SiteMinder’s Top 12 Hotel Booking Revenue Makers Of 2021 Reveal Commerce Strategies Now More Holistic

In more than 20 of the world's most popular tourism destinations, the lists of distribution channels that brought the highest booking revenue to hotels over the past year have been released.

The lists show a moreholistic online commerce strategy, consisting of both new and established methods, is being taken by hotel businesses to reach new customers and produce revenue. Direct bookings are now one of the top two revenue drivers in more than half of global markets, up from five markets last year and two in 2019.

29 new distribution channels were added to this year's lists, reflecting the current penchant among hotels to embrace new revenue streams in their pursuit of new customers. In spite of the channel being made available to traditional hospitality businesses only four years ago, the lists increasingly feature it.

The findings support a greater adoption of a hotel commerce strategy.

• The maintained relevance of regional channels, particularly in locations with ongoing reduced international travel. Channels such as AsiaYo and ezTravel in Asia, Hero Travel in Australia, Kurzurlaub in Austria, Tiket.com in the Philippines, SafariNow.com in South Africa and Off Peak Luxury in the UK are all new arrivals on SiteMinder’s lists this year. In Indonesia, Traveloka achieved a breakthrough performance to top the list of revenue generating channels for local hotels, after rising to second place in 2020.
• The ongoing importance of wholesalers for many accommodation providers, with leading bedbank Hotelbeds again among the Top 12 in each destination examined – and Sunhotels by WebBeds a newcomer to SiteMinder’s Austrian and Thai lists.
• The consistent performance of global distribution systems, which rose two or more positions in seven markets – Asia, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East, the Netherlands, Philippines and Thailand.

We are living in a new era of hotel guest, dominated by what we have identified as the dynamic traveller, who comes with evolved booking behaviours and preferences. Our data shows the willingness of hoteliers to adopt both new and established methods to attract these customers, as they pursue a moreholistic hotel commerce strategy to sell, market, manage and grow their business.

The rise of direct bookings reflects the investments hotels have made in their websites, including their booking engines and payment options, as well as their conversion tools. The openness of hotel businesses to employ a broader, multichannel approach as a way of connecting with more niche or harder-to-reach customer segments is showcased by a newcomer cohort of 29 channels.

The popularity ofAirbnb comes as no surprise. Hotels that cater to longer stay and workation guests will continue to perform well as many travellers continue to seek out accommodations that allow work and travel to meet.

Click here to view the Top 12 lists of all travel destinations, and insights into the traveller from top distribution channel providers.

About SiteMinder

The world's leading open hotel commerce platform is called SiteMinder and is ranked among technology pioneers for opening up every hotel's access to online commerce. It is the central role that has earned SiteMinder the trust of tens of thousands of hotels, across 150 countries, to sell, market, manage and grow their business. More than 100 million reservations were made in the last year by the global company with offices in 12 countries, generating over US$35 billion in revenue for hotels. You can find more information at siteminder.com.

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