Airports are braced for the Easter holiday rush as folk head home or take a flight of fancy elsewhere.
More than 370,000 passengers are expected to leave Heathrow Airport between Good Friday and Easter Monday, and 200,000 will pass through Gatwick - all of which surely bodes well for the hotel trade.
In fact, Greenlight's latest research found that in January, the number of hotel-related searches made online by UK searchers totalled 2 million. Interestingly however, the majority of their hotel queries pertained to the UK.
Based on an analysis of online search-related data sourced from Hydra's One Platform, a leading provider of SaaS tools for digital marketers, Greenlight's research, ' Hotels Sector Report - Issue 11' found generic terms such as 'Hotels', 'Cheap hotels' and 'Bed and breakfast', were used for the majority (765,622) of hotel-related searches, and accounted for a 38% share.
UK online hotel-related searches pertaining to domestic locations were more than double those abroad. Queries totalled 723,642 accounting for a 36% share of hotel-related searches overall, compared to just 14% (277,896) for hotel searches in short haul destinations and 13% (267,911) in long haul destinations.
City-wise, on the domestic front, queries for hotels in London made up 39% of hotel-related searches. Edinburgh followed with 9%, then Manchester with 6%.
Greenlight's research also reveals the most visible hotel websites in natural search and paid media.
According to Greenlight's league tables, Late Rooms was the most visible website for domestic hotel-related searches, achieving a dominant 96% share of voice. Lastminute followed in second place with 83%, then Superbreak with 46%.
For short haul destination hotel-related searches, things changed. Trip Advisor ruled the roost, achieving a 71% share of visibility. In at second was Expedia with 65% then Lastminute with 57%. It was likewise for long haul destinations where these players also dominated the rankings taking first, second and third place, respectively, in natural search.
However, with more than a quarter of Britons having apparently made plans to avoid London 2012, according to a survey by Travelex, perhaps short haul and long haul destinations will see the hotel search-related balance, re-addressed.
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For more information please visit www.greenlightdigital.com
Greenlight Research-UK - 4 April 2012
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