Traveler confidence is up following promising vaccine news from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna.
According to short-term rental software provider Guesty, in the week following news of an effective COVID-19 vaccine, short-term rental bookings for Q1 2021 were up 6%.
Guesty, which analyzed booking patterns across platforms including Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and Tripadvisor, also saw a 3% uptick in reservation volume created within one week globally compared to the average weekly reservation volume in 2020.
Additionally, booking patterns showed a 7% uplift in reservation volume created within one week in the United States compared to the average weekly reservation volume in 2020.
Meanwhile, last-minute trips are still trending, but they’re on the decline, with 14% of bookings being made on the same day.
The majority of bookings (32%) are made within one to seven days of the booking itself, while 30% of bookings are made eight to 30 days in advance of the reservation itself.
Holiday trends
Elsewhere, Guesty finds that people are paying more and staying for longer periods of time for holiday travel.
Reservation volume in the United States for Thanksgiving is up 12% today compared to the same time last year. The average nightly rate is 3.5% more than it was last year, and the average nightly stay has increased by 15%, from four to 4.6 days.
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In the U.S., reservation volume for Christmas is down 15% compared to the same period last year, although there has been a slight boost in reservations compared to the end of the summer. The average nightly rate has increased by 13% and the average nightly stay has increased by 6%.
Globally, Christmas reservation volume is 38% lower than the year prior. The average nightly rate has increased by 20%, and the average nightly stay has increased by 15%, from 4.9 to 5.7 nights.
For New Year’s Eve, reservation volume in the U.S. is 20% lower today compared to last year. The average nightly rate is 3.5% higher and the average nightly stay is 20.6% longer, from 6.8 to 8.2 days.
Globally, reservation volume is 20% lower. The average nightly rate has increased by 7%.and the average nightly stay has gone up 41.5%, from 5.3 to 7.5 days.