Duetto Pulse: Web shopping and new hotel bookings decline following new lockdowns

Duetto Pulse: Web shopping and new hotel bookings decline following new lockdowns

Latest market insights from the provider of revenue strategy systems to the hospitality sector

Duetto’s latest edition of the Pulse Report, which tracks data from October 19  to November 1, tracked a tough two weeks for Europe’s hotels, as various new lockdowns and restrictions come into force and take their toll.

Over the last couple of weeks Ireland, Wales, England, France and Germany have gone into second national lockdowns, while Portugal and Spain have seen several local lockdowns imposed across various areas.

These are the latest efforts to tackle the rapidly rising cases of COVID-19 that Europe has seen over recent weeks.

It has clearly made its mark on the data reported in the latest Pulse Report. November stay dates experienced a negative pick up (more cancellations than new bookings) across the region.

Cancellations were up 123% across the region for month. The pick-up for December and January was also very low, as consumers wait to see how events unfold in EMEA over the next few weeks before making plans for Christmas travel.

Bookings down for UK and Ireland

The UK and Ireland have reported a very low volume of bookings over the last few weeks.

With lockdowns now in place across the region, hotels can only remain open for key workers and essential and corporate travel.

For stay dates in November, the pace of new bookings dropped by 67% compared to the previous Pulse Report.

However, with the English lockdown due to end on December 2, it is interesting to note a 43% increase in new bookings for December and 138% for January 2021, as people’s hopes for travel begin to rise once more.

As pick-up continues slowing down across EMEA, the year-over-year business on the books deficit continues to increase across the region and now stands at -84% for November and -74% for December

For hotels in the UK and Ireland, the deficit accumulated against STLY sits now at -73% for November and -68% for December.

Although modest increases in web traffic show that there is still some appetite for travel in EMEA as a whole, it’s considerably less than the last report showed.

The previous edition of the Pulse saw an increase in web searches of 45% for November and 28% for December, in the current report the increase is just 27% for November and 23% for December.

When looking at Q1 2021 web searches, trends behave similarly. Over the last two weeks those increased by 22%, 24% and 13% for January, February and March 2021 respectively. Consumer interest in travel is being seriously hampered by the latest restrictions.

Juan Ruano, Duetto director of hospitality solutions for the EMEA region, said: “With the new lockdowns and restrictions in place, bookings and web traffic have slowed right down and in some regions for the mid-term at least, cancelations are higher than reservations. Even in Germany, where the situation has been relatively stable, things aren’t looking good. It’s definitely not been a good couple of weeks for EMEA.”

The Duetto Pulse Report is a bi-weekly report available for free to hoteliers from around the world. It tracks key metrics for North America, Latin America, EMEA and APAC. Subscribe here: https://www.duettocloud.com/pulse-signup