A surprising revelation from The Global Passenger Survey, the world’s largest airline passenger survey of over 40 airlines, is just how late passengers are prepared to wait till booking accommodation for their upcoming business trip or vacation.

Business Passengers Book At The Last Minute

Given the responsive nature of business travel, it is no surprise that lead-in times are short amongst business passengers, with 47% stating they do not book their business accommodation till 7 days or less before booking their business trip.

Hotel Booking lead-in times: % score


However, in the case of weekend or city breakers, 35% will wait 7 days or less before booking a hotel to get the best last-minute deals. And an astonishing 2% of passengers (of a single North American airline) stated they do not book any city-break accommodation at all until arriving at their destination! Main vacation planning sees a longer cycle, but surprisingly even 31% of these holidaymakers will wait up to 4 weeks or less before booking holiday accommodation.

Inspiration

Alongside beautiful destination articles, inflight magazines feature expert Hotel Reviews targeting the destinations of the magazine’s airline. 73% of readers actively look for hotel reviews in the magazine, with a slightly higher 74% amongst business passengers. And as established earlier, for those 47% of business travellers who book under a week, these hotel reviews and advertising are still relevant for booking even within the monthly print cycle of an inflight magazine.

Inspiration leads to response

During the course of a journey, airline passengers will mostly plan their next trip during their flights, with the largest group (22%) stating that their plane-time is the place where they consider a next vacation. The “moderate” levels of mental alertness that have been measured inflight are known to promote an aspirational mindset seeking information – the perfect time to present inspirational hotel and tourism products to passengers using inflight media.

86% of readers say they look for Tourism & Hotel advertising in the inflight magazine; this high interest not surprisingly leads to high response, with 23% of readers who had looked for information on hotels in the inflight magazine stating they had gone on to book.