Internet Hotel Booking in Germany still growing

March 31, 2009 - PRLog -- In Germany, online hotel reservation is of prime importance. In the comfort, first class and luxury hotels the number of electronic room reservations via internet, CRS and GDS rose strongly in 2008. 73 percent of the hotels gained more room bookings with their own webpage. These are results of a new study of the international market research company for the Away from Home markets, CHD Expert. For the market report 221 hospitality management executives have been interviewed. Third-party booking partner, e.g. HRS.com and hotel.info brought a rising number of reservations for 81 percent of the hotels. In 58 percent of the hotels the electronic room sales via central reservation systems and global distribution systems grew in 2008, too.

„Every fifth hotel in Germany generated up to ten percent of all room bookings via electronic distribution channels. Every tenth hotel gains nearly 25 percent of their annual reservation turnover via internet sales”, reported Thilo Lambracht, managing owner of CHD Expert (Deutschland) GmbH. Online booking is booming – twelve percent of the hotels in Germany obtain nearly 50 percent of their turnover with electronic sales. The number of hotels which concentrate their sales strategies on online channels grow strongly. In Germany use nearly every hotel company online sales channels. “Hospitality business without an internet strategy is history”, Lambracht commented.

Online booking becomes more important for German hotels. Over 78 percent of the general managers expect for 2009 a rising number of electronic sales on their corporate web pages. A growing number of room reservations via booking portals are to be expected by nearly 70 percent of the hotel leaders. Only a minority of the hotel directors (2% and 4%) are worried about dropping bookings on their hotel websites and reservation portals.

The leading booking platform for German hotel is HRS.com (for 59% of the interviewed hotels). Booking.com has been only for 17 percent of the hotels the strongest sales channel in the internet. At third place is hotel.info which brought for 8 percent the most reservations in 2008. Other portals like hotels.com or venere.com are also relevant for online bookings but not as preferred platform.

Regarding all hotel categories, HRS.com remains the leading reservations partner in Germany. For 70 percent of the business and conference hotels HRS.com is the strongest sales partner. At second place is hotel.info (for 13% of the business hotels) and next comes booking.com (11%). Interesting detail – Booking.com becomes more and more important. 27 percent of the leisure hotels and resorts in Germany called it their most important distribution channel. In the category of private owned (individual driven) hotels, 22 percent reported booking.com as leading sales partner.

For further questions please contact:
Thilo Lambracht, lambracht.t  chd-expert.de
CHD Expert (Deutschland) GmbH, Veerser Weg 2b, 27383 Scheessel (near Hamburg, Germany)
Tel. ++49 4263 301 300, Fax ++49 (4263) 301 333

Press services:
Carsten Hennig, presse  chd-expert  de
Tel. ++49 4263 301 131, Mobile ++49 160 958.377.56

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About CHD Expert Group: For over ten years the CHD Expert Group (CHD) supports the industry in collecting, managing and analyzing business data in the Away-from-Home market. Now CHD Expert Group is recognized as the market’s global leader and hold four million records across Europe and North America. The Away-from-Home market is enjoying phenomenal growth worldwide. More information: www.chd-expert.de