Russian travelers` behavior evolution in 2023

After Booking left the Russian market, direct bookings of hotels worldwide doubled in 2022 among Russian outbound travelers. It turns out that tourists can and are willing to book hotels directly. The self-booking trend is gaining momentum.

More information about how hotels can take advantage of this trend and increase the number of direct bookings – in this article.

Big restructuring of the online booking market

Direct hotel sales doubled after Booking left Russia, reports INTERFAX.RU. The departure of major foreign platforms, including Booking hotel reservation service, from Russia in 2022 allowed hotels to almost double direct sales, as well as Russians began to buy reservations on the websites of travel companies, according to a study by tour operator Alean together with TravelLine.

Booking is the world's largest hotel and temporary accommodation booking service, offering about 30 million such properties. It is part of the U.S. Booking Holdings Inc. and entered the Russian market in 2007.

In March 2022, Booking, as well as Airbnb, a service for booking private accommodation for tourists, ceased operations in Russia. According to experts, Booking had the largest share in the total volume of online hotel reservations in the Russian market, which, according to various data, ranged from 60 to 70%.

"In March 2022, a powerful reshaping of the online lodging reservations market began. Channels that guests knew about but favored Booking took its place and divided the vacated market among themselves," said Alexander Galochkin, founder and CEO of TravelLine's hotel business platform.

The expert estimates that the sales of hotels through websites in 2021 accounted for about 24%, in 2022 the share of direct online bookings was 52%.

According to the tour operator "Alean", the number of direct bookings through the module on the company's website has increased by about 25%. At the same time, the total number of requests from private customers in 2022 increased by about 40%.

The travel company also noted that the number of return visits to the site for reservations in 2022 increased by 47% compared to 2021.

What does it mean?

Today everything is changing very rapidly and the behavior of tourists is no exception. The trend for direct booking is gaining momentum. 

Entrust it to professionals, and also, follow our news to stay up-to-date with the latest developments of the travel industry.

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