discounted 4 and 5 star hotels booking well

5 Star selling well

4 star too

( Press Release )

Figures published today indicate that consumers are visiting accommodation specialist websites such as LateRooms.com and taking advantage of good value, high luxury deals, trading up while they can to enjoy the 5-star rooms at excellent rates.

Compared to January 2008, booking numbers for 5-star accommodation have risen by a staggering 99 per cent and 4-star rooms have seen bookings increase by 51 per cent.

New figures from LateRooms.com show that while Britain was entering a recession in January 2009, they enjoyed a 39 per cent rise in bookings compared to the same time last year.

Coupled with the fact that visits to the website rose by over 17 per cent in the last six months of 2008, LateRooms’ figures suggest that a new generation of savvy travellers are taking advantage of the wealth of great deals available.

Hotel relationships director Kathy Gwinnett said: “Getting value for money has rarely been as important in all aspects of life as it is now. Holiday-makers and business travellers are increasingly searching for great deals when booking accommodation. With a great range of deals available across the board, including in the 5 star category, figures show that customers are certainly getting impressive value for money when it comes to accommodation.”

2009 the year of the mega deal

Great deals available for hotel only.

Interesting times for hotel deal seekers. There are a number of mega deals available at the moment, partly because of the credit crunch, partly because of the marketing and PR value that hotels get when giving away hotel rooms for nothing or practically nothing . .

• HotelConnect are going to be unleashing a load of £1 a night rooms on Thursday 26th Feb at 10 :00 UK time. When they are gone, they are gone so get in quick. Experience with the mega deals at Lastminute.com and £1 rooms at The Hoxton in London leaves me with this advice :
  

1. Familiarise yourself with the HotelConnect website before the day so you know how to search.
2. Have your credit card ready.
3. Make sure you know which dates you can and can't go away, if flights are involved have an idea which dates cheap flights are available. Skyscanner might help you there.
4. Have a look at the terms and conditions of the offer ( I have copied them below )
   

• Lastminute.com is having regular sales with rooms as low as £10 a night. Stay tuned to HotelJungle and I will tip you off about the next one.
  

• An emerging trend in the travel industry is to let customers pay what they want for hotel stays. A new hotel in Singapore is doing just that for stays until mid - March.
  

HotelConnect £1 rooms Terms & Conditions :

1. The £1 rooms are available to book online only at www.hotelconnect.co.uk until sold out. 2. The offer is for room only in a twin/double room and does not include breakfast. 3. There is a maximum stay of three nights per booking. 4. One booking per person. If you do book more than one - there will be trouble and we will cancel the booking. The hotel and HotelConnect reserve the right to cancel any bookings which we suspect, with good reason, to be fraudulent. 5. A charge of £15 per person will apply to cancellations. 6. Any name amendments to your booking will be charged a £15 administration fee. 7. Bookings are not transferable. You may not change your booking to any other dates or hotel. 8. 5% online discount does not apply to the rooms in this promotion. 9. All offers are subject to availability and specific arrival dates and travel restrictions may apply. Prices subject to change. 10. These conditions are in addition to our standard booking terms and conditions which also apply and which you must read before booking.

Hotel of the future - from Germans

Hotel of the future

On a day when the British media was busy reporting some alarmingly dirty hotels courtesy of budget hotel chains in London and Manchester, Travel Industry Expert Alex Bainbridge tipped Hotel Jungle off about a hotel prototype.

Whatever you think of their sunbed tactics. you can always rely on the Germans to improve things. Check out the Hotel of the future - a 3 minute look by the BBC at a hotel room designed by Germans.

Features of the hotel of the future :

• Everything is rounded, no square edges - it's more relaxing.
• Great lighting, change the colour of the ceiling.
• A bed that rocks you to sleep, like a baby.
• Lemon scented steam machine in the bathroom.
• The room talks to you - a central computer, you can tell it to turn on lights and ask it what's for dinner.

C'mon British hotels - show the world what you're all about ! Let's start with 5 C words and build from there: cosy, charming, comfortable, characterful, classy ?

Online Travel Predictions 2009

Weak pound / Strong Euro will change favoured destinations but Brits still keen to go abroad.
Predictions from Lastminute.com press release :

As well as a shift to non-euro destinations because of the worsening exchange rate of the pound with the euro, Lastminute.com expects holiday durations to get shorter and anticipates a shift to more competitively priced hotel accommodation.

