The Russian company providing digital, media and telecommunications services MTS, using Big Data, analyzed what Russians are replacing Airbnb, Booking and Agoda services with, which have limited the ability to book accommodation in Russia since March 5, 2022.
Big Data MTS analyzed depersonalized data on the number of unique visitors to booking sites travel accommodation from February 14 to March 10, 2022.
As the company told TRN, after March 5, the number of users on foreign sites for hotel booking and short-term rental accommodation has dropped sharply. The number of visitors to the TripAdvisor website decreased by 19% compared to the February 2022 averages, the Booking.com website and app by 18%, Agoda and Airbnb services by 15% and 12%, respectively. The most notable drop on Trivago's website is that the number of unique users has fallen by 59%.
Users have switched to Russian platforms to search for hotel rooms and rented apartments. Between March 5 and 10, the number of users of the site bronevik.com quadrupled, and ostrovok.ru tripled. Demand for services kvartirka.com (59%), sutochno.ru (38%) and 101hotels.com (24%) increased.
Higher growth in demand for Russian booking services may be associated with a reduced interest in traveling abroad and an increase in demand for domestic tourism.