Valentine’s Day Helped Boost Global Leisure Bookings and Rates in February

According to Pegasus Solutions, the fact that Valentine’s Day fell on a Friday this year, helped boost global leisure bookings and rates in February.

Last month, online bookings for leisure travel rose +4.6% over February 2013, and rates climbed a solid +4.0% higher.

Increased consumer confidence and willingness to spend also contributed to leisure travel growth in February. Bookings through February show March arrivals down by -6.0% from last year, when Easter fell on 31 March, then rising by +8.2% over prior year in April.

Stays are expected to be booked at higher rates worldwide, increasing at a monthly average of +5.0% for arrivals March through June, potentially reaching close to +7.0% in April.

“Short-term shifts like weather, for example, and long-term opportunities like a holiday weekend make allocating inventory and setting rates a complicated science,” said David Millili, chief executive officer of Pegasus Solutions. “The hotels that benefitted most from February’s incremental demand were those that were able to ‘look-up’ from their on-site tasks long enough to increase rates accordingly for the Friday the 14th weekend. Looking forward, March presents an opportunity to seize more corporate business, while April will once again be optimized for leisure with the Easter holiday.”

Global corporate bookings, those made through the global distributions systems (GDSs), in February grew +1.5% over prior year, a slight jump from January’s growth of +1.0%. Rates paid for corporate bookings rose +2.5%. Due, in part, to Easter week, bookings thus far for business stays in March have increased by about +8.0% over 2013 before falling off by about -6.0% for April arrivals. Rates, however, will continue to grow, from modest levels around +1.6% in March to an average of +7.0% for trips taken April through June.

Data reported by Pegasus Solutions comes from billions of transactions processed for nearly 100,000 hotels and reflects historical and future data drawn from both GDS and ADS transactions.