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This summer, bulk bookings for hotel rooms have come down. Booking windows – the interval between booking rooms and the actual date of travel – have shortened in the leisure segment, hotels told Business Line . This has come down to 10 days compared to the average period of 25 days.
The slowdown-hit industry is pinning its hopes on the domestic travel segment this season. “Earlier, the bookings would happen on an average two to three weeks in advance. This season, it has come down to 10 days,” said Mr Sanjoy Pasricha, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts.
April bookings have had no negative impact, but due to the current trend in bookings, it is too early to predict bookings for May, he added. The situation has also been triggered by the turbulence in the aviation sector.
ITC Hotels, too, has seen a drop in bulk bookings. However, in the leisure segment, domestic travel was a a significant growth driver.
“2011-12 has by and large lived up to expectations pan-India with business destinations leading the charge. However, demand is yet to reach pre-recession period,” said Mr Dipak Haksar, COO of ITC Hotels.
Collectively, hotel chains had shown 10 per cent increase in the top line in 2011 compared to the previous year.
“Only the budget travellers may have been impacted, but not leisure travellers. Also, the outbound travel that has seen a slowdown has benefited the domestic travel sector,” Mr Pasricha added.
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