The online travel accommodation market is recovering but is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels: new yStats.com report.
The new report from Hamburg-based market intelligence firm yStats.com, “Global Online Accommodation Booking Market 2022” offers a comprehensive overview of the current state of the travel accommodation booking market worldwide and details the booking channels leading the industry. Among other findings, the publication reveals that Booking.com accounted for more than one-third of the market share of online booking applications in 2021.
Global online accommodation market is recovering after COVID-19
In 2020, the global online accommodation booking market was among many industries that were impacted severely from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of online booking app users in 2019 reached a number in the billions before falling in 2020, decreasing to a number approximately half of what it was the previous year. Nevertheless, in 2021, the number of online booking app users recovered greatly but has not reached what it was pre-pandemic. As of September 2021, the share of individuals planning to purchase travel products, including accommodation, in the U.S., increased, compared to a year earlier, with hotel booking showing the greatest growth. Moreover, the hotel segment accounted for an estimated share of more than half of the total travel gross bookings in 2021. The gross merchandise value of the online accommodation market in China also recovered, increasing by an estimated value of more than one-third from 2020 to 2021. In Europe, the number of guests in short-stay accommodation booked through online platforms also increased notably, as spelled out in the yStats.com report.
Booking.com is the leading accommodation booking channel
Globally, Booking.com accounted for a share of more than one-third in the online booking accommodations market in 2021, and was the most downloaded OTA app in the first half of 2022. Moreover, as of June 2022, Booking.com was the website with the highest number of worldwide visits, coming mostly from the U.S., Italy, Germany, the UK, and France. It is then followed by Airbnb.com, Expedia.com, Hotels.com, and Agoda.com. In the U.S. Airbnb, Booking, and Expedia were among the most downloaded online booking apps from 2019 until 2021, and were among the top 5 accommodation and hotel websites in the country. In the Asia Pacific region, Booking.com was the distribution channel which generated the most hotel revenue in the Asian market as of 2021, and, in Europe, it was the leading accommodation website in the EU-5 by website visits in June 2022. Booking.com also ranked among the top 3 accommodation booking websites in all of Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and the Middle Eastern region, respectively.
