Travellers Are Booking Later. Here's What Hotel Brands Should Do About It

Travel demand is strong.

Expedia Group's Traveller Value Index reported in May 2025 that 88% of consumers planned to take a leisure trip within the next year, while half said travel was more important to them than it had been five years earlier. Yet despite this strong appetite for travel, booking decisions are taking longer. TTG Unpacked's (03 June, 2026) podcast episode recently cited PwC consumer research noting that only 30% of customers had already booked their summer holiday by April 2026, while a further 28% intended to wait until July 2026 before making a booking. 

This trend reflects a broader shift towards shorter booking windows and more last-minute purchasing behaviour. Across the industry, discussions increasingly focus on travellers' willingness to wait longer before committing, creating new challenges for travel businesses. 

There is no single reason behind this shift. Economic uncertainty and changing consumer confidence continue to influence spending decisions, while flexible booking policies have reduced the pressure to commit early. Travellers also have more tools at their disposal to compare options, monitor prices and keep plans open until closer to departure.

In many cases, consumers are not delaying travel itself. They're delaying the final decision, and the immediate concern turns to revenue management. How do you forecast demand? How do you manage availability? How do you protect margins?

For hotels in particular, shorter booking windows can create a difficult balancing act. As demand becomes harder to predict, many properties increasingly rely on online travel agencies (OTAs) and destination management companies (DMCs) to help fill occupancy closer to arrival dates.

While these channels can provide valuable volume, they often come at the expense of margin. Hotels are frequently forced to choose between accepting lower-profit bookings or risking unsold inventory.

This commercial reality helps explain why late-booking behaviour has become such a significant industry concern.

But focusing solely on the commercial implications risks overlooking something equally important.

Late-booking behaviour is changing the way hotel marketing works.

The challenge isn't that guests have stopped researching, dreaming or planning trips. In many cases, they're doing just as much research as before. What's changed is the point at which they feel confident enough to book.

For hotel marketers, that creates a different set of questions. How do you plan campaigns when bookings arrive later? How do you maintain momentum throughout a longer consideration journey? How do you stay visible when travellers are delaying decisions, but still actively exploring their options?

These are marketing challenges as much as commercial ones, and they require a different approach.

One of the biggest misconceptions about late-booking behaviour is that guests are engaging later. In reality, many travellers begin researching long before they make a booking.

A family considering a summer holiday may spend weeks comparing destinations, reading reviews, researching accommodation options and discussing plans before committing. A couple looking for an autumn city break might browse hotels, save ideas and revisit destinations several times before making a final decision.

The booking may happen later, but the consideration journey often starts just as early as it always has.

This distinction matters because hotel marketing isn't simply about influencing the moment of booking. It's about influencing everything that happens before it.

While revenue teams see the booking date, marketing teams are responsible for shaping the journey that leads to it.

In a world where guests are taking longer to commit, maintaining visibility throughout that journey becomes increasingly important.

When booking patterns become less predictable, visibility becomes one of the most valuable assets a hotel brand can have.

Guests rarely move from inspiration to booking in a single step. Today's travel journeys are increasingly fragmented, with consumers moving between multiple sources of information before making a decision.

A traveller may first discover a destination through media coverage, encounter a hotel on social media, research options through search, consult review platforms, ask an AI assistant for recommendations, visit several hotel websites and return to shortlisted properties multiple times before booking.

Each interaction plays a role in building confidence.

As travellers take longer to decide, these touchpoints become even more important. Visibility is no longer about being present in one channel. It's about maintaining a consistent presence across the entire decision-making journey.

Every one of those touchpoints plays a role, which is why integrated marketing becomes so important.

PR helps ensure hotels remain part of the conversation. Content answers questions and showcases experiences. SEO ensures properties are discoverable when travellers actively start searching for options. Increasingly, brands must also consider how they appear within AI-generated recommendations and emerging search experiences.

Together, these disciplines help hotel brands remain visible throughout the consideration phase, even when the timing of conversion becomes harder to predict.

