About 50% of youth travel bookings are now made between one and three weeks in advance of the travel/stay date, according to a study.
Safe Travel Accommodation for Youth (STAY) WYSE Association, the trade body for the youth travel accommodation sector, conducted a survey among 2,231 Youth Travel Accommodation (YTA) operations across 100 countries.
The study reveals insights on the booking trend, profile of youth travellers, evolving trends in this segment and more.
Key takeaways from the survey include:
- 50% of bookings are made between one and three weeks in advance compared to the previous figure of 36% in the previous survey
- Less than 20% of bookings are made less than a week in advance
- 22% of bookings are now made between one and three months in advance, this figure was at 33% in the previous survey
- Length of stay has a direct impact on the booking window - eg, a shorter length of stay has a much shorter booking window
- YTA operators' main target customers are in the age range of 25-34 years, this segment of customers constitutes 61% of the total
- While 10% of YTA operators target the flashpacker market aged 35+, business travellers make up 11% of total guests and group travellers account for 17% of total
- 29% of hostel bookings are now made via third party websites. Hostelworld emerged as the most important channel for hostels and Hostelbookers (acquired by Hostelworld) secured a place in the top three. Booking.com also gained significant traction in this segment.
- Global average revenue per available bed in 2013 remains at €23.50 and the average bed occupancy rate remains unchanged at 59%
- 28% of respondents either have mobile applications or have a mobile-friendly website, and these respondents report a largest number of bookings via mobile channel
- About 33% of respondents are active on social media channels - 90% of are on Facebook and 43% on Twitter.
Related read
- Boom of global youth travel market - here
Survey methodology
- 2,231 leading Youth Travel Accommodation operations around the world participated in the survey between May and October 2013, answering questions about their business operations in the 2012/13 calendar year.
- Businesses polled account for 136,899 beds across 100 countries around the world. 62% of these properties were located in urban areas and 60% of respondents were hostels.
NB:Traveller image via Shutterstock