A REVOLUTION is taking place in hotel distribution with a reshuffling of the cards between different players and different sales channels, according to a new White Paper “Hotel Distribution and the Pandemic: The Travel Chessboard” from D-EDGE.
The paper studies the evolution of hotels’ online distribution mix, the evolution of average booking value, length of stay as well as focuses on cancellations.
In the context where hotel bookings are still globally well below pre-COVID levels (see graph below), its analysts pointed out these main findings.
• The weight of direct distribution (i.e. room sold via the hotels’ branded website) reaches record levels. The direct channel has even become the leading sales channel in Asia (41% of hotels’ online sales in Asia in 2021 are made via their websites)
• Amongst the OTAs Booking now accounts for the larger part of the market. Some large players, such as Expedia or Agoda, have seen their share shrink significantly while other players, such as AirBnB or local OTAs, have on the contrary seen their weight grow.
• Cancellations continue to represent a huge volume of transactions (on average, more than one reservation out of two is still cancelled) and underline the still precarious nature of recovery.
Download the White Paper here.
