Amadeus share their February data findings with us

Preparing for reopening: how to analyse booking behaviour to build strategies

At the time of writing, the staged reopening plans across the UK & Ireland were still not public. Despite this uncertainty, that’s not to say the only strategy to employ right now is the waiting game. Using Amadeus’ flight and forward-looking Demand360® data, they share what booking patterns they’re seeing currently. Using this data makes it easier to prepare for reopening – hopefully for the final time – and create strategies based on real-time information. 

Pay attention to how and where bookings are made

In order to understand how bookings are being made, first look at where they are coming from. Let’s start at the search phase. Amadeus partners with Google to track this behaviour, and data as of the 13^th February, confirms that the majority of searches are made within the UK. Moving onto booking behaviour, their data shows that Online Travel Agencies, direct bookings and tBrand.com are the most popular channels currently in the U.K.
Ireland demonstrates similar behaviour, but with Direct bookings taking the top spot. As a hotelier, this data provides important insight when it comes to creating or adjusting marketing and revenue strategies. This spread in booking behaviour shows the importance of displaying your properties across a mix of channels, in order to maximise visibility and booking potential. It’s also key to maintain rate parity, to avoid travellers choosing one channel or another due to price. If you’re looking to drive more bookings direct, consider building promotions that go beyond price, such as offers for longer stays, free breakfast or room upgrades. For more advice on this, download Amadeus’ complimentary Direct Bookings Playbook.

Secondly, with search trends indicating an interest in domestic bookings, focus your advertising spend during reopening within the UK & Ireland. As restrictions ease, keep an eye on how this trend changes to look at widening your reach across other countries.

Use lead times to adjust promotions

As you begin to plan for reopening, booking lead times will provide important insight into building promotions and adjusting operations, based on demand. Remember, Amadeus data is not predictive, but instead shows forward-looking on-the-books data that have been reserved. In the earlier months of the pandemic, lead times on bookings reduced dramatically globally, with the majority of bookings made within 0-7 days. Today, this trend remains for the UK with 59% of bookings currently being made with this timeframe. This is a clear increase on last year. However, almost a quarter of bookings are also being made over three months in advance. In Ireland, this trend is even more prevalent, with 44% of bookings made over 90 days in advance – double that of last year. It’s likely that last minute bookings currently are a result of quarantine or essential travel, however those bookings further out are an indication of traveller demand and optimism. Take advantage of this to build promotions that span the coming months, maintaining flexible cancellation where possible. As we get closer to reopening dates, keep an eye on how lead times progress to understand whether you should adjust your promotions to include ones such as last-minute offers.

Looking ahead to Summer…

Preparing for reopening requires thinking of where travellers might be headed. Amadeus have taken a look at what occupancy looks like for the months of July and August. As many of us remain cautious, occupancy still remains low for most places. Locations such as Carlisle, Dundee, Oxford and Plymouth all show occupancy levels of at least 20%. This contrasts to bigger cities such as London or Birmingham with single-digit occupancy during this time. In Ireland, Galway and Sligo come out top with occupancy of between 20- and 40% throughout the summer months. This unsurprisingly verifies that, once possible, travellers are looking for a break from city life, opting for country or sea air. If you have destinations in these locations, keep in mind that competition will be strong. Avoid focusing on lower prices, and instead look at other ways to make your property stand out from the crowd – what are your property’s selling points? What packages might appeal to your target audience? If you’re not in these locations, remember that everyone is ready for a break from the lockdown routine. Emotions will play an important role in attracting demand, so think of promotions that will appeal to this.   

If you’re looking for more guidance on reopening, on the topics of Marketing, Operations, Revenue Management or Sales, download any Amadeus’ complimentary eBooks for advice.

Our friends at Amadeus are planning a week of webinars designed to help you learn more about their solutions ranging from Reservations to Sales & Events Management.

In each of the sessions, a product specialist will provide an overview or demo on the solution.

For more information click here.