With the vaccine rollout well underway, the UK has commenced a comprehensive plan to reopen the local economy, with target dates to ease restrictions on certain activities.

This has not only led to a massive increase in airline bookings, but data from the Guestcentric Hotel CRS also shows a major increase in hotel bookings from British guests.

In addition, vaccination in the US is progressing at a good pace, and bookings from US guests are already very close to 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

12th Edition Highlights - Video Link

On February 23rd, one day after British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson announced the UK roadmap to reopening the economy, hotel bookings spiked to reach 76% of bookings over the same period in 2020. Meanwhile, the second week in March 2021 saw US hotel bookings exceed 2020 values to reach nearly 95% bookings over the same period in 2019.

These two examples indicate that consumers are ready and eager to travel again. It seems that a little bit of good news goes a long way to instill confidence and get consumers back in the air and into hotels.

However, this edition shows that the sentiment worsened, with an increased number of hotels is in complete shutdown and an increasing number of Hoteliers expect to financially recover to 2019 levels only in 2023.

But if there is anything we have learned from these times, it’s that the situation, and consequently the industry’s sentiment, can change rapidly.

Recovery depends on an array of factors from the number of new cases to how quickly we can achieve mass vaccination. Of course, there is still a long way to go until the whole world reaches ‘Life back to Normal’, but the light at the end of the tunnel is shining a little brighter each day.

What will the market and industry’s outlook be next month? You will need to take our survey to find out.

To get a head start with this, you can take our March 2021 Survey HERE.

Sincerely,

Pedro Colaco, CEO of Guestcentric & Editor of The Hotelier PULSE Report

GuestCentric is a proud provider of solutions that maximize direct bookings to hotel groups and independent hotels from collections such as Design Hotels, Great Hotels of the World, Leading Hotels of the World, Relais & Chateaux, Small Luxury Hotels and Small Danish Hotels. GuestCentric is featured on Skift Travel Tech 250, a list of the top 250 travel tech companies shaping the modern-day travel experience.

guestcentric.com