Average hotel daily rates paid for corporate travel in August were within 1% of those paid pre-recession in August 2007 and 2008 globally, according to data released today by Pegasus Solutions. The corporate market continued to rebound last month, narrowing a drop of -10% from last year for bookings in June to just -0.7%. Rates were down just -0.6% from August 2008, and up +0.3% compared to August 2007.
For the leisure market, rates sustained an ascent over 2011, but still remained off 2007 and 2008 levels by approximately 15%. Bookings for leisure travel, however, have increased more than 30% against both pre-recession years, according to David Millili, chief executive officer of Pegasus Solutions.
“The hoteliers I talk to are happy to see demand and rates generally making progress over last year, but they’re also hoping for a return to the levels we experienced five and six years ago,” said Millili. “The leisure market has seen demand gain ground as rates slowly creep back, and the corporate market coming the farthest from 2007 and 2008. Rates narrowed to within 1% of both years in August, as bookings against them grew by more than +20%.”
The leisure market ended the summer with global bookings up approximately +9% over 2011. Rates for the channel were up +1.1% in August over prior year, growing slightly slower over the summer than the +3.4% year-to-date growth pace. Looking forward, reservations are expected to level off before picking up momentum heading into the holiday season as rates remain steady. Conversely, corporate booking growth will likely ease over this period as rates stay firm through December.
Data reported by Pegasus Solutions comes from billions of transactions processed monthly for nearly 100,000 hotels, facilitating more than $16 billion a year. The Pegasus View, now produced quarterly, is the only industry report to reflect data drawn from both GDS and ADS transactions, representing the business and leisure markets respectively. The next edition reporting on the hotel industry’s performance for the third quarter will be released in October.
About Pegasus Solutions
Pegasus Solutions is the single largest processor of electronic hotel transactions, delivering advanced and affordable connectivity and distribution solutions to nearly 100,000 hotels worldwide. Pegasus connects hotels to crucial sources of business, facilitating almost $16 billion for its clients annually. In additional to foundational global distribution system (GDS) access and online connectivity, Pegasus delivers online, social marketing and booking solutions through its Open Hospitality division, industry-preferred global commission processing, and powerful reservation tools to convert and capture bookings. As a trusted partner in generating guest room demand and sales, Pegasus also offers hotels actionable business intelligence through its Pegasus View Market Performance reports to help hotels understand and respond to changing market conditions.
Pegasus has 18 offices in 10 countries, including regional hubs in Dallas, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, New York, Sao Paulo, Singapore and Scottsdale. For more information, visit www.pegs.com or www.openhospitality.com.