We've long believed that the most effective travel marketing strategies don't rely on a single channel or campaign burst. They create a consistent presence across the entire customer journey.

And as booking windows shrink, that consistency becomes even more valuable.

While the consideration phase may be lengthy, the decision phase is often surprisingly short. Once travellers have narrowed their options, booking decisions can happen quickly.

For hotels, this means the direct booking experience has to work harder than ever.

Guests should immediately understand what makes a property worth choosing. Whether that's added-value benefits, exclusive experiences, flexible booking policies or simply a compelling guest experience, the reasons to book direct need to be clear.

This is also where content plays an important role. Travellers looking for reassurance often seek out practical information before making a decision. Questions around location, facilities, experiences, family suitability or wellness offerings can all become barriers if they're left unanswered.

Hotels that make it easy for guests to find the information they need are often better placed to convert demand when it appears.

The good news: if shorter booking windows create uncertainty, they also create opportunity.

We've seen countless examples of external factors influencing travel demand at short notice. A spell of good weather, a major event, changing travel trends or a timely piece of media coverage can all prompt a surge in interest (for instance, the ‘White Lotus effect’). 

For hotel marketers, the challenge is being ready to respond.

This doesn't necessarily mean abandoning long-term planning. In fact, the most agile brands are often the most prepared. 

Agility also applies to where demand comes from.

If traditional booking patterns become less predictable, hotels may need to think beyond their established audience mix. Analysing airline capacity, new flight routes and emerging source markets can help identify fresh opportunities for growth.

For destinations experiencing softer demand from established markets, understanding where new travellers are coming from can help hotels adapt campaigns, content and targeting strategies more effectively.

The brands that can combine long-term brand building with short-term responsiveness are often the ones best placed to benefit from changing booking behaviour.

The reality is that hotels can't control when guests decide to book. What they can control is how visible, persuasive and responsive they are when that decision arrives.

1.Invest in visibility before the booking window.

If guests are spending weeks or months researching before they book, marketing activity shouldn't be concentrated solely around expected booking peaks. PR, SEO and content all have a role to play in ensuring your property remains visible throughout the consideration phase. The booking may happen in June, but the shortlist may have been formed much earlier.

2. Make the direct booking proposition impossible to miss

When guests finally decide to book, they're often comparing a small number of options. Clear messaging around value, flexibility, added benefits and the overall guest experience can make a significant difference at this stage.

3. Prepare for moments of intent

Demand can emerge quickly and unexpectedly. Hotels that have campaign assets, content and messaging ready to activate are often better positioned to leverage those opportunities than brands that need to start from scratch.

4. Think multi-channel with clear messaging

A potential guest may discover a hotel through an editorial feature, revisit it through search, compare it against competitors on review platforms and eventually convert through a direct website visit. Every touchpoint contributes to the final decision.

5. Continuously reassess where demand is coming from

Shorter booking windows make forecasting more difficult, but they also create opportunities to uncover new audiences. Monitoring source markets, airline routes, travel trends and emerging visitor demand can help hotels identify growth opportunities that may otherwise be overlooked. 

The goal isn't simply to generate traffic. It's to create enough visibility and confidence that your hotel remains part of the consideration set when a guest is finally ready to book.

Travellers haven't stopped travelling. They haven't stopped researching. And they certainly haven't stopped dreaming about their next trip.

What has changed is when they commit.

For hotel brands, that shift reaches far beyond revenue management. It affects how campaigns are planned, how PR is measured, how content is developed and how marketing teams maintain momentum throughout the customer journey.

The hotels best placed to succeed will be those that understand that a shorter booking window doesn't necessarily mean a shorter decision-making process.

Guests may be delaying the moment they book, but they're still researching, comparing and building confidence long before they convert. For hotel brands, the risk is not that demand disappears. It's that, in response to booking uncertainty, they reduce the very activity that keeps them visible during the consideration phase. 

In a market where travellers are waiting longer to commit, staying present and visible is one of the most important investments a hotel can make.