Sydney, Australia – A new report by SiteMinder, the name behind the only software platform that unlocks the full revenue potential of hotels, shows the global hotel industry has been primed for a new era of travel after rises in international hotel arrivals in 2023 triggered a wave of changes in travel behaviour.
The report, SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends, based on more than 115 million hotel bookings, reveals that international hotel arrivals in 2023 rose by an average of 33% from the prior year. In spite of increased prices—the average daily rate jumped 11% from the prior year to US$192 globally—the rise in international arrivals saw travellers book their stays sooner, with the average lead time growing 20% to 36 days – longer than in 2019. Additionally, hotel arrivals during the first quarter normalised from 18% to 22%, providing hotels more evenly distributed customer volumes throughout the year and reducing their reliance on peak travel seasons.
SiteMinder’s chief growth officer, Trent Innes, says the findings highlight the need for hoteliers to be dynamic and cautions them against anticipating the return of known travel trends.
“SiteMinder’s data shows that while travellers have regained their confidence and international travel is returning, as is traditional seasonality, traveller behaviours and preferences have changed. Today’s traveller is not the same traveller of years past,” says Innes. “We know through our data that travellers are booking further ahead than before. We also know through our own research that travellers are happy to spend money beyond the cost of their room, but that increased prices are forcing them to adapt by opting for package deals, as an example. It’s therefore vital that hoteliers are dynamic in the way they do business, to ensure they keep pace with their customers and understand how every customer touchpoint is a revenue opportunity.”
The annual SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report is the most authoritative analysis of the hotel bookings made by the world’s travellers. The data is based on the booking data of SiteMinder’s more than 40,000 hotel customers, which in 2023 used SiteMinder’s platform to secure more than 115 million bookings valued at more than US$45 billion in revenue.
Further analysis of SiteMinder’s 2023 data shows:
- The rise in international travel was spurred by the strong rebound of outbound Asian travel, with China’s Trip.com and Asia Pacific’s Agoda—popular among Asian travellers—rising the fastest among the year’s Top 12 hotel booking sources.
- Travellers did not book extended stays at hotels, with 81% of check-ins for only one or two nights. Only 3% of all bookings were for a stay extending one week or more.
- Travellers incurred the highest costs at hotels on Fridays, followed by Thursdays. In 90% of countries, the average daily rate was highest on Fridays, while Thursday was higher or equal (on one occasion) to Saturday 55% of the time.
- Hotel websites performed strongly as a revenue-generating channel. Collectively, they ranked higher in just over a third of the lists of the Top 12 hotel booking sources, when compared to 2019. Despite international travel’s strong return, they did not drop in ranking on any Top 12 list.
“We have certainly entered a new era of travel. Not only are behaviours and preferences changing, but the travellers, themselves,” says Innes. “The global travel industry has long awaited the return of Chinese travellers and it is clear from our data that they are beginning to come back, alongside those from other source markets throughout Asia, such as India, Japan and South Korea. Hotels would do well to prepare for a change in the mix of travellers arriving at their doorstep, by revising their marketing strategies to reach the world’s fastest-growing travel sources and gaining intelligence on these potential customers to maximise their revenues.”
SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report is available here.
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About SiteMinder
SiteMinder Limited (ASX:SDR) is the name behind SiteMinder, the only software platform that unlocks the full revenue potential of hotels, and Little Hotelier, an all-in-one hotel management software that makes the lives of small accommodation providers easier. The global company is headquartered in Sydney with offices in Bangalore, Bangkok, Barcelona, Berlin, Dallas, Galway, London and Manila. Through its technology and the largest partner ecosystem in the global hotel industry, SiteMinder generates more than 115 million reservations worth over US$45 billion in revenue for its hotel customers each year.