Similarweb Travel Update: Web Traffic up 28% in January 

Airbnb loses travel share while Booking, Expedia gain

Similarweb’s latest look at OTAs (online travel agents), hotels and accommodations and vacation rentals shows overall demand remains robust to start the year, with the peer group seeing 28% growth over last year, and 22% growth over December.

Key Takeaways:

• Booking.com saw the most growth in web traffic on a year-over-year basis, rising 46%, followed by Hilton up 42% and Expedia’s 39%.
• The whole peer group saw year-over-year growth, with Airbnb traffic up 11%, Vrbo up 10%, Marriott up 34%, and hotels.com up 23%.
• In terms of share of traffic (a proxy for market share), Airbnb lost three points of share versus the peer group while Booking and Expedia each gained a share
• Vrbo’s web traffic growth lagged the group average on a year-over-year basis, but the company saw 54% growth versus December, the strongest in the group on a month-over-month basis.

Demand remained robust in January

You can see the relative performance of the peer group on a year-over-year basis below. Clearly, the entire group is seeing strong demand, with the 2022 revenge travel trend seemingly full in force at the start of 2023. Trends that stand out include a decided underperformance by vacation rental sites versus hotels and OTAs.

You can see the fastest growth was at Booking.com (+46%), Hilton (+42%) and Expedia (+39%), with Hotels.com (+23%) Airbnb (+10%) and Vrbo (+10%) lagging the group performance.

Monthly web traffic shows a slightly different story

Though Vrbo underperformed peers on a year-over-year basis, versus the month of December they showed the strongest growth among peers, which you can see in the next chart. Vrbo saw monthly growth of 54%, followed by Expedia (+24%) and Airbnb (+20%).

Airbnb, and Vrbo lost their share of traffic versus peers, with Expedia, Booking up the most

Share of traffic is an important indicator of how the companies are performing against each other, and you can see Airbnb and Vrbo losing ground versus peers, while Booking and Expedia are gaining the most ground.

Contact: For more information, please write to press@similarweb.com.

Citation:  Please refer to Similarweb as a digital intelligence platform. If online, please link back to www.similarweb.com or the most relevant blog post.

Report By: Jim Corridore, Senior Insights Manager

Methodology

Disclaimer: All data, reports and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb are based on data obtained from third parties, including estimations and extrapolations based on such data. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of the materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on the materials.