Sydney, Australia – A new report by SiteMinder, the name behind the only software platform that unlocks the full revenue potential of hotels, shows the global hotel industry has been primed for a new era of travel after rises in international hotel arrivals in 2023 triggered a wave of changes in travel behaviour.

The report, SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends, based on more than 115 million hotel bookings, reveals that international hotel arrivals in 2023 rose by an average of 33% from the prior year. In spite of increased prices—the average daily rate jumped 11% from the prior year to US$192 globally—the rise in international arrivals saw travellers book their stays sooner, with the average lead time growing 20% to 36 days – longer than in 2019. Additionally, hotel arrivals during the first quarter normalised from 18% to 22%, providing hotels more evenly distributed customer volumes throughout the year and reducing their reliance on peak travel seasons.

SiteMinder’s chief growth officer, Trent Innes, says the findings highlight the need for hoteliers to be dynamic and cautions them against anticipating the return of known travel trends.

The annual SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report is the most authoritative analysis of the hotel bookings made by the world’s travellers. The data is based on the booking data of SiteMinder’s more than 40,000 hotel customers, which in 2023 used SiteMinder’s platform to secure more than 115 million bookings valued at more than US$45 billion in revenue.

Further analysis of SiteMinder’s 2023 data shows:

• The rise in international travel was spurred by the strong rebound of outbound Asian travel, with China’s Trip.com and Asia Pacific’s Agoda—popular among Asian travellers—rising the fastest among the year’s Top 12 hotel booking sources.
• Travellers did not book extended stays at hotels, with 81% of check-ins for only one or two nights. Only 3% of all bookings were for a stay extending one week or more.
• Travellers incurred the highest costs at hotels on Fridays, followed by Thursdays. In 90% of countries, the average daily rate was highest on Fridays, while Thursday was higher or equal (on one occasion) to Saturday 55% of the time.
• Hotel websites performed strongly as a revenue-generating channel. Collectively, they ranked higher in almost a third of the lists of the Top 12 hotel booking sources, when compared to 2019. Despite international travel’s strong return, they did not drop in ranking on any Top 12 list.

SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report is available here.