The Short Booking Window Is Not Only Holding Strong, It Is Increasing Share

The short booking travel booking windows that became the predominant mode of booking in the pandemic — for obvious reasons with lots of uncertainty around Covid & travel plan — are holding strong and in fact increasing in the 0-21 days window, according to the latest quarterly data from Expedia Media Solutions.

Globally, the 0- to 21- day search window saw the largest growth, with a 10 perfect increase in search share quarter-over-quarter, the new data says. The majority of global domestic searches in Q3 fell within the 0- to 30-day window. EMEA domestic search share for the 0- to 30-day window increased 15% quarter-over-quarter, as continued regional instability may be causing people to look for trips in the short-term, while LATAM domestic search share increased 10% quarter-over-quarter in both the 0- to 30-day and 91- to 80-day windows.

The charts below speak to the continued strength of shorter windows globally, and then breakdown by region and domestic windows vs international.

Despite the sustained popularity of shorter search windows, there are signs that travelers are beginning to plan further out. Regionally, travelers from EMEA and North America are looking at and planning travel for next year, as evidenced by share growth in the 180+ day search window, up 25% quarter-over-quarter in EMEA and 20% in North America. In APAC, the strongest share growth occurred in the 91- to 180-day search window, up 10% quarter-over-quarter.