US booking sites see strong demand for 2022 trips

March 18 (Reuters) – US booking sites including Vrbo, Hopper and KAYAK see higher demand for spring and summer leisure travel as COVID-19 eases restrictions and travelers seem to incur additional costs for airline tickets and road trips from rising fuel prices. .

“We are seeing strong booking activity for the spring break and the start of a very strong summer,” said Jamie Lane, VP of research at AirDNA, which tracks the daily performance of over 10 million properties on holiday rental companies Airbnb and Vrbo.

Oil rose above $ 100 a barrel as the Russian invasion of Ukraine shook world markets. But U.S. carriers including Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N), United Airline Holdings Inc and American Airlines Inc this week reported a sharp decline in travel demand after the blip caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant. read more

AirDNA data said that the booking rate for travel in the Northern Hemisphere spring is 49% higher than this time last year, and 26% higher than the 2019 pre-pandemic.

“The rush to book summer vacation homes will continue to accelerate in 2022,” Vrbo said in a statement earlier this month. The holiday rental booking platform reports that the demand for real estate has already exceeded by 15% last summer.

“When you review the booking data, it’s clear that Omicron was a bigger concern for travelers than the increase in fuel costs,” said Dakota Smith, Chief Strategy Officer at Hopper, a travel booking app.

The app, which is popular with young travelers, has seen a 50% increase in travel bookings since the fourth quarter of 2021.

Airlines are counting on strong demand to cope with rising fuel costs. Some airlines want to pass on a majority of this increase to customers.

“As gas prices reach record highs, jet fuel prices may not be far behind … this summer travel season could be an expensive one,” said Paul Jacobs, GM and VP of KAYAK North America. Air fares rose by 17% last week compared to the same week in 2019, according to KAYAK.

Rising fuel costs, however, will have less impact on domestic and short-haul flights, and there are indications that the pandemic-era preference of U.S. travelers for these trips will continue, and may remain so during the war in Ukraine, Hopper’s Smith said.

Hopper said US bookings in Europe have dropped from 21% of Hopper’s international bookings to 15% since February 12, with international bookings heading to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. These places now represent 61% of Hopper’s international bookings, according to Smith. Europe accounted for approximately 30% of Hopper’s international bookings in 2019.

Business trips and trips to urban areas still need to recover at pre-pandemic levels, according to AirDNA.

Investors will also get a different view on the recovery of leisure travel when Carnival Corp (CCL.N) reported earnings on Tuesday. Carnival on average is expected to post a loss of $ 1.21 per share, while revenue rises to over $ 2 billion, according to data from Refinitive.

Report by Doyinsola Oladipo, Editor of Rosalba O’Brien

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