Duration of hotel stays declining in the face of recession

An analysis of data for hotel websites running either the free 4Q website survey or the webValidator Continuous Listening solution revealed that hotel stay durations continue to decline in the face of a persistent consumer recession.

Specifically, the total number of nights spent in hotels each year dropped from an average of 18.1 in Q1 2008 to an average of 17.1 in Q1 2009, a fall of 6%. Among business travelers, the average nights fell from 27.2 in Q1 2008 down to 25.3 in Q1 2009, representing a 7% dip

This confirms findings we released in our Q1 2009 Hospitality Industry Report. These latest results are also consistent with recent findings by Harris Interactive on the recession's impact on travel behavior. In the Harris study, 27% of people surveyed indicated that they would decrease the duration of upcoming leisure trips, while 61% of people surveyed confessed that their companies had altered their travel plans in the last 12 months.

In the face of these adverse tides, the margin of error for marketers in the hotel sector decreases exponentially. One piece of advice I can offer: dig into your open-ended survey data and distill those top visitor pain points. Then, take action. As the old adage goes: he who hesitates is lost.