Regardless of whether your property caters primarily to business or leisure clientele, there is no question 2020 was a challenging year for travel. However, if the weeks since the COVID-19 vaccinations began are any indication, 2021 could see travel bouncing back bigger than ever.
While the leisure traveler is widely expected to lead recovery across the travel and tourism industry, business and conference travelers won’t be far behind. Even if you don’t consider your property a leisure destination, there is still very good reason to be optimistic. A recent article from Fundera points out what many independent hotels and resorts have realized over the past few years: “According to research by Expedia, more than 60% of travelers extend business trips for leisure purposes. This means that the destination matters more than ever. These so-called “bleisure” (business + leisure) travelers take an average of six business trips per year.”
Where exactly are these bleisure travelers heading? The same Fundera article goes on to list the top 10 business travel destinations over the past year. You may be surprised to learn that several notable tech hubs, like San Francisco and Seattle, didn’t even make the list. International business destinations New York and Los Angeles didn’t crack the top 5.
Suffice it to say that you don’t have to be a chain property in a big city to benefit from the coming business travel boom. Guestbook partner properties across a wide range of destinations are already reporting significant increases in 2021 bookings, and there is no doubt that pent up demand for travel will continue to rise along with the number of COVID-19 vaccinations.
So how should you prepare for this welcome wave of bookings? According to a mid-December article from Hospitalitynet, several emerging trends will affect recovery in the coming year. Among those, we found three that are of particular importance to independent hotels and resorts:
- Price still matters. While the travel demand is increasing, unemployment rates are still at record highs. Monitor your competitors closely and adjust your rates carefully.
- Pay Per Stay is intriguing. Google’s Hotel Ads bidding strategy/commission model could help many independent properties drive more bookers to their website while minimizing the risk and cost of advertising.
- OTAs will remain strong. Many hotels will continue to rely on bookings through OTAs but will pay commissions and losses in direct booking revenue.
As always, and as over 700 Guestbook partner properties around the world can attest, one of the most important steps an independent property can take is to optimize their website’s booking engine to capture more direct bookings. At The Guestbook, we look forward to enhancing our services in the coming months to help our partners capture even more bookings in 2021.
