Asian hotels cheapest if booked within three months of travel

Travellers in Asia can save money if they book their hotels within three months of their check-in date, a new report has revealed.

According to TripAdvisor’s “Best Time to Book” report, which is based on the travel site’s hotel booking and meta-click data, travellers planning to stay at Asian hotels between the months of June and August can save up to 23% of they make their booking within three months of their trip.

And travellers could save even more if they wait until the last minute; Asian hotel rates were found to rise slightly three to five weeks ahead of the travel date, before falling to their lowest rates in the final two weeks.

“Travellers who are researching their hotel stays would naturally look to be as cost-effective as possible so their holiday budgets go a longer way,” said Janice Lee Fang, TripAdvisor’s communications director for Asia Pacific. “Our report shows that the lead time to book a hotel stay varies depending on where you’re planning to travel to and also what sort of savings you can expect when you book on TripAdvisor during this period.”

The timings do differ between Asian cities however; three months was found to be the optimum booking window for hotels in Bangkok (with an average 16% saving), Hanoi (16%), Mumbai (17%) and Jakarta (39%).

For hotels in Singapore and Tokyo however, between two weeks and five months in advance was found to the prime booking period for hotels, offering average savings of 26% and 31% for the two cities respectively. Hotels in Beijing were found to offer the best savings (16%) when booked between two and six months in advance.

“For most destinations, the hotel rates change gradually over time, without dramatic increases or decreases in price,” TripAdvisor stated.

The Asian results differed slightly from other global regions, with the prime booking window for European hotels found to be three to five months in advance, while for US hotels it is within two months of the travel date.