The real advantage for Australian hotels now lies in understanding today’s traveller
Exclusive Op-Ed: Bradley Haines, SiteMinder's Market Vice President, APAC, says booking trends reveal guests are planning further ahead, demanding greater flexibility and making more considered travel decisions
For the past few years, much of the industry’s attention has been on demand – creating demand, sustaining demand and growing it. And, while that remains important, SiteMinder’s latest mid-year Hotel Booking Trends data suggests the bigger opportunity lies deeper.
At a time of rising costs of living and rapidly-changing travel conditions globally, the real opportunity lies in understanding how traveller behaviour is changing.
The data shows us that domestic travel is still going strong, making up 84 percent of all hotel bookings in Australia, up from 81.8 percent last year. This is the highest domestic booking share across the Asia-Pacific, as well as the largest year-on-year increase in the region.
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While international visitors remain an important growth opportunity, domestic travel has become a defining strength of Australia’s accommodation sector as travellers continue to prioritise regional escapes, interstate holidays and short breaks.
Importantly, though, the data shows that travellers aren’t slowing down. Instead, they’re becoming more deliberate in how they plan and book their trips.
Hotel bookings are projected to grow by 5.6 percent between June and September this year, compared with the same period last year, placing Australia among the strongest-performing accommodation markets in the Asia-Pacific.
Travellers are also booking further ahead and staying slightly longer, while hotels are achieving higher average daily rates than they were a year ago.
Greater discernment is heightening expectations from guests
The positive numbers are encouraging, but equally valuable is what they reveal: travellers are making more considered decisions about when they book, what they spend and what they expect in return.
They’re planning further ahead, looking for greater flexibility and thinking more carefully about value. For accommodation providers, understanding these changing behaviours is just as important as capitalising on strong demand.
For many travellers, holidays have become something they prioritise, even when budgets are under pressure and economic uncertainty prevails. But for hoteliers, it is vital to understand that attracting travellers is no longer simply about location or price.
Travellers today have more choice than ever, whether it’s boutique accommodation, short-term rentals, holiday parks or experience-led stays, and each presents its own unique value for an increasingly discerning traveller to weigh up.
Planning for flexibility
Another trend that deserves attention is how Australians are planning their trips.
Our data shows the average booking lead time has increased from 158 days to 160 days, the longest booking window anywhere in the Asia-Pacific. Yet, at the same time, cancellation rates have also increased from 17.65 percent to 18.98 percent.
I don’t see these trends as contradictory. Instead, they reflect a traveller who plans ahead precisely because it gives them flexibility later. Many guests are securing accommodation months in advance because they want certainty around availability and pricing.
At the same time, they are deliberately choosing booking options that give them room to change and adapt if personal circumstances, financial priorities or broader global events shift. In an environment where uncertainty has become part of travel planning, hotels can no longer treat flexibility as a commercial trade-off.
The strongest accommodation businesses over the next few years won’t simply be those capitalising on strong demand. They will be the ones that understand how quickly traveller expectations are changing, and adapt accordingly.
This, in essence, is dynamic revenue management in action. It’s recognition that a hotel’s revenue management strategy is inseparable from fast-evolving booking behaviours, rather than rigid policies suited for yesterday’s traveller, and demands the ability to act as fast as their guests are changing.
The good news is that modern technology can now give hotels both the intelligence to uncover these behaviours as they emerge and the agility to respond just as fast, adjusting distribution and pricing with confidence and offering the flexibility today’s travellers expect.
