As Labor Day weekend lies right around the corner, Priceline CEO Brett Keller joins Asking for a Trend to break down consumer travel trends and what to expect if you’re planning a holiday weekend getaway.
“First and foremost, the shopping behavior is still quite active. So a lot of people are coming into our site. They’re looking for great deals. They’re looking for value, and we’re trying to stack up as many products and prices in front of them as we can that will make a difference and help them get out to travel,” Keller explains. However, in the US, Priceline has seen weakness in leisure, whereas business and other areas are still performing well.
As consumers increasingly seek value, Keller points to cruises as a great option: “You can cruise for less than $100 a night and go to some pretty incredible destinations.” He also highlights Priceline’s packaging business, delivering value up to 30% off when customers bundle things together. All-inclusive vacations are a great example, as it caters to a “set budget and you know what you’re getting for your money.”
Keller notes that flight prices have this year have been down from 10% to 15% this year compared to 2023. However, he expects prices both ahead of and past Labor Day to stabilize or even rise as airlines pull back on inventory and reduce capacity. When it comes to hotels, prices have remained largely unchanged from 2023, and he expects that trend to continue through Labor Day.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Asking for a Trend.
This post was written by Melanie Riehl
Video transcript
Believe it or not Labor Day Weekend right around the corner.
If you’re trying to decide on a last minute, get away.
Our next guest might be able to help joining us.
Now, Brett Keller Priceline, Ceo Brett, it’s good to see you here.
Um And as I, I mentioned a moment ago, we’ve heard from a number of companies including your parent company booking uh about some concern about travel demand here.
And this is of course, coming off of a hot, hot couple of years here with so called revenge travel.
So I’m curious what you’re seeing a Priceline.
Well, I think we’re seeing, you know, similar patterns to what many other in the travel industry are seeing.
Um I think first and foremost, the shopping behavior is still quite active.
So a lot of people are coming into our site, they’re looking for great deals, they’re looking for value and we’re trying to stack up as many products and, and prices in front of us as we can, that will, that will make a difference and help them get out to travel.
But I think what we’ve seen here in the US in particular in one sector which is us leisure.
That’s where all of the hotel chains, the airlines and our competitors are mentioning some softness in that specific category, whereas business group and others are still doing quite well interesting.
And, and what are you seeing in terms of the, the value chain?
What kinds of products and offerings are you seeing?
Get more traction right now?
Sure.
Well, again when, when you’re looking for value, there’s a couple of products that really stand out.
One is cruises, cruise is a great value for travel, right?
You can cruise for less than $100 a night and go to some pretty incredible destinations.
Um We’re seeing some good movement in our packaging.
Business packaging typically delivers value of 20 30% off when you bundle things together and people are specifically looking for all inclusives where they know the set price before they go, you know, meals can typically be a very expensive part of travel.
But when you drop into an all inclusive, you have a set budget and you know what you’re getting for your money and that’s where I think a lot of consumers are starting to look now.
And what about around um not necessarily travel but events experiences because I know that’s something that you guys offer through your platform as well.
Yeah, events are still very highly prioritized, right?
I mean, that’s we’ve got used to this ability to not just look at events in our local area.
But to travel, to go to concerts, to sporting events.
Um and of course for leisure experiences.
So we are, you know, we continue to see people prioritizing those markets, in particular, Vegas continues to be the top booked destination on our platform, primarily because of the experiences, right?
They’re going for the shows, they’re going uh for gaming and they really want to have some fun.
And so we’re seeing that continue to play out in people’s choices, but I think they’re being cautious because of course, you know, we have had two great years of travel and so people are just being a little more particular in what they want and how they want to book it.
But travel still is healthy.
Right?
Historically, even in downturns, travel is one of the most highly prioritized purchases for consumer.
And I think we’ll continue to see that moving forward as well.
Um Now looking at Labor Day is kind of um an indicator if you will.
What are we seeing in terms of pricing trends for flights for rental cars, for hotels?
Um especially again, compared with the last couple of years?
Sure.
Well, white prices actually all year have been down versus 2023.
In fact, they’ve been down anywhere from 10 to 15%.
And we’re seeing that similar trend flow into Labor Day.
I think what will happen though as we get into Labor Day and past Labor Day is prices could stabilize and maybe even come up a little bit because many of the airlines uh put a little too much inventory into the market and now they’re starting to pull back on that and they’re reducing their available seat capacity.
And so with that, likely prices may start to move up a little bit.
If they can make that happen.
On the hotel side, prices have remained relatively flat versus last year, you know, they up a percent down a percent depending on what month you’re looking at and that will flow through to Labor Day as well.
So, pricing really hasn’t shifted dramatically for consumers.
I think they’re just realizing that listen, we’ve spent a lot of money here on many other things.
We’re trying to uh pay for the staples in life.
And so they’re just being a little more cautious as they look at some of their leisure travel opportunities.
Brett, are there particular geographies right now that have become more popular?
Yeah.
You know, there’s a lot of value in flying to destinations in Florida and to Mexico because it’s close, but it still feels like it’s a great vacation, right?
They’re seeking out beach destinations.
So you’re going to Miami to Key West, to Tampa um down in Mexico, obviously down the Riviera Maya and there’s a lot of flight inventory and a lot of hotel inventory in those markets and that helps keep prices down.
And so we’re seeing consumers move into those areas more than they were in the last year or two where there was a lot more international travel outside of these kind of nearby destinations.
Right.
People have been going to Europe and to Asia and that’s obviously significantly more expensive, especially for the flight component of the trip.
And so we’re seeing a little bit more of that being prioritized here in the next couple of months.
Interesting stuff.
Thanks a lot.
Appreciate it.
