GDS/IDS bookings climbing back to 2008 levels

November 25, 2009 | Hospitality Industry

The October Pegasus View report shows bookings and net revenue figures climbing back to 2008 levels, with positive movement in North America. The region’s corporate bookings jumped +3.5% in volume in October 2009 compared to October 2008, and +21% in leisure bookings volume for the same period.

Pegasus Solutions has issued The Pegasus View for October 2009, which draws from booking data for more than 90,000 hotels worldwide during the month. Overall, the report shows bookings and net revenue figures climbing back to 2008 levels, with positive movement in North America. The region’s corporate bookings jumped +3.5% in volume in October 2009 compared to October 2008, and +21% in leisure bookings volume for the same period.

As the first region to deal with the impact of the downturn in 2008, this renewed growth for North America signifies the expectation of similar recoveries in the coming months for the rest of the world, according to Mike Kistner, CEO of Pegasus.

“While there are many factors involved in these trends, the Pegasus data globally and more specifically for North America indicates that we’re seeing a classic case where the first countries to bear the brunt of the downturn are the first to see signs of recovery, therefore we could expect to see other global regions producing similar encouraging results in early 2010.”

The October 2009 Pegasus View also shows a very modest but continued climb in average daily rate (ADR) for global distribution system (GDS) bookings, which were up from September’s 2009 high at $162.65 to $163 in October 2009. In the alternative distribution system (ADS) channel, which represents leisure bookings, ADR is down -14.48%, though the channel was up in terms of booking volume with overall year-on-year growth of +3.27%.

“We’re continuing to see a migration of booking volumes from the corporate-driven GDS to the leisure-driven ADS, which has helped to offset the pain of falling ADR for leisure bookings. Offsetting the shift in volumes for corporate bookings is the relatively stable ADR, which to a certain extent has been protected by annual negotiated rate programs. These constitute an invaluable and crucial source of revenue for hotels developing their corporate program business for 2010 and beyond,” concluded Kistner.