During 2008 lastminute.com saw a 21% increase in sales of all-inclusive holidays as consumers looked to budget for their holidays and as a result the e-tailer has increased its all-inclusive product range for 2009.

It predicts rising sales for non - € euro destinations such as Tunisia, (which they claim saw a sales increase of 71% in 2008), Turkey, Egypt, the Czech Republic and the UK. Destinations where the pound remains strong, such as Bulgaria and South Africa, are also expected to fare well this year.

Lastminute.com says it is already witnessing a shift from 14 day holidays to ten days and anticipates seven-night pacakges to be the quickest to sell out during 2009. During 2008 it reported a reduction in holiday durations of around two days.

The retailer has also reported a move away from five-star hotels to three-star properties in luxury destinations such as Dubai, but warned that while consumers are increasingly price-driven, they do not want to cut down significantly on hotel quality. Sales of UK hotels were strong in 2008, with Liverpool bookings up 100% year on year for the retailer, Scottish hotels up on average 42% and Northern Ireland up 48%.

TRI hospitality figures show 20% fall in profit

Comparing year on year, latest figures from TRI Hospitality Consulting show the profitability of UK hotels declined by almost 20% for November.

Income before fixed charges (IBFC) per available room fell to £43.57 last month from £53.88 in November 2007.

TRI blamed the decline on a ‘significant reduction’ in the volume of corporate and conference lets as businesses reined in their expenses. In addition, payroll costs as a proportion of total revenue rose by 1.6 percentage points to 28% last month, while revenue per available room dropped 8.8% to £66.94.

The revPAR fall followed a 4.3pp decline in occupancy to 73.4% and a 3.4% decline in average daily room rate to £91.16.

In London, IBFC per available room decreased by 14.6% year-on-year to £69.79, driven by a 2.7pp increase in payroll costs proportion to 24.6% and an 11% decline in revPAR to £95.52.

Occupancy in the capital was down 5.4pp from November 2007 at 79.9%, while average room rate dropped 5% to £119.58.

Meanwhile, provincial hotels reported IBFC per available room decreased by 24% to £29.60. Payroll costs proportion was 0.6pp higher at 30.5%, with revPAR declining in 6.5% to £51.71.

Regional occupancy dropped 3.7pp to 70%, although rates held up better, falling just 1.5% to £73.88.

The only major provincial cities to report increased profitability last month were Glasgow and Aberdeen. Glasgow benefited from the Celtic vs Man United UEFA Champions League match, the Scotland vs Argentina friendly, a UNICEF conference and there major medical conferences.

In Aberdeen, a combination of strong demand from the oil and gas industries and the limited supply of branded international hotels helped increase occupancy, rates and profits.

‘The overall picture is unfortunately of falling revenue and profit,’ said TRI managing director, Jonathan Langston.

But he added: ‘What is encouraging, however, is that hoteliers are maintaining their efforts to promote their businesses. Our survey shows that sales and marketing, a cost that is often the first to be cut, has not been reduced.’

TRI’s statistics are based on figures from 109 hotels in London and 398 in the regions.

British Travel Tastes Survey

UK travel consumers decisons are driven by price and more will plan a UK holiday as a consequence of the so called credit crisis.

A poll of more than 2,100 respondents by travelsupermarket.com showed that for most people (77%)price was the most important factor.

Other influences on travel decisions included location and familiarity, according to travelsupermarket, which said 59% have enjoyed a holiday destination so much that they have returned.


And a survey of 2,000+ people by Towergate Bakers Insurance revealed almost half (49%) of British parents are planning to take their children on a British seaside holiday.

It said a desire for nostalgic holidays as well as the credit crunch and environmental concerns were driving the trend.

Just over a quarter (27%) were planning a caravan holiday and nearly a third (29%) were looking to book a country cottage holiday, said Towergate Bakers. A fifth (20%) said they would go camping.

Demand for domestic tourism to surge

Britain’s seaside resorts will see a boost from domestic tourism in summer 2009 as cash-strapped families spurn overseas holidays.


A survey by insurance specialists Towergate Bakers shows that an estimated 65% of Britons will opt for a cheap UK holiday over the next 12 months to beat the credit crunch.

