CHICAGO | TravelCLICK's quarterly eMonitor results indicate continued steady health for the hotel industry based on electronic distribution performance for the third quarter of 2007.

Key indicators of growth compared to the third quarter of 2006 are:

  • Worldwide electronic hotel revenue from the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and key Internet sites increased 16.4 percent.
  • Number of room nights booked through electronic channels increased 5.9 percent.
  • Average Daily Rate (ADR) increased by 9.9 percent.

Observations for the market based on this latest data include:

  • Electronic bookings and ADR continue strong year-over-year growth in nearly every segment and top destination market.
  • Luxury hotel room nights reserved through travel agents increased 12.3 percent and surpassed $370 per night in ADR.
  • Travelers continue to book short trips. The average length of stay for the third quarter 2007 was 2.12 nights, similar to last year’s 2.11 nights.
  • Hotel bookings through electronic channels are on pace to surpass TravelCLICK’s projection of 120 million room nights this year.

"2007 is on pace to be one of the strongest hotel revenue growth years of this decade," said John Hach, Vice President of eMarketing Products at TravelCLICK. "In the third quarter, the growth in electronic channels exceeded our high-end estimate, and we expect the fourth quarter to show similar results."

eMonitor results are compiled from TravelCLICK’s comprehensive proprietary database, which is the exclusive source of hotel industry electronic distribution data from the Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, and Worldspan GDS. The database of electronic distribution performance provides a comprehensive foundation for data analysis and trend forecasting that is used by the global hospitality industry in developing integrated distribution strategies.

Travel Agent Component

"Baby Boomers have begun retiring at a rate of up to 10,000 people per day," said Hach. "As a greater percentage of the aging workforce enters retirement, travel agents have a new opportunity to increase their relevance. Retirees require leisure travel guidance and destination expertise. This opportunity serves to reinforce the importance of traditional travel agents. We foresee GDS hotel bookings benefiting from this trend."

Travel agent bookings represented 76.0 percent of total room nights. The travel agent component of GDS bookings showed a 10.8 percent increase in ADR and a 16.6 percent increase in revenue compared to the third quarter of 2006.

Internet Component

Internet room nights, sourced from consumer online transactions on third-party websites powered by the GDS and Online Distribution Database (ODD), showed a gain of 7.9 percent compared to the third quarter of 2006. ADR was up 6.9 percent for Internet bookings, and revenue was up 15.3 percent compared to the same period last year.

Consumer Internet represented 24.0 percent of the total GDS/ODD ecommerce, up from 23.6 percent last year.

GDS Performance by Market Segment

Results for the third quarter of 2007 by market segment are shown below for GDS bookings only. All market segments show increases in room nights and ADR compared to the third quarter of 2006.

All segments show strong growth in ADR, with the luxury segment increasing from 9.0 percent last year to 10.6 percent in the third quarter of 2007.

Top Destination Markets

In the third quarter of 2007, London was the top destination market, with double-digit growth. All top 10 markets experienced strong ADR growth, with nine of the top markets generating additional room nights as well.

The top 10 worldwide destination markets in room nights for GDS and ODD-powered third-party websites, in order, were:

Go to for Q3 data by region.

For more data on worldwide electronic bookings trends, visit the Information Center of the TravelCLICK website at .

Some historical calculations may have been adjusted based on the most recent data.

About TravelCLICK

TravelCLICK () is the leading provider of emarketing solutions that help hotels sell rooms smarter and drive long-term profitability. TravelCLICK helps hotels maximize asset ROI by combining innovative market analysis and proven industry best practices with advanced technology to develop and implement high-return strategies. The company offers a full set of solutions, including reservations and distribution management, market intelligence-based decision support, and marketing services. Serving the hospitality industry since 1999 and headquartered in the Chicago area, TravelCLICK has more than 12,000 customers in 140 countries.

Katrina Pruitt-Andrews
+1-410-257-9154