longer, bleisure is becoming widespread, and hotel spaces need to be adapted for them. So, all trends together, let’s take the example of a couple; they decide last minute to book a hotel (or a Short Term Rental), to spend a couple of days of leisure, and then extend their stay to continue discovering the destination while they work remotely. Therefore, it’s key to have common areas and spaces adapted to those profiles.”

“Consumer sentiments are evolving as the world begins to reopen. Despite this, consumer optimism remains muted and spending intent is still questionable, and this affects consumer behaviour in travel.

As many consumers still foresee a prolonged period of financial uncertainty, they will continue focusing their spending largely on essentials while reducing discretionary spending such as travel, and in many instances, trading down for value. This mindset will definitely influence pricing decisions amongst mid-range and lower high-end properties for some time to come.

Consumers will seek flexible reservation terms, and coupled with the aforementioned uncertainty, this will mean shortened lead times & spontaneous travel to short-haul destinations. Long-haul travel will definitely take time to evolve.”

“As revenue managers, I think that the only truth we must believe is the constant change and the need to adapt to it. While during the pandemic we have seen booking windows shrinking, length of stays increasing and domestic markets booming; right now we are seeing that happening again but not only that. The comeback of the international market is increasing the booking window, and revenue managers find themselves dealing with two kinds of demand: short & domestic, long haul and international.

Pandemic restrictions are lifting but the political world situation might impact the travel trends so, once again, revenue managers must be flexible and ready to modify their strategy based on the situation. Making a forecast is challenging, but relying on data is always the right path to pursue.”

“Agility is the name of the game, coupled with rules and players changing frequently. Lead times have become ultrashort. There are more reservations about booking and pre-paying as things can easily get out of hand again. Whilst we are moving from pandemic to endemic, we need to be careful of how we think about demand. Pent-up demand was 2021 and now people are going back to their old ways with the one slight difference: this time they will think twice before booking and when they book, they want value for money.”

“We’re seeing booking patterns and trends that are reflective of what we saw back in 2019:

• Long booking windows
• Bookings from overseas customers
• Very long stays
• A lot of pressure on event dates (concerts, major sporting events, international conferences) with rates significantly higher than 2019
• Impressive return of MICE and large groups
• Spending power is much higher than in 2019.

It seems that Covid no longer exists for the market and we hope that no other variables (such as natural disasters, financial crises etc.) arise. For the hotels that have always remained open during the pandemic and that have always applied revenue management, 2022 promises to be significantly better than 2019.”

“Due to the ever-changing Covid restrictions that have varied from country to country (and sometimes even within a country), we have seen much shorter lead times with a strong Leisure focus. Social events like weddings have replaced some of the missing conference business.”

“I have noticed a fantastic pick-up for Q2 / Q3 in Amsterdam. One point to note here is that the majority of bookings received were booked on a flexible rate. This shows that the bookers still have a bit of uncertainty and prefer the flexible option, even if the rate is significantly higher. Another area of improvement that I’ve noticed is the increase in lead times. Guests are booking fruther in advance and are planning their trip anywhere between 1-3 months before arrival. There are still a few bookers who prefer to book at the last minute, but I am happy to see the trend moving away from highly competitive and dirt cheap rates for such reservations.

I have high expectations of recovery from the industry this year, but I still prefer to be cautiously optimistic as there are several external factors that might tip the scales.”

“The booking window has definitely shortened as everyone is waiting very last minute to make their plans. The LOS is getting to the level of 2019, however, the recovery is very slow. It depends upon your location as well.

While there has been less corporate travel, the staycation/leisure segment will be booming this year. Do not compare this with the financial crisis as now people have money and they were not able to travel.”

“In the Netherlands we have seen different things. Areas with great access to nature / coastal areas have seen spikes in their last minute short stay demand. Big cities have seen a major decline and will probably be the last to recover from Covid. Guests who travelled usually booked their hotel stay quite last minute and with a shorter length of stay. Currently, we see more bookings coming in with a longer lead time but still with a large part of domestic travelers.

As confidence returns, international travel will continue to strengthen. Implement an RMS to stay on top of your new booking patterns so you can act on time.”

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