Skift Travel News Blog

Short stories and posts about the daily news happenings around the travel industry.

Online Travel

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

1 year ago

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.

Online Travel

Phew! Travel Booking Windows Are Increasing Again

2 years ago

Fascinating data point from Expedia Group Media Solutions in its latest Q1 Travel Trend Report: the booking windows which had shrunk dramatically over the last two years of the pandemic uncertainty and low traveler confidence, is now coming back up, based on data from all across the Expedia network and surveys. This is a welcome sign of travel industry and more certainty of business forecasts.

“Growing traveler confidence contributed to lengthening search windows in Q1, with global share of searches in the 180+ day search window increasing 190% and the 0- to 21–day search window decreasing 15% quarter-over-quarter.

Regionally, shorter search window share in APAC and LATAM held steady between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022, while EMEA and NORAM travelers searched further out, with the 91- to 180–day search window increasing 140% and 60%, respectively. The lengthening search windows in these regions is another indicator that summer travel demand in the Northern Hemisphere may surge in 2022.”

Other data points on the booking windows:

  • In Q1, 60% of global domestic searches fell within the 0- to 30– day window, a 10% decrease compared to Q4, while the share of searches in 91- to 180–day window increased 80% quarter- over-quarter.
  • Global international search share for the 91- to 180+ day window increased 35% quarter over quarter, with the 91- to 180–day window seeing the largest gains.