Consumers used both 'new school' and 'old school' approaches to booking hotel rooms for business and leisure travel in Q2 2015, Millennials choose mobile, influencing how hotel rooms are booked.

According to data from the TravelClick North American Distribution Review (NADR; Q3 2015), mobile bookings through hotel company websites (Brand.com), online travel agents (OTAs) and in-person travel agents (global distribution systems / GDS) experienced the most growth.

The TravelClick NADR aggregates hotel bookings by channel for the transient segment (individual leisure and business travelers).

In Q2 2015, the OTA (which includes Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Bookings.com, etc.), Brand.com and GDS channels all experienced healthy growth in the transient segment, up 9.7 percent, 5.8 percent and 2.2 percent respectively.

Hotel Direct (calls made directly to the property and walk-in customers) and calls to a hotel’s 800-number (the CRO channel) decreased by -7.2 percent and -5.6 percent respectively. Based on reservations that are currently booked for Q3, TravelClick expects to see similar booking patterns when the quarter is complete.

“Mobile bookings are increasing at impressive levels, and we anticipate the trend continuing into the foreseeable future,” said John Hach, Senior Industry Analyst at TravelClick. “It’s not just millennials who are using their mobile devices to research and book rooms �" it’s happening across all major consumer segments. Interestingly, the GDS continues to demonstrate growth, especially with higher ADR bookings.”

Average daily rates (ADR) across all channels increased by 4.4 percent compared to Q2 2014. The GDS channel has the highest growth in the quarter, up 4.9 percent year-over-year.

Share of Transient Rooms Sold by Channel

The table illustrates the share of transient room nights by channel based on actual reservations.

For Q3 2015, transient average daily rates are tracking ahead by 4.7 percent, with Hotel Direct generating the highest ADR growth, up 5.6 percent. In Q3, ADR is also increasing 4.6 percent for GDS, 3.9 percent for OTAs, 3.8 percent for Brand.com and 3.8 percent for CRS.

The TravelClick North American Distribution Review is based on data for 25 major North American markets, comprising 227 million annual room nights and $36 billion in annual room revenue.

TravelClick_August NADR (Q3 2015)