Over three times more searches for hotels at home than away

Greenlight's analysis found UK online search volumes for hotels were up 6.5% on the previous quarter and, on the domestic front, those for hotels in York and Edinburgh saw the highest quarter-on-quarter uplift.

Greenlight's 'Hotels Sector Report - Issue 18', profiled consumer online search behaviour and identified the most popular search terms used on Google UK to look for lodgings and accommodation both domestically and abroad, in November.

Analysis of the quarterly data from the agency shows search-wise, demand for hotel accommodation at home saw the highest rise with volumes up 13%, from 1.8 million in August to over 2 million last month.

By contrast, quarter-on-quarter online search volumes for hotels located in short-haul destinations declined almost 2%. Those for long-haul destinations increased marginally, just 0.6%.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, London topped domestic hotel searches, with the capital featuring in three of the ten most popular search phrases. Cumulatively, the terms 'hotels in london', 'london hotels' and 'cheap hotels in london', accounted for 11% of queries.

However, search demand for hotels in York and Edinburgh, among the top ten, enjoyed the greatest quarter-on-quarter gains - 150% and 144% respectively.

Combined, the terms 'hotels in york' and 'york hotels' totalled 82,600 in November compared to 33,100 in August.

Those for 'hotels in edinburgh' and 'edinburgh hotels' leapt from 27,100 in August to 66,200 in November.

Greenlight determined and ranked the most visible hotel web sites to November searches.

The report shows that overall, Laterooms.com was the most visible website in the organic listings*, attaining a 73% share of visibility.

Laterooms.com was also the most prominent site to queries for hotels domestically. It was visible to a volume of over 1.5 million searches in this sub-sector, over 230,000 more than its nearest rival, tripadvisor.co.uk.

Meanwhile, in the paid media** listings, Booking.com emerged the most visible advertiser overall, attaining an 88% share of voice.

Booking.com also topped Greenlight's league table charting the most visible advertisers in the paid listings for domestic destinations, achieving a 91% share of voice.

Notes:

*Natural /organic Search - Listings in search engine results pages that appear because of their relevance to the search terms

**Paid Search - an Internet advertising model used on websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market.

Greenlight's report, 'Hotels Sector Report - Issue 18', profiled search behaviour in this sector. It assessed which brands, websites and review sites were the most visible in Natural Search, Paid Media and Social Media and hence had the greatest share of consideration when UK-based searchers went to Google UK in November to look for hotels in domestic, short-haul and long-haul destinations.