Airbnb Emerges as Top-Spending Travel Brand on U.S. TV in 2022

Online Travel This Week

Airbnb was the top-spending travel brand on U.S. national TV during the first 11 months of 2022 at an estimated $86.5 million, but it was merely the ninth most-seen among travel websites, hotels and motels, resorts and theme parks, cruise lines and airlines.

That’s according to an estimate from TV analytics firm iSpot.tv. This pertains only to TV ads that run nationally; the estimate is only covers the United States.

That Airbnb emphasized brand advertising on TV is not surprising. The short-term rental giant has been vocal about preferring brand advertising in its various forms, including online video and TV, to search engine marketing. In doing so, Airbnb sought to attract new hosts, and generate bookings from guests directly on its websites or app.

But it was a budget hotel brand, Choice Hotels, that attracted the most eyeballs so far in 2022 on U.S. national TV.

“After sitting out TV ads almost entirely in 2021, Choice Hotels spent $43.4 million this year (#8 in spend) and was the most-seen travel brand by a considerable margin,” iSpot.tv stated. “Same goes for Booking.com (#5 in spend), which spent more ($51 million) than Choice Hotels, but was seen less, with 6.81 percent of TV ad impressions on the year.”

Interestingly, Booking Holdings’ Priceline.com brand generated the fifth-highest number of TV ad impressions among all travel brands, but wasn’t in the top 10 among spenders.

Delta Air Lines was the second biggest spender ($72.7 million) and Expedia.com was third ($69 million), the iSpot.tv estimate found.

However, Expedia Group brands, namely Expedia.com (#3 at $69 million), Vrbo (#9 at $38.1 million) and Hotels.com (#10 at $32.3 million), collectively outspent Airbnb: $139.4 million for Expedia Group versus $86.5 million for Airbnb, the analysis found.

In a sign that it is putting a substantial effort into its push to take market share in the U.S., Netherlands-based Booking.com ran 159 more TV spots on U.S. national TV during the first 11 months of 2022, compared with the same period a year earlier, iSpot.tv stated.

Choice Hotels ran 139 more spots during the period compared with January to November 2021, and attracted the most eyeballs with 10.92 percent of all travel TV ad impressions. Booking.com, which upped its number of spots by 159, attracted 6.81 percent of ad impressions, and Expedia.com, which ran the same number of spots as the previous year, took third place with 6.61 percent of ad impressions on U.S. national TV.

Of course, in terms of Airbnb (#9 at 3.96 percent of TV ad impressions) attracting way fewer ad impressions than Choice Hotels (#1 at 10.92 percent), Booking.com (#2 at 6.81 percent) and Expedia.com (#3 at 6.61 percent), it should be noted that quantities of ad impressions are not the be-all and end-all. Advertisers want to attract the right viewers, and they want to engage them with their spots.

“Choice Hotels and Booking.com took very different approaches toward TV ad buying in 2022, as Booking.com leaned more heavily on — more expensive — primetime placements, while Choice opted for a richer mix of dayparts and simply airing more ads,” said Sammi Scharninghausen, brand analyst at iSpot. “Though Choice aired double the number of ads of Booking.com on TV, just 20 percent of impressions were in primetime — versus 32 percent for Booking.com. Additionally, Booking.com invested in ads during the Olympics, NFL and NBA games, while Choice leaned primarily on syndicated dramas and sitcoms.”

In other TV travel advertising findings, iSpot.tv stated that U.S. national TV travel ad spending rose 114 percent year over year to an estimated $861 million from January to November 2022.

The hotels and motels category was especially active, attracting 256 percent more TV ad impressions, iSpot.tv stated.

“With travel ‘back,’ brands flocked to premium programming to get in front of consumers; travel brand impressions during NFL games increased from 1.75 percent to 2.56 percent, college football jumped from 1.10 percent to 1.97 percent, and the NBA rose from 0.84 percent to 1.07 percent,” the TV analytics firm said.

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