Almost nine out of ten Hotelbeds bookings for European hotels originate in non-domestic source markets

Recently we conducted an in-depth analysis of our bookings data and we are pleased to confirm that 86% of our bookings for our European hotel partners come from non-domestic markets. 

Significantly, just over one third of those bookings come from non-European, long-haul source markets such as the US, Middle East, Japan, China and Latin America. Standing at 28% of total European destination bookings via our platform, that figure is up from around 25% in 2018.

What’s causing this growth? Certainly the impact of our 40% year-on-year increase in reservations from Chinese tourists is having an impact, with China now ranking as Hotelbeds’ sixth biggest source market to Europe.

Talking about this trend, our Managing Director Carlos Muñoz said, “We have always been able to offer our European hotel partners a very high and steady proportion of non-domestic bookings and within that a significant part has always been from long-haul, non-European source markets, such as the United States, Japan and Middle East.

“Not only do these incremental bookings complement a hotel’s distribution mix, they also provide them with high-value guests that typically pay a higher rate, cancel less, stay for longer, spend more at the hotel and even come back more often  – guests provided by B2B travel buyers such as tour operators, retail travel agents, airline websites and loyalty and reward points schemes. This is even more so the case with the long-haul bookings as they typically stay much longer and spend much more.

“But now the boom in Chinese visitors is pushing the percentage of non-European bookings even higher. We’ve worked hard over the last few years to raise awareness with our European hotelier partners on how to best attract Chinese travellers to their hotel, advising them on points such as not just language, but strategies such as social media, payments and even Chinese travellers’ tastes.”

To learn more about how Hotelbeds can help you attract even more such guests, speak with your contract manager today.