Direct bookings with hotels - by e-mail, telephone or via their own website - have increased slightly in the past 2 years for the first time since 2014. While the proportion of direct bookings in Austria was 2019 percent in 61,5, it is currently 63,7 percent.

This is the result of a current study of 3.900 hoteliers from all over Europe by the European umbrella organization for the hotel industry and gastronomy associations HOTREC together with the University of Applied Sciences in Western Switzerland and the professional association for the hotel industry in the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ). The aim of the study, which has been carried out every two years since 2014 and was published earlier this week, is to show the development and trends in hotel sales, with a particular focus on the role of online booking platforms. 

"The survey documents some Europe-wide trends in the hotel industry, which are also reflected in the survey results of the approximately 300 participating Austrian companies," explains Hans Spreitzhofer, chairman of the Hotel Industry Association. The chairman is pleased with the development of direct bookings: "Corona is and was a difficult test for our companies with enormous burdens. It is all the more gratifying that in these difficult times we are again able to record a slight increase in direct bookings in Austria. The reason for this is certainly that during the Corona period, guests increasingly sought direct contact with the hoteliers in order to receive detailed first-hand information about the Corona measures taken by the hotel and to ensure that all special requests can be fulfilled.”

Still more than a quarter of all bookings via online booking platforms

Despite the slight increase in direct bookings, the results of the study also show that the dependency of hotels on online booking platforms in 2021 remained almost at the same level as in 2019. According to the study, more than a quarter of bookings are made via online booking platforms. Specifically, direct bookings (63,7 percent) are offset by bookings via online platforms with a share of 25,7 percent.  

The most influential player among the platforms is – by far – Booking.com, with a 71,2 percent share of the European and a 74,7 percent share of the Austrian booking platform market. They are followed at some distance by HRS and Expedia with 6,2 percent and 5,1 percent respectively. Spreitzhofer is concerned that the majority of hoteliers - 55 percent of those surveyed - feel pressured by the platforms to accept terms and conditions that they would not otherwise voluntarily offer.