Early Bird or Last Minute? Booking.com reveals what your nationality says about your booking preferences
Indians are more flexible with their travel plans when compared to other nationalities
Booking.com, the global leader in connecting travellers with the widest choice of incredible places to stay, reveals booking behaviours of Indian travellers by exploring their booking patterns and decoding their travel habits. While analyzing the data at hand, Booking.com outlines when do Indian travellers book their holidays.
When asked to choose between the flexibility of making plans at the last minute or the security of having everything arranged in advance, almost three-quarters (71%) of global travelers indicate that they prefer the security of booking in advance.* Only 35% of Indian travellers indicate that they prefer to book their vacation accommodation several weeks in advance*
The countries where travelers prefer the highest level of flexibility are Germany (40%), the Netherlands (40%), Argentina (38%) Denmark (38%) and Sweden (37%). Conversely, countries where a larger share of bookers attach more importance to the security of having everything arranged in advance are Taiwan (89%), Hong Kong (82%), Japan (81%), China (79%) and South Korea (77%).
But what does it mean to book last minute? When we asked Indian travelers about their booking habits, this is what they had to say:
Booking habits | India | Global |
Bookings are made more than one month in advance | 20% | 43% |
Bookings are made several weeks in advance | 35% | 33% |
Bookings are made one week in advance | 28% | 16% |
Bookings are made the day before | 12% | 5% |
Bookings are made on the day itself | 5% | 3% |
Commenting on the data, Ritu Mehrotra, Country Manager, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives at Booking.com, said “Travel now is increasingly becoming diverse, with increased internet access, coupled with a strong motivation to experience new places. We now see continued momentum, it is no longer limited to long breaks, people now are also opting for weekend getaways and staycations. As a result, what we see is an extremely flexible travel schedule as opposed to rigid travel itineraries that leave no scope for alteration. We understand that not every vacation one takes is planned weeks in advance, and hence, we ensure that we always have multiple options for the traveller to choose from whether it is for a holiday they wish to take a month from now or as early as tomorrow. ”
*Research commissioned by Booking.com and independently conducted among a sample of 21,500 respondents, across 29 different markets (including 1000 respondents from Australia, Brazil, China, Columbia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, South Korea, Spain, the US, the UK, Russia, and 500 respondents from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, In order to participate in this survey, respondents had to be 18 years of age or older, had to have travelled at least once in 2018 and either the primary decision maker or involved in the decision making of their travel. The survey was taken online.