More travellers book on hotel websites

Booking by telephone continues to drop - a death knell for pay per call perhaps - while branded websites share of direct bookings grows...what does this mean for independent hotels that are not part of a large brand? Answer - get on a merchant website...

Travelers Head to Hotel Websites: "More travelers than ever are booking at hotels' own websites.



Last year, according to TravelCLICK, branded hotel websites gained share over third-party sites and opaque websites (such as Priceline and Hotwire). The volume of reservations made at hotels' own websites grew by 33% in 2005 compared with 2004...

TravelCLICK expects GDS to maintain a share of 30% or more of bookings over the next two years, but voice reservations will continue to decline because of consumers' increasing preference for booking electronically.

eTRAK shows that 35% of reservations came through GDS channels in 2005, while Internet sites also contributed 35%. Voice reservations accounted for the remaining 30%.

In total, over 61 million bookings were made last year for the top 30 brands through the GDS and the Internet.

Online bookings through merchant websites, such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, grew by 34% in 2005 compared with 2004, while Priceline, Hotwire and other opaque sites saw bookings fall by 10.2%."