Paul Havenhand, Towergate Bakers Insurance marketing director, said: ‘We have noticed a return to popularity of traditional UK holidays. Young parents often have nostalgic memories of their own childhood holidays and this combined with the economic downturn will create a boom in UK holidays in the year ahead.'

The survey quizzed more than 2,000 UK adults about their holiday plans for the coming year.

It found that the most popular UK holiday choices were cottage holidays (26% of respondents); UK seaside town break (23%); caravan/caravan park (20%); and camping (17%).

Caravan holidays are the top choice of UK break for couples or parents in their 30s. For the under-25 ‘festival generation’ camping is the top budget holiday, while seaside towns are most popular among 20- and 30-somethings.

People in the Midlands, ie those furthest away from the coast, are the most likely to opt for a UK seaside break.

Thomas Cook growing Turkey & Egypt

Thomas Cook, Europe's number two travel company after TUI travel, has reported strong trading as consumers continued to book leisure travel despite an economic slowdown stretching household budgets.

Thomas Cook Chief Executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa told reporters the group has so far seen no evidence of consumers cutting back on holidays or trading down.

"The main holiday is a 'must have' item for consumers. In our experience, people will cut back on all sorts of other things before they cut back on their holiday," he said.

The group, created last year from the tie-up of Arcandor's travel unit and Britain's MyTravel, said trading in the 2008 summer season is strong in all markets and early indications show bookings to be ahead of last year for winter 2008/9 and summer 2009.



Thomas Cook said it is on track to meet its expectations for the current financial year.

The group said it has taken steps to increase flexibility for summer 2009 in capacity, accommodation, cost base, and fuel hedging. Fuel has been 92 percent hedged for 2008/9.

Thomas Cook and rival TUI Travel have been cutting capacity, stripping out unprofitable or less profitable routes, leaving them with fewer packages to sell and enabling them to avoid deep discounting on late bookings.

They have also been adapting their product offering to sell fewer packages to expensive euro-denominated countries such as Spain and Portugal and more in non-Euro countries such as Egypt and Turkey, which are rapidly growing in popularity. As reported here last month, Turkey is now in pole position as Britons favourite holiday destination.

For the Thomas Cook group Winter bookings to Egypt are 20 percent up year-on-year, with Turkey bookings up 13 percent.

Hotel Jungle Comment : One thing that hasn't been mentioned so much is that people tend to book their summer holidays very far in advance so to a certain extent, holiday companies won't have felt the full force of the economic downturn yet. Charter companies also tend to hedge their fuel and currency requirements far in advance so they have also been shielded more than most scheduled airlines by the raise in fuel cost and also the weakening pound. In a similar way, all-inclusive properties will book well in the future as consumers will be keen to set their holiday budget from the outset.

Last month, German carrier Air Berlin scrapped its takeover of Thomas Cook's charter airline Condor, putting the brake on attempts to create a rival network to Lufthansa. On this matter, Thomas Cook PLC has said, while talks are continuing with Air Berlin about the feasibility of an alternative transaction, it is pursuing other options for Condor. Sources familiar with the situation said last month that these could include a three-way merger with fellow charter airline TUI Fly and Lufthansa unit Germanwings.

British In Trouble Overseas

A total of 2,032 Britons were arrested in Spain between April 2006 and March 2007, a rise of 32% on 2005/06. The number of arrests in France over the same period rose by 42% to 153.

But based on the number of Britons travelling to a particular country, the likeliest destination to be arrested was Cyprus, followed by the US and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Foreign Office said that many of the arrests abroad were due to "behaviour caused by excessive drinking". A number of UAE arrests were due to the area's zero-tolerance policy on drugs which affected Britons transiting the UAE on the way elsewhere.

The country in which British travellers are most likely to end up in hospital is Thailand, with many hospital stays being the result of motorbike accidents.

In a separate survey, two thirds of British holidaymakers said they would be spending less on their foreign holiday preparations this year due to the credit crunch, leading to concerns that people will opt out of comprehensive travel insurance.

"This report highlights what can go wrong on holiday," said Foreign Office minister Meg Munn. "It is a reminder to all that taking out comprehensive travel insurance is a crucial part of your holiday planning and not something that should be sacrificed in order to save a few pounds. "Helping British nationals in distress overseas is one of our most important tasks but many of the problems faced by holidaymakers are preventable.

