Global holiday leisure reservations expected to outpace 2011 season

According to Pegasus Solutions, leisure hotel bookings for the 2012 holiday season are expected to outpace 2011. These anticipated results follow November 2012 volumes that also surpassed the prior year’s.

Globally, leisure bookings increased year-on-year by a substantial +5.7% in November, which follows an increase of +9.2% realised in October. In North America, where the month heralds the start of the busy holiday travel season, bookings grew by +6.6% over prior year. Rates on the global level held steady, growing +0.6%, as North America saw larger gains of +2.8%.

“Our hotel clients are harnessing the power of e-marketing to drive bookings through mobile this holiday season,” said David Millili, Chief Executive Officer of Pegasus Solutions. “People are away from their office and their desktops, but they’re still accessing email on handheld devices. This means guests can take advantage of seasonal rates, or make plans for special events directly from the hotel’s branded communication, which links directly to the booking page.”

November’s global corporate bookings slipped from October’s spike of +5.3% over last year to just -1.7% under last year, yet remained favorable to the -2.8% decrease year-to-date. Rates improved slightly from October’s decrease of -1.6% to -1.4% below 2011 in November.

North American corporate bookings remained within -3.3% of prior year, which was accompanied by a rise in rates of +1.4%. Looking forward, the managed travel segment is expected to keep pace with prior year through January, potentially easing in February and March.

Data reported by Pegasus Solutions comes from billions of transactions processed monthly for nearly 100,000 hotels, facilitating more than $16 billion a year. The Pegasus View, produced quarterly, reflects data drawn from both GDS and ADS transactions, representing the business and leisure markets respectively.