Booking Holdings Says Leisure Hotels Are Able to Hold Rates Without Having to Offer Deep Discounts
Photo Credit: A jetty for guest arrivals at the Baros Maldives, a luxury property in the Baros resort island in the Maldives that reopens October 1, 2020. Baros Maldives
Skift Take
A hotel price war hasn't materialized as some dreaded. Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel sees an opportunity to prove the value of his brands as a source of demand for hotels and managers of alternative accommodations.
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Booking Holdings tends to focus on leisure travel, so business hotels, which saw more severe falls, aren't reflected in its numbers. Some hotels are more dependent on business travel, and those will see their average daily rates suffer because they'll miss some of those corporate travel expenditures. Business travel may not come back in lockstep with an economic recovery if companies substitute some in-person meetings for more virtual meetings. Booking CEO Glenn Fogel expected many of these business-dependent properties would turn to Booking Holdings to help "put heads in beds." "They'll be looking to someone like us," Fogel said. "They're going to look any which way they can to get demand. If it's cost-effective, they'll do it. Choppy Recovery Booking Holdings provided some numbers suggesting that the pace of recovery has been uneven across markets. The travel conglomerate runs several brands, inclu