The Shifting Landscape of Travel Bookings: Skift Research

03.09.2024 - 17:07 / skift.com / Varsha Arora / Skift Travel

The travel booking landscape is rapidly transforming, with direct bookings on the rise and reshaping the competition. What’s driving this shift? Skift Research explores these pivotal changes in our new report: “Direct Bookings vs. OTAs: Analyzing the Shift in U.S. Travel Booking Trends.”

Direct bookings are on the rise, driven by travelers’ preference for supplier websites over OTAs. This shift highlights the need for OTAs to adapt their strategies to stay competitive.

Travelers are increasingly using OTAs for research but opting to book directly. For instance, while 26% of travelers use OTAs to research flight options, a much larger share – 55% – ultimately books directly on airline websites. This 29 percentage point gap illustrates the “billboard effect,” where OTAs are crucial for initial comparisons but travelers seek perceived reliability, better deals, or additional benefits when booking directly with airlines. This underscores the need for OTAs to refine their value propositions to convert research into actual bookings.

While OTAs achieve Net Promoter Scores (NPS) that are on par with direct bookings and strong repeat usage, there is a notable gap in the effectiveness of their loyalty programs. Many travelers remain indifferent to OTA loyalty programs compared to those offered by hotels and airlines. This indicates that OTAs need to enhance their loyalty offerings to make them more appealing and engaging.

The report also identifies opportunities in promoting bundled services and catering to older travelers who prefer direct bookings. Aligning strategies with these insights will enable both OTAs and suppliers to meet evolving traveler expectations and drive growth.

Explore these insights and more in our full report. Download now to stay ahead in the evolving travel market.

Direct bookings are surging, reshaping competition and requiring both OTAs and suppliers to precisely target and understand traveler preferences.

This is the latest in a series of reports and data products that Skift Research puts out to help you analyze the biggest trends in the travel industry. Tap into the opinions and insights of our seasoned network of staffers and contributors. More than 200 hours of desk research, data collection, and/or analysis goes into each report.

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