Year after year, travel demand for the spring takes off as schools and students prepare for Spring Break in the month of March. Over 70% of American schools and universities hold their spring breaks during a two-week period in March. With time winding down, short term booking windows will see an aggressive increase in demand and booking volume.

In 2022, some spring break destinations saw demand increase by up to 86%. This year, we expect booking volume to increase on a larger scale compared to last year.

Top 5 Tips to Maximize Spring Break Traffic

In order to maximize the demand to your hotel over the upcoming spring break travel season here are our recommendations:

1. Ensure flexible budgeting that allows your campaigns to address any influxes in demand. The demand per destination will fluctuate greatly throughout the weeks leading into Spring Break. Making sure you consistently have budget to meet this demand will maximize your revenue potential.
   
2. Implement broad targeting across all destinations (both user and hotel) to make sure you are able to capture all the available traffic. Spring Break can bring traveler’s from any part of the country or world, make sure that you have ads serving for all of those users.
3. Keep your rates and availability completely up to date and refreshed frequently. As many hotels sell out during these high demand times, its imperative that you make sure you aren’t exposing rates for non-existent rooms.
4. Deploy Sponsored Placements to capture the full demand for your destination. Sponsored Placements will gather additional clicks and eyeballs on your property, which can be critical for maximizing your occupancy rate.
   
5. Don’t assume the demand will be picked up regardless of your marketing efforts. With many users searching for these hotels, you may be thinking about reducing marketing efforts since “you’ll get the booking anyway”. Operating this way may lead to users booking competitor hotels or booking your hotel through a different advertiser.
   

• All About Location

   

  Spring Break destination trends are diversifying, as travelers are looking for places to spend their Spring Break across the US. Here is a list of the top 20 cities in terms of demand for Spring Break, indicating their increase in demand over the past two weeks. We see a healthy mix of urban cities and beach destinations. 

  City	PoP Demand Change	City	PoP Demand Change
  San Antonio	66%	Fort Lauderdale	36%
  Houston	61%	San Diego	35%
  Los Angeles	56%	Miami Beach	31%
  Chicago	56%	Miami	30%
  Atlanta	53%	New Orleans	27%
  Austin	49%	Nashville	24%
  Washington	39%	Las Vegas	18%
  New York	39%	Anaheim	17%
  Boston	39%	Phoenix	14%
  Orlando	36%	Honolulu	12%

   

  Air Travel Demand

   

  When looking at Spring Break travel, a great indication of potential hotel demand is how flight demand is trending. YoY, we have seen a 16% increase in domestic flight demand with urban and beach destinations leading the way.

  City	Index	City	Index
  Las Vegas	100	Dallas	34
  New York	71	Seattle	33
  Miami	66	San Francisco	30
  Los Angeles	66	Houston	29
  Orlando	61	Boston	28
  Honolulu	54	Tampa	26
  Chicago	46	San Diego	25
  Denver	43	Fort Lauderdale	23
  Atlanta	41	Nashville	22

   

  We see some similarity between Spring Break destinations and the most in demand flight destinations as users start to shop for Spring Break flights.

  

   

  What Does This Mean for You?

   

  By following our 5 tips for maximizing your spring break travel, you can ensure that your hotel captures all the available demand for your destination and have a successful spring break campaign. Partnering with Koddi can ensure that you are able to execute against these marketing efforts and lead a successful launch to the historical busy season for Travel!

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