ABTA 2012: Hoseasons reveals worrying rise in late bookings

The late bookings trend is here to stay, said domestic operator Hoseasons as it revealed that one in four of its customers booked their holiday just six weeks before departure this year.

The company saw a 24% increase over 2011 in the number of people who waited until the school summer holidays had started to book their break. In total, 245,000 of its holidays were booked in the summer for the summer.

Overall, bookings were on a par with last year, but due to the late bookings, more parks and lodges breaks were sold at a discount. "People are booking later and later," said Hoseasons managing director Pali Badwal. "It would be nice to think this will change, but I don’t think so."

Customers have come to expect instant gratification, said Hoseasons Group managing director Geoff Cowley. "If you buy a book you read it seconds later on your Kindle….I don’t think these trends are suddenly going to disappear."

Another key trend is that people are booking shorter durations, said Cowley.  Value for time was just as important to customers as value for money. "They are swapping four nights for three, squeezing more out of their limited time off.

"Looking at 2013, we expect bookings to be later, shorter, cheaper. People are looking for value."

The poor weather this summer was partly to blame for people booking late, he said, but insisted it wasn’t as significant as people might expect. "Domestic holidaymakers understand what the weather is like; we haven’t been hit as hard as ice-cream sales."

The London 2012 Olympics also had less of an impact than anticipated. "It made bookings less predictable, that’s all, and in the longterm it has to be good for the UK."

Bookings through the trade have been flat, but head of trade sales Zena Calderbank said some agents had become very savvy at marketing domestic breaks to their own customers.

Thomas Cook, for example, has seen a double digit growth in the sale of domestic holidays this year after starting to offer them as part of the ancillary services to customers booking overseas holidays, she said. "They’ll say, do you want insurance, airport parking and what about a domestic holiday this year, where are you going?"

Sales of Hoseasons upscale Autograph products and its Go Active brand have seen double digit growth through the trade this year, said Calderbank. She said agents were adept at marketing the products to their own clients, for example advertising Autograph properties with "hot tub" discounts or selling its active breaks as "boredom busters for kids".

Post the Olympic Games, Hoseasons has seen a growth in sales for its Go Active brand, which will be featured at 16 locations next year.

New from Hoseasons for 2013 is a new Daisy Door brand for multiple properties in the same location that offer a similar level of accommodation making them suitable for groups such as extended families, corporate trips or friends holidaying together. Initially, Daisy Door will be available at four locations in Scotland, Cornwall, North Yorkshire and the Isle of Wight.