GDS Booking and ADR Growth Drive Strong Q4 2018 RevPAR Performance in Hospitality

TravelClick, an Amadeus company, announced that global distribution system (GDS) hotel bookings experienced a record year in 2018, generating over 75 million annual reservations globally, up from 70 million in 2017. The company noted that this global GDS growth coupled with sustained increases in average daily rates (ADR), contributed to impressive revenue per available room (RevPAR) for North American hoteliers as they kicked off the New Year.

According to TravelClick’s North American Distribution Review (NADR), in the fourth quarter of 2018, Rooms sold through both GDS and Brand.com channels were up 6.4 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively, over the same time last year. However, Online Travel Agency, Hotel Direct and Central Reservation Office (CRO) channels decreased -2.3 percent, -5.8 percent and -16.4 percent, respectively. Across all distribution channels, ADR for Q4 2018 increased by 2.3 percent over the previous year. The Hotel Direct, Brand.com, CRO and OTA channels had the highest ADR growth in Q4, up 4.0 percent, 2.7 percent, 1.5 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, year-over-year.  

Distribution Share per Channel Q4 2018
Brand	31.6%
CRO	8.9%
Direct to Hotel	19.3%
GDS	18.6%
OTA	21.6%

    Source: TravelClick January 2019

Moving forward into 2019, the GDS channel could continue to provide solid ADR growth for hoteliers, particularly with frequent travelers selecting both retail and qualified rates, the company said. This trend could translate into an ADR increase of 3.7 percent in the current quarter. But while there are indicators of increases in ADR performance, the outlook for advance reservation pace growth in 2019 shows signs of decrease, primarily with transient bookings throughout the majority of North American markets. Thus, it is imperative for hoteliers to look for pockets of demand generation in high-ADR channels for delivering optimal RevPAR performance.

The TravelClick NADR is based on data for 25 major North American markets, comprising 301 million annual room nights and $53 billion in annual room revenue.