Costly fares, hotels crimp spring trips

This article deals with a study carried out by Travelocity concerning the average length of stay during spring break between 2002 and 2007. The result is that this lenght is decreasing with years from 5.9 days in 2002 to 4.9 days this year. This is mainly due a strong demand in travel for the past few years which has impacted air fares and hotel costs (ie. they rised).

What does this mean in terms of Revenue Management?

It could be seen as positive: hoteliers and airline companies have properly assessed the environment they are operating in and charge more in periods of high peak demand, such as spring break, when students are off school and parents take the opprtunity for a family travel.

However, this has had a peverse effect since customers are not staying that long anymore. So the question for hoteliers is: are they getting more money thanks to the augmentation in prices or are they loosing money due to the fact that people stay less?

What would the solution be?

The actors should probably very carefully study the prices they are offering. Indeed, until which extent would people be ready to pay for a 4 day break holiday? Can they augment the number of people traveling by offering more incentive prices if customers book early or at the last minute? Also, in the article it is mentionned that spring break travelers prefer warmer destinations. Is there not a niche to be filled by other places, like in the mountain for example.