NATIONAL REPORT—At the end of November, Thanksgiving bookings were around 50% of 2019, while year-end bookings continued to be at 40% of last year, according to a report from travel technology provider RateGain.
Average weekly bookings continued to improve at the end of November, to 65,000, a 5% increase from October and a 9% increase from September. The progression also shows that bookings are now happening in a shorter window of 8-14 days as at the beginning of November bookings were at 22,000 and increased to 53,000 as Thanksgiving weekend approached.
The company reported that the average length of stay compared to 2019 has actually increased by about 20%. “As we get more bookings for November and December, we are seeing a marginal increase in length of stay by almost 5-7% nearing 3.5-4 days as compared to 2.75-3.25 days in the summer months,” said Chinmai Sharma, president, RateGain.
For the first time this year, ADR has come down from 2019 levels as demand continues to be soft and hotels look to increase occupancy with an average ADR at $114, lower than 2019 levels for the same time at the end of November because Thanksgiving was not a high-demand event.
“Our overall travel search and reservation activity by consumers has been subdued this year and has been trending at about 50% of last year’s levels for the last two quarters,” said Sharma. “The numbers are slightly better for leisure travel but much worse for corporate and long-haul travel. We had started to see gradual improvement in overall travel activity until the Labor Day weekend (especially drive markets and secondary cities) although the trend had flatlined again.”