Indians have created a new, short vacation mode: Staycation!

29th May 2014
Indians have created a new, short vacation mode: Staycation!

Chennai, May 29, 2014: Indian  budget  hotel accommodation portal, Stayzilla.com has released  findings from a survey   of emerging travel trends in 2014.
These findings are a reflective analysis during the last fiscal year 2013-14,  of travel patterns of over 80,000 travellers from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune choosing to book with Stayzilla’s network which has over 12,000 hotels and across 1000+ towns and cities in India.   
Trend 1: Flight travellers opt for budget hotels
Considering the significant amount spent of booking flight tickets, the existing flight traveller is considering "value for money" accommodation options. Additionally, since they are online booking flight tickets, they find it convenient to book "value for money" hotel stay options online as well.
- The contribution of flight travellers to overall transaction volumes on Stayzilla.com has grown over 300% over the last one year
- 90% of the flight travelling population originates from tier 1 cities and 80% of the population are travelling to tier1 cities
- The top reason for travel is “Business”, contributing 40% followed by leisure travel at 25%
Trend 2: : Word-of-mouth is the strongest marketing tool to influence budget travel decisions  
Stayzilla.com has identified that Indians today are more open, to the idea of booking a lesser known budget hotel rather than a star hotel.
With no standardisation of budget hotels in India, there is a constant challenge of customer confidence on both the Online Travel Agent & the hotel, here, word-of-mouth plays a strong role in validating the service offered influencing the customer’s decision making process. Reinforcing this is the significant increase in customer volumes and repeat customer engagement frequency over the last one year.
- Contribution of repeat customers to the overall transaction volume has increased by 50% year-on-year
-  value of revenue from repeat customers has undergone a 20% increase year-on-year
- The "look to book" time window for repeat customers has reduced by 50%
Trend 3: The leisure traveller does not like to spend too much of time on travel, giving rise to the trend of Staycations. Short stay+ vacation= ‘Staycation’
Staycations are a new concept that involves short stays within a 200km radius of the originating city. These short stays at a quiet and tranquil location provides travellers with complete rejuvenation from stressful city lives.
- The frequency of taking a minimum of two family vacations a year has been replaced with an average of 3-4 Staycations a year.
- The average amount of money spent for a staycation for a family of four is Rs. 12,000-15,000
- Staycations are done spontaneously with an average advance booking of 2-3 days
Staycations are more prominent in the metro regions of the country, namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore.
Says Yogendra Vasupal, CEO & Founder, Stayzilla.com: “The increase in business travel is contributing significantly to the travel industry, and we are glad to be spearheading the growth of ‘value & budget’ hotels. There is a strong need for a trusted partner in this segment. Once customers get to make a booking with a trusted brand and go through a seamless stay experience, they channelize their latent budget stay needs through the same player. This has been reinforced with the significant increase in our repeat customers. We look forward to unprecedented growth of the ‘value & budget’ segment and will continue to offer the best experience to our customers.”