Leisure bookings in October grew +9.2% over 2011 globally, as North America also saw a rise of+9.1%, according to data released today by Pegasus Solutions. Despite the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Sandy on October hotel performance in New York City and Atlantic City, leisure rates still rose by +2.9% worldwide and +4.0% in North America.

Entering the holiday season, consumers seized off-peak values for holiday travel by booking in October, avoiding the premiums of late November and early December. Despite a still sluggish global economy, resilience in the U.S. market and global numbers for October suggest a continued commitment to travel.

"October leisure bookings reached increases over prior year that were nearly as high as those seen this summer," said David Millili, chief executive officer of Pegasus Solutions. "And, we saw those rises not just in reservations, but also in rates and length of stay. If travel is a bellwether for consumer confidence, then October gave us something to hope for this holiday season."

Global corporate bookings also rebounded in October, growing by +5.3% over 2011. Reservations had hovered below prior year since April, dipping by as much as -7.9% in September. In North America, bookings increased just +0.8%, which was still positive growth not realized since April. Solid demand allowed corporate rates to stay just ahead of prior year by +0.3% in North America, as globally corporate rates held steady overall, inching within -1.6% of last year in October.

Data reported by Pegasus Solutions comes from billions of transactions processed monthly for nearly 100,000 hotels, facilitating more than $16 billion a year. The Pegasus View, produced quarterly, is the only industry report to reflect data drawn from both GDS and ADS transactions, representing the business and leisure markets respectively. Pegasus' recently introduced PegasusView Market Performance business intelligence is a monthly reporting product augmenting the global data provided quarterly in The Pegasus View.

About Pegasus

The new Pegasus is a game-changer for hotels, combining innovative technology with five-star support to give hoteliers more control over their revenue and distribution strategy than ever before. Following a recent merger with Travel Tripper, Pegasus now enables hoteliers to better connect with their guests through an innovative and flexible platform of Reservations, E-commerce, Global Sales, and Business Intelligence solutions that help hotels drive demand and increase revenue and profitability.

With more than 30 years of experience in global distribution, Pegasus serves hotels across 120 countries from eight offices worldwide in New York, Scottsdale, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Hyderabad. For more information, visit pegs.com or follow them on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Bill Taysom
Pegasus