"By carrying out some simple research on the laws, customs and health requirements of a country in advance, many people could prevent their holidays being ruined."

UK Ski industry Trends

Austria enjoyed a significant increase in ski bookings last year, as wintersports customers turned their back on Andorra and Italy according to the annual ski industry report by Crystal Holidays.

Crystal’s annual ski industry report revealed that Austria’s market share of UK ski bookings in the 2007-08 season rose by 2.8 per cent over the previous year to 21.8 per cent, while Italy’s share fell by 1.8 per cent to 12 per cent and Andorra’s share slumped 4.1 per cent to 7 per cent.

France remained the most popular destination for British wintersports fans, with a market share of 37.5 per cent, up 0.4 per cent on the 2006-07 season.

Crystal managing director Mathew Prior said Italy had suffered from a poor snow record, but Andorra had bigger problems.

“Andorra has been really suffering, partly because of its uncertain snow record, but the biggest issue is that it has tried to change its mix of clientèle, moving away from cheap holidays, but has priced itself out of the market,” he said.

“Budget skiers have switched to Austria because it is offering good quality accommodation at good prices.”

The report was compiled from Civil Aviation Authority statistics and feedback from tour operators, and showed a three per cent increase in bookings to 1.23million in the season 2007-08.

Mr Prior said early bookings for December and January last year were slow because of the previous year’s poor snow, but soon picked up following snowfalls in October. There was also a five per cent increase in ski bookings from the schools market last year, due to there being two half term holiday weeks last season and an early Easter.

Villa price drop caused by all inclusive popularity

Cosmos ("Monarch holidays") has re-priced the majority of villas remaining unsold during the peak school holiday period to stimulate late booking demand.

Prices now start in Menorca at £298 per person, down from £469, based on eight sharing the Villa La Roca in Son Bou departing Gatwick on August 29.

Majorca prices lead in at £489 per person, down from £569, based on 10 sharing the Villa C’an Corro in Puerto Pollensa departing Birmingham on 26 July 26 for seven nights.

The Algarve starts at £475 per person, down from £535, based on eight sharing the Villa Casa dos Cipestres departing Gatwick on August 21. Prices include the villa, flights and car hire.

Villas are also available in the Costa del Sol, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Corfu, Crete, Zante, Cyprus, Turkey and Gozo.

Mike Tyerman, head of Cosmos Villas with Pools, said: “There’s no doubt that some customers who would normally book villa accommodation have this year chosen to opt for all inclusive hotel arrangements so that they can pay everything upfront before departure and not have to budget whilst away on account of the current poor exchange rate.

“As a result, we’ve been able to go back to our suppliers in areas such as Majorca, Menorca and the Algarve where demand has been less and renegotiate rates in order to be able to put much lower priced villa deals into the lates market.”

Hotel Jungle Comment : A significant factor could also be the large number of Brits with homes abroad and the rise of the low cost airline meaning people are making their own arrangements for villa holidays.

Turkey Topples Spain

Spain may have been crowned European Football Champions this summer but it seems they are losing their crown as Britains favourite summer holiday destination.. . .

Turkey has toppled Spain as the most popular destination for those looking for a bargain break in the sun, according to a report by The Cooperative Travel Group. The group says the high cost of the euro and reduced capacity to Spain following the merger of the big travel names is the cause of the shift.

Spain has held the number one spot for the bucket and spade brigade since the birth of the package holiday. The report says sales to Turkey are up 30% this summer compared to the same period last year while bookings to Majorca, previously the British holidaymaker's favourite, are down 13%.

It adds that the mergers of Thomas Cook and MyTravel and Thomson and First Choice has prompted rationalisation in capacity with operators reducing supply to short haul Mediterranean resorts. The report reminds that at the start of the summer TUI announced 12% cuts and Thomas Cook reduced Mytravel’s programme by 23%

Head of The Co-operative Travel’s Director of Retail Distribution Trevor Davis said: "Bookings from people looking for cheap summer sun have traditionally ensured that Spain was the leading holiday destination. However this year they are finding the high euro and a shortage of availability means the normal late deals aren’t available.

"Turkey has benefited most from this trend and we’re seeing 30% growth in bookings for holidays across all parts of the country." The company says that the average selling price of a holiday to Turkey is up to £108 cheaper than to Majorca (£357 compared to £465).