Global bookings edge past a quarter of 2019 levels

By Mike Ford, Founder and Managing Director at SiteMinder

  Posted 3 June 2020

Almost as quickly as we experienced the world shut down because of COVID-19, we are seeing the lights come back on for the critical industries of travel and hospitality, country by country. Globally, the volume of hotel bookings has now edged past a quarter of 2019 levels, to 29.62% YoY. What a difference a week can make.

Indeed, this same time last week, France’s hotel industry was looking at booking volumes at only 11.22% of 2019 levels. That has now almost doubled to 22.36% YoY, making France our fastest riser after a second phase of easing lockdown rules took effect this past week.

We also speculated that Portugal could become the first southern European country to re-emerge from the pandemic after hotel bookings jumped from 7.58% of last year’s levels to 20.89% in two weeks. That steep rise has continued, reaching 28.51% of last year’s levels and making Portugal our second-fastest riser this past week, behind France. Neighbouring Spain—which has endured the fourth-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world—is following a similar trend, with hotel bookings surging from 18.18% of last year’s volumes to 23.38%.

Other high risers are Australia and Germany, which have grown their hotel bookings from 33.91% to 44.10% YoY, and 32.51% to 40.18% YoY, respectively. In Australia, we may be seeing a newfound interest in travelling away from densely-populated cities, as Newcastle leads the country’s hotel bookings at 71.21% of 2019 levels, followed by Canberra at 47.58% YoY. According to OpenTable, seated diners at restaurants in Germany are up more than 30% from this same time last year, suggesting that locals are content to wine and dine for now.

Mexico has also accelerated, after the country’s hotels were able to reopen partially Monday. In spite of rising cases of coronavirus, bookings with hotels in the country have risen to over a quarter (25.97%) of last year’s volumes.

Alongside Mexico, Denmark and Vietnam are fast approaching the global average with hotel booking volumes sitting at 26.43% and 25.36% YoY, respectively. Meanwhile, Taiwan continues to lead with hotel bookings now just 10.24% away from reaching last year’s levels.

While Italy’s hotel bookings remain flat at 8.92% of 2019 levels, we may see movement over the coming weeks as the country yesterday opened its doors to British travellers.

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