Holiday bookings for the year-end are streaming in earlier than expected for some Asian hoteliers, as consumers look to confirm domestic vacations and staycations as stand-ins for their usual Christmas and New Year’s Day trips amid continuing international travel suppression.
• Expatriates are driving staycation bookings as they seek replacements for holidays back home
• Relaxing resorts and inclusive packages most in demand
• Cautious travellers are also resulting in a late-booking trend
Holiday bookings for the year-end are streaming in earlier than expected for some Asian hoteliers, as consumers look to confirm domestic vacations and staycations as stand-ins for their usual Christmas and New Year’s Day trips amid continuing international travel suppression.
Avani Hotels and Resorts is already getting bookings for the holiday season even though the Asian domestic markets typically book one or two months ahead. The lack of festive packages at this moment has not stopped couples and families from confirming their accommodation bookings, according to Avani spokesperson Adhiyanto Goen.
A spokesperson for The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur and JW Marriott Hotel Kuala Lumpur told TTG Asia that enquiries on festive stays were coming in much earlier than the previous years, largely from expatriates planning to celebrate their Christmas and New Year in town instead of back home.
Early interest could have been driven by special offers for the festive season at both hotels, opined the spokesperson, adding that new F&B outlets opening at The Starhill luxury retail complex, which the hotels are part of, this year-end would bring additional gastronomic variety to the guest experience.
Long-term foreign residents or expatriates based in Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka are also credited for driving early bookings with ONYX Hospitality Group, according to president and CEO, Douglas Martell.
The early forward booking trend for the year-end has been picked up by SiteMinder’s World Hotel Index, published on September 21. Hotel bookings for the Christmas and New Year’s Eve period have spiked in multiple countries, including Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam in Asia; and Australia and New Zealand in the Pacific, noted the study.
“It seems the world is keen to end 2020 on a high note, and usher in a fresh new year,” said Mike Ford, managing director at SiteMinder.
Bookings are likely to further improve over the three months leading up to Christmas.
Adhiyanto is pinning his hopes on Thailand and Vietnam’s recent decision to facilitate long-haul arrivals soon, which could lead to a stronger festive period performance.
Cautious bookings
Early birds are, however, not flocking everywhere. Fluctuating state of infections are causing some travellers to approach their holiday plans with caution, leading to short booking lead times, a contrasting trend to the rise in early bookers.
Kristel Joseph, director of sales with The Majestic Hotel and Hotel Stripes, both in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, expects year-end bookings to be strong but dominated by late bookings.
“A key observation for 2020 is that travel bookings are made with even shorter lead times than the years before, with many consumers taking a wait-and-see approach with hopes that more borders might reopen,” said Martell.
Martell added that consumers are also investing in “more detailed research and asking more specific questions before they commit”. Those questions are streaming in via social media direct messaging platforms and phone lines – and at a higher volume than usual.
“It is important that we are ready to answer questions not just about our hotels, but the real picture of the area around us, such as whether a popular local cafe or restaurant is still open and whether their full menu is still being offered,” Martell told TTG Asia.
Among secured bookings, resort options and packages with F&B and activity inclusions are clear winners.
Joseph said a preference for room and dining deals are high as locals prefer to make full use of their time in the hotel.
Martell observed that there has been stronger interest in resort and coastal properties than city hotels, with up to 70 per cent of year-end bookings in Thailand going to resort destinations like Pattaya and Hua Hin. Inclusive offers as well as new and refurbished hotels are deemed most appealing too.
Offers everywhere
To stimulate greater domestic interest and bookings, hoteliers have had to take a different commercial tack.
Describing 2020 as a “year like no other”, Martell said ONYX Hospitality Group had to alter its commercial strategy to “balance the short-term opportunities from domestic bookings and staycation market in countries like Thailand, China, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, with (continued engagement of) the medium- and long-haul markets in hopes for an eventual reintroduction of international travel”.
Martell said: “While many of our travellers from the Western hemisphere have cancelled their bookings for the winter season, there are still a handful of optimistic consumers who continue to hold onto their bookings in the hope that travel restrictions will be lifted before Christmas.”
The Majestic Hotel and Hotel Stripes would be launching festive deals through digital marketing earlier than usual to score advance bookings.
YTL Hotels, which has never offered domestic deals for Pangkor Laut Resort during peak season, has bucked tradition to roll out residents package for a minimum stay of three nights this time round.
“Crafting strategic room and dining offers to cater to the domestic traveller is key in securing the business during the festive season, and a powerful marketing campaign is essential in ensuring success,” the spokesperson of The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur and JW Marriott Hotel Kuala Lumpur said.
Unfortunately, with offers aplenty and rates depressed to drive demand, hoteliers do not think that a strong performance this year-end would yield as beautifully as pre-Covid times.
