Labor Day is the perfect holiday to go camping, relax at the beach, and plan last-minute vacations before the summer ends. It’s also an opportune time for hoteliers to capture these last-minute bookings.

 

Demand Overview

Demand for Labor Day is showing a similar trend year over year (YoY). In 2022, interest in Labor Day travel dates started in mid-June. In comparison, 2023 experienced an earlier onset of interest at the beginning of June. At the start of August, there was an uptick in demand for 2022 that was not observed in 2023. Even without this demand increase, we expect demand to remain relatively consistent for the rest of the month.  

 

 

Additionally, we are showing a boost in desktop demand (+2.4%). Despite a slight decrease in mobile demand (-3.9%), users are more inclined to book last-minute trips on mobile. In 2022, mobile experienced 2.6 times more demand than desktop in the last five days leading up to Labor Day. We expect to see a similar trend leading up to Labor Day 2023.

 

Demand by Location

Many locations with high demand in 2023 are experiencing a YoY increase. New York, Chicago, and Honolulu, however, are showing a decrease in demand YoY. Meanwhile, Tennessee, San Antonio, Seattle, and Grapevine are experiencing a remarkable uplift of +100% YoY.

 

City	YoY Demand Change
Grapevine, Texas	353%
Nashville, Tennessee	256%
Seattle, Washington	126%
San Antonio, Texas	101%
Dallas, Texas	65%
Virginia Beach, Virginia	58%
San Francisco, California	39%
Denver, Colorado	24%
Washington, D.C.	14%
Los Angeles, California	10%

 

Summer 2023 Demand

Overall, demand is experiencing a YoY decrease. However, we have observed the gap beginning to close in June. An increase in demand is evident starting in June, with the rest of the summer showing a relatively flat trend. There is a slight decrease immediately following the 4th of July holiday, followed by an upward trend a week later.

 

What Does this Mean for Hoteliers?

As summer ends and the school year begins, demand trends downward, with an uptick for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Although demand decreases during the last few months of the year, it remains crucial to ensure bids and budgets are set efficiently. This period also presents an excellent opportunity to implement tests across your campaigns to capture as much demand as possible. Koddi recommends advertisers consider the following options:

• If your property is in a high-demand market, maximize your budgets and recommendations to capture more users
• If your property is not in a high-demand market, consider utilizing upper-funnel tactics such as OTAs to get a good start on the last months of the year
• To capture holiday demand, consider setting up check-in date targeting in the days leading up to the holiday
• To capture last-minute holiday demand, consider setting up mobile device targeting a few days before the holiday

Stay updated with all the latest insights and trends from the Koddi team by following us on LinkedIn and subscribing to our blog.