Even though peak season is drawing to a close, there’s still a lot of travelling on the horizon. The encouraging results from Q2 2023, coupled with our new initiatives developing in Q3 and beyond, mean that there are great opportunities for partners like you. We’re confident we’re in the right place to help you succeed throughout the rest of the year!
1. We’ve had a record-breaking summer
Q2 saw a 9% year-over-year (YOY) increase in rooms booked, while our gross bookings of $39.7 billion was a 15% YOY increase and the highest quarterly gross bookings we’ve ever recorded. In total, there were 268 million As Booked Room Nights (ABRN) in the second quarter of the year – an amazing figure. Both room nights and gross bookings exceeded our expectations, and this has been down to the overall strength and resiliency of travel demand.
There’s been a remarkable increase in room night growth in Asia this year (40%) now that COVID-19 travel restrictions have been lifted. It’s an exciting time for the APAC travel market, with travel confidence high across the region. According to our Traveller Confidence Index 2023 survey, Hong Kong, India and China were the top three countries and territories with travellers ready to explore the world.
Tip: Expecting a surge in guests from specific regions? Use Country Rates to boost bookings even further.
2. Travel is still a post-pandemic priority, with no signs of slowing down in Q3
Despite the ongoing economic uncertainty around the world, our data is showing that people aren’t choosing cheaper or shorter holidays than usual. In fact, Q2 2023 global room nights booked were up 26% compared to 2019 levels. Cancellation rates were also lower than they were in Q2 of 2019.
Across our major regions, July saw a YOY room night growth of about 20%. Due to the expanded booking window in the first half of the year for stays in Q3, it’s likely there will be fewer last-minute bookings for the quarter.
Tip: With travellers booking further in advance, you may benefit from setting up an Early Booker Rate Plan to fill up rooms faster and reduce the need for last-minute discounts.
3. The Connected Trip is gaining momentum thanks to the beta launch of our AI Trip Planner
One of the exciting initiatives discussed in our Q2 earnings call was the Connected Trip vision, which is gaining momentum. This is our long-term plan to make booking and travelling easier and more personal so that travellers have a less fragmented experience. At the same time, it will deliver better value to you and give better opportunities to personalise and promote your offerings. In the not-so-distant future you’ll begin to see incremental improvements to our platform that’ll help us with this vision.
We’ve always planned that artificial intelligence (AI) would play a large part in the Connected Trip. Generative AI will have an important role in responding to bookers’ needs and managing different aspects of their trips. We’ve also recently launched our own beta AI Trip Planner, which has been rolled out on our mobile app to Genius customers in the US. It helps travellers plan their trips by providing a rich visual list of destinations and properties, including live pricing information, with deep links to view more details on the options.
Tip: Make sure your property information is up-to-date and accurate to improve your visibility within the AI Trip Planner.
4. Alternative accommodation is showing promising growth
At Booking.com, we’re continuing to focus on our alternative accommodation offering. Room nights grew about 11% faster than our traditional hotel category. In total, alternative accommodation represented about 34% of our total room nights, which is up 2 percentage points on last year. We aim to build on this progress by continuing to improve the product for our partners, particularly in the US.
Tip: Put automation at the heart of your property management. Discover how to simplify your holiday rental operations.
5. The high volume of mobile bookings gives you the opportunity to reach a valuable traveller segment
About 48% of our room nights were booked on our mobile app in Q2, which is 6 percentage points higher than in 2022 and an all-time high in terms of the mix of bookings coming from our app.
It’s a great opportunity to tap into this valuable and expanding traveller segment by making sure you offer exclusive discounts for mobile bookers. If you offer an exclusive discount of 10% or higher for mobile users, a special badge will appear next to your property in the search results and on your property page, increasing your visibility to these travellers.
Tip: Activate mobile rates to stand out in search results and attract more bookings from mobile bookers.
It's been another hugely encouraging quarter for Booking.com and there are signs that it’s going to be a record summer season. There's great confidence in the long-term growth of travel and the opportunities ahead for you, as our valued partners.
- Q2 2023 saw increases from last year in room nights booked, with the highest quarterly gross bookings ever recorded
- Travel is still a priority despite economic uncertainty, with Q3 promising continued bookings
- Artificial intelligence (AI) has a big future when it comes to trip planning, with our beta AI Trip Planner already rolled out in the US
- Our alternative accommodation bookings continue to go from strength to strength
- Mobile bookings via our app are at an all-time high, giving you the opportunity to tap into this valuable traveller segment
