Cloudbeds’ Global Sentiment Survey: 64% of properties expect to be open by August

Since the first quarter of 2020, the global lodging industry has encountered widespread changes and adaptations in the wake of COVID-19. 

As a part of the lodging industry, we at Cloudbeds want to further understand the challenges facing our customers and community so we can lend valuable insights and support to your recovery plans as we move forward. 

For this reason, we recently launched a sentiment survey to get feedback on how hoteliers and hosts in different regions are anticipating travel and reservation trends to take shape during the next 12 months. 

More than 1,000 independent owners and operators across 65 countries responded to Cloudbeds’ sentiment survey, providing unique insight into the community’s feelings about the lodging industry and guest behavior in the upcoming year. 

The survey incorporated timely questions that included everything from the timing of restriction liftings to the predicted distribution of reservations. Let’s dive into the data to explore our most compelling findings. 

The third quarter of 2020 seems to be the launchpad for full-term recovery in some regions, with 64% of respondents expecting to be fully open by late August. This anticipated outcome indicates growing positivity as only 32% of the respondent properties are currently fully open. 

When customers were asked to compare their reservations pre and post COVID, their responses were consistent with emerging demand data and growing optimism that the industry will follow a returning path to 2019 levels over the next 18 months. After analyzing the submitted responses, the following trends have become evident: 

• Reservations trends: 
  • 43% of independent owners and operators expected to have more local travelers visiting their properties than in the prior year, and 22% of respondents expected to have about the same amount as last year.
  • 35% expected to have fewer local travelers visiting their properties than in the prior year.
  • Regarding guests from international destinations, 78% expected to have fewer international guests than the year before. However, respondents believe that further changes to restrictions would change this sentiment.

• Regional trends:
  • North American, Central Asian, and Oceania properties responded with moderate optimism about the remainder of 2020, expecting to increase their reservations through the balance of 2020. 
    • There appears to be a strong correlation between positive sentiment data and the strength of central government support offered in developed economies like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States and Germany.
  • Latin American, European, and Southeast Asian properties responded with a more reserved outlook, with more respondents not expecting their reservations to increase until early 2021.  
    •  Latin America is demonstrating low sentiment and very sporadic recovery of reservation activity. This sentiment is perhaps attributed to the region being earlier in the pandemic’s cycle and the still-growing number of cases.
  • The global average for optimism remained neutral.  

• Trends by property type
  • Boutique Hotels, Flat Hotels, Campgrounds, and Vacation Rentals have a mostly positive outlook for their reservations through the balance of 2020.
  • Independent Hotels, Motels and B&B’s have a neutral to a positive outlook.
  • Hostels, Resorts, and group-oriented properties have a mostly negative outlook.
  • The negative outlook from hostels specifically could be due to the fact that most hostels rely on international travelers to fill a large portion of their inventory and that shared dormitories will need to adapt to new social distancing standards. With the restrictions on international travel, hostels are potentially the most heavily impacted property type, with the exception of Europe because its largely international audience doesn’t need to rely on flights for travel.

• Direct bookings represented 43% of expected reservations, whereas OTA reservations were estimated to represent 49% of expected reservations. 

In addition to this sentiment survey, we have released a robust market insights dashboard to help customers anticipate demand and plan for the future by observing occupancy, booking, and cancellation trends on a country-by-country basis.

For more information on the new dashboard and how Cloudbeds is addressing the impact of COVID‑19 in other areas, Read More Here >