Duetto Pulse Report: EMEA recovery hampered by sharp rise in cancellations

Latest data from revenue strategy specialist indicates impact of latest COVID variant concern

The latest edition of the Pulse Report, which compares data from November 2021 with October 2021, shows continued recovery for the hospitality sector across Europe with a healthy rise in bookings.

However, it is being hampered by a sharp increase in cancellations as concerns surrounding COVID-19 variants grow.

Positive Pick Up

Pick up has been strong across EMEA and the pace of new reservations in December for December stay dates went off the charts. Booking pace also achieved an increase of 56% for arrivals throughout 2022.

High Cancellation Rates

The positive pick up is of course great news for the recovery of the European hospitality sector, but it is dampened by the fact that the region also posted high cancelation rates for December stay dates – in fact, the highest of all global regions in the Pulse Report.

Cancellations remain high through to April 2022 as concerns surrounding the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, increase and wreak havoc on people’s plans for travel.

Appetite To Travel Still There

However, despite this it seems that those travellers who are cancelling reservations are still highly interested in traveling in the future, as consumer search trends on brand.com show a three-digit increase for arrival dates in January and a 72% increase in web traffic for all of 2022. This shows that appetite to travel is still very present.

Outdoor Properties Out In The Cold

Looking at accommodation types and how different asset classes are faring compared to one another, the Pulse data shows that in EMEA all-inclusive and resort properties are the most popular now, whilst outdoor-based offerings and short-term rentals fall behind.

Lloyd Biddle, director of enterprise solutions at Duetto, said: “We aggregated user forecasts for hotels running on Duetto, to glean some insights for the balance of 2021 and we found that performance across the EMEA hospitality sector continued to claw its way back.

“However, a sudden deceleration or change in direction appears to be a common theme for the region, as with all the global regions as 2021 ends.

“As we all enthusiastically look forward to a promising New Year, what does the forward-looking data from Duetto tell us? Reservation cancelation activity has ratcheted up over recent weeks, which should not be a surprise considering the uncertainty around the two prevalent COVID-19 variants. However, consumer interest in travel experiences is not waning as evidenced by high volumes of availability and price shopping on brand.com websites for stay dates throughout 2022.”

The Duetto Pulse Report is a quarterly report available for free to hoteliers from around the world. It tracks key metrics for North America, Latin America, EMEA, and APAC. Subscribe here: https://www.duettocloud.com/pulse