US: TravelClick says that global distribution system (GDS) hotel bookings experienced a record year in 2018, generating more than 75 million annual reservations globally.
The company, which was bought by Amadeus in August last year, said the figure – up from 70 million in 2017 – was coupled with sustained increases in average daily rates (ADR), contributing to impressive revenue per available room (RevPAR) for North American hoteliers as they kicked off the New Year.
According to TravelClick‘s North American Distribution Review (NADR), in the fourth quarter of 2018, rooms sold through both GDS and Brand.com channels were up 6.4 per cent and 2.0 per cent, respectively, over the same time last year. However, OTA, direct and central reservation office (CRO) channels decreased by -2.3 per cent, -5.8 per cent and -16.4 per cent, respectively.
Across all distribution channels, ADR for Q4 2018 increased by 2.3 per cent over the previous year. The direct, Brand.com, CRO and OTA channels had the highest ADR growth in Q4, up 4.0 per cent, 2.7 per cent, 1.5 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively, year-over-year.
Distribution Share per Channel Q4 2018
• Brand 31.6%
• CRO 8.9%
• Direct to Hotel 19.3%
• GDS 18.6%
• OTA 21.6%
“Moving forward into 2019, the GDS channel should continue to provide solid ADR growth for hoteliers, particularly with frequent travelers selecting both retail and qualified rates,” said John Hach, senior industry analyst at TravelClick. “This trend could translate into an ADR increase of 3.7 per cent in the current quarter. But while there are indicators of increases in ADR performance, the outlook for advance reservation pace growth in 2019 shows signs of decrease, primarily with transient bookings throughout the majority of North American markets. Thus, it is imperative for hoteliers to look for pockets of demand generation in high-ADR channels for delivering optimal RevPAR performance.”
Distribution will be one of the topics discussed at next month’s Serviced Apartment Summit Americas which takes place in New York City on April 10 and 11.</p
