Sold out: Hospitality firms set to cash in on upcoming long weekend

Try booking a room or a villa at any of the leisure locations for the upcoming long weekend and chances of you seeing the “sold out” tag on booking websites are very high. If you are lucky, you will still get what you want, but only at a premium!

With fears regarding the pandemic largely abating, vacationers are flocking to popular destinations. From hotels and homestays to resorts and hostels, those in the hospitality and travel business can’t wish for more.

If there was any hotel or resort that didn’t have its share of sunshine amid the boom, the upcoming long weekend provides an opportunity. It starts with Rakshabandhan on August 11 and ends with Independence Day on August 15.

Take the instance of StayVista Homes, the premium homestay brand. “With companies allowing the flexibility to work from anywhere or asking employees to show up in office only for a few days in a week, weekends are getting longer,” said Amit Damani, co-founder, StayVista.

A weekend like this gives more reasons to people to head out, he said. Most of the 500 homes managed by StayVista are running at 90 per cent occupancy with quite a few already sold out, added Damani.

The average rate for the premium villa is Rs 20,000-25,000 per night (with four to five rooms). The luxury ones come for Rs 60,000-75,000 per night (having four to five rooms).

The rates are 20 per cent higher and occupancies about 15 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels, said Damani.

“Destinations like Lonavala, Jaipur, Udaipur, Puducherry and Goa are some of the most-booked destinations for the month of August. Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are some of the preferred international destinations over the long weekend," said Ritu Mehrotra, Regional Commercial Director APAC at Booking.com.

The rush to leisure locations is getting reflected in the heightened search for flight queries. 

Aloke Bajpai, group chief executive officer (group CEO) and co-founder, ixigo, said beach destinations like Goa have seen more than 100 per cent increase in flight search queries.

Coorg, Kerala and Puducherry are among the top favourite destinations searched by travellers this monsoon, he said.

“We are seeing a positive pick-up in demand for the upcoming long weekend. This is one of the longest weekends of the year. So, travellers want to make the most of it by planning short getaways in advance. We are seeing a mix of leisure travel, staycations and people travelling to their hometowns for the long break,” he said.

With overall economic activity picking up and corporate and leisure travel gaining momentum every month, average daily rates across hotels increased 25 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in July.

The occupancy also went up 500-basis points, according to Noesis Capital & Advisors. The firm expects the sector to see a similar rise in the current month. The jump comes over last year’s low base.

Thomas Cook and SOTC’s consumer data reveals growing demand for short holidays/mini-cations — with 69 per cent of respondents displaying keen interest in the upcoming Raksha Bandhan-Independence Day extended weekend.

Over 66 per cent of the respondents indicated preference for domestic locales, while 34 per cent were open to short-haul international options.

About 78 per cent Indian travellers consider leisure travel as important while keeping their overall health and safety in mind, according to Booking.com’s APAC Travel Confidence Index Research released recently.

The strong demand at leisure locations is also an opportunity for the assets located in metros to do more business.

Here’s how: Leisure-focussed assets over the weekends are usually quite busy and run on high occupancy, resulting in expensive deals for the traveller.

However, city hotels comparatively offer value-for-money deals over the weekends. 

“With the rise in airfares and high fuel costs, there is an opportunity for city hotels to curate and reprogramme their unutilised spaces,” said Nandinvardhan Jain, CEO at Noesis Capital & Advisors.

Hotels can utilise spaces to create interesting and fresh concepts to target millennials. They are open to trying out unconventional ways, if the product is exciting and the pricing is adequate.