Global ADR for both business and leisure hotel rooms continued to climb in January; following a record increase over 2010 in December 2011, January 2012 saw business rates grow close to 4%% and leisure rates rise 7% over January 2011.¹

Bookings, however, eased off levels from January 2011, a month that realized robust double-digit margins over 2010 for both channels. In January 2012, global corporate bookings dropped -1.6% while leisure bookings fell -5.0%. The only increase was for leisure bookings outside of North America, which increased +3.0%.

"While the data suggests a lull in bookings, rising rates in January were supported by strong demand," said Mike Kistner, chief executive officer of Pegasus Solutions.

"Comparison shopping for leisure travel in January 2012 drove the look-to-book ratio to a new high of 4,500 availability and information requests for every one booking made. In the past, this aggressive shopping has resulted in downward pressure on rates, but we saw rate growth instead. At the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles, I described the mood as ‘business as usual optimism' – for the first time in a long time, these numbers back that up."

Looking forward, global corporate bookings, those made through the global distribution systems (GDS), show bookings hovering near prior year levels through April, and potentially gaining momentum in May.

Opportunity lies in the group and meetings market, where increased activity is helping drive rate growth. Leisure data predicts promise for spring vacation travel as business on the books shows marginal movement from prior year in total through April, again with anticipated pick-up in May.

1 - Global busines rates grew by +3.8%

The Pegasus View reporting on January 2012 bookings is available online and by free subscription at www.pegs.com

Data reported in The Pegasus View comes from billions of transactions processed monthly by Pegasus Solutions, the world's single largest global processor of hotel transactions. It is the only industry report to reflect data drawn from both GDS and ADS transactions, representing the business and leisure markets respectively for approximately 90,000 hotels worldwide.