Berlin, March 8th 2017 - Hotelbeds Group, the number one bedbank worldwide and a business-to-business provider of services to the travel industry, today announces at ITB Berlin that its Bedbank brands continued to outperform the German source market, growing above the market average for the year ended 31 December 2016.
Germany remained one of the most important source markets for Hotelbeds Group, where the company offers German intermediaries access to over 120,000 hotels, 20,000 transfers and 12,000 activities available in over 180 destinations globally.
As a destination for German travellers, Spain was the most visited country in 2016 with an increase of 26% in TTV. This was followed by the USA as a second destination choice, Turkey fell from second to third place as a destination for German travellers after experiencing a significant decline. Meanwhile other fast growing destinations for German travellers were Thailand, Greece, Portugal and Croatia.
The average stay for German travellers grew from 4.12 days in 2015 to 4.19 days in 2016, above the European average of 3.28 days. Greece recorded the longest average stay for Germans with 7.59 days, while the average stay in the UK by German travellers was 3.03 days. Despite being a long-haul destination, the USA average stay was only 3.24 days (this figure is surprisingly low because many Germans travelling in the US visit multiple-destinations).
Meanwhile average roomnight (RN) expenditure also increased from 89.89€ to 94.68€ in 2016 for the German market, below the average expenditure registered for the European market (101.12€). Compared to the previous year, early bookings[2] recorded a 7% increase, although medium term[3] bookings still represented the most part of the bookings (46%), according to Hotelbeds Group’s internal reports.
Carlos Muñoz, Bedbank Managing Director at Hotelbeds Group, commented: “We are pleased to announce that once again we have outperformed the local German source market and delivered solid growth in 2016 by selling more to our top clients – despite a challenging environment and Germany being a mature marketing.
¨We are confident that our solid business model and focused approach to adapting our products and services to each market – and in particular the significant growth in our product portfolio last year up to 120,000 hotels – together with our ongoing investment to develop our technology offering, will ensure continued growth in 2017 in the German market.”
About Hotelbeds Group:
Hotelbeds Group is the world’s number one bedbank and a business-to-business provider of services to the global travel industry.
Operating mainly under the Hotelbeds and Bedsonline brands, the company connects, 35,000 travel intermediaries across more than 120 source markets globally with travel providers in over 180 countries representing more than 120,000 hotels, 20,000 transfer routes and 12,000 activities.
In September 2016, the company became independent under the ownership of Cinven and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). The company is headquartered in Palma, Spain and has 6,150 employees working across 150 offices globally. In the financial calendar year of 2014 / 15 Hotelbeds Group sold around 26 million room nights and achieved a Total Transaction Value (TTV) of €3.8 billion.