Long stays between 3 and 7 days account for 54 per cent of the global searches while stays above 8 days account for 20 per cent of the searches on travel portal Booking.com. The portal’s India business is back at pre Covid levels, and is already moving in the right direction towards normalcy.
With leisure travel making a strong comeback, the company’s April 2022 bookings are already better than April 2019 levels, says Booking.com
The online travel booking platform saw gross bookings at around $27 billion globally. March 2022 was the first month when Gross Bookings exceeded $10 billion in a single month, up by 17 per cent versus March 2019.
In India metro destinations have been among the first to pick up, while leisure locations such as Goa, Ooty, Mcleodganj, Manali, Rishikesh and Gangtok are among the popular summer destinations.
Its reported average daily rates at hotels are up, and people are choosing flexibility of stay where change of travel plans are possible; sustainable travel and longer stay durations are other upcoming trends. Hybrid models of work and leisure for a weekly or monthly period are also being witnessed, and it looks as if these will be here to stay..
Among some of the recent trends, Indian travellers have started looking up for pet-friendly accommodations and, accordingly, the company has opted to include a new filter in its booking window.