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SiteMinder’s newly released Hotel Booking Trends report uncovers a more predictable booking environment for UK hotels in 2025, a welcome shift after years of volatile guest behaviour in an already competitive market. For hoteliers, this represents a genuine opportunity to move beyond reactive decision-making and plan pricing and distribution strategies with real confidence, finding a more optimal balance between revenue and booking volume in the process.
With demand patterns well established, smarter pricing and offers become imperative in 2026
SiteMinder’s data reveals that average daily rates (ADR) across the UK rose modestly by 1.35% year-on-year in 2025, to £191.55 up from £189.00 in 2024, while cancellation rates and booking lead times remained largely unchanged, staying at 18% and 35 days respectively. It’s a similar story globally, with cancellations staying at 19% and booking lead times at 32 days.
Fridays unsurprisingly continued to command the highest average rates, averaging £215 across 2025, up 0.93% from £213.02. With an ADR of £193.59 Saturday is now the second highest priced day, while Thursday is now third––down from second––averaging £192.31, and Sunday remains the lowest priced day at £220.86.
Seasonality remains strong, with July and August together accounting for just over 19% of all bookings and seeing above-average annual rate increases, with ADR in July increasing by 2.4%, to £215.39 from £210.36, and by 1.7% in August, to £200.41 from £197.08. The lowest priced month was again January, with rates averaging £149.95.
The data uncovers some clear gaps where hotels can leverage the relative stability of current booking conditions to make incremental gains through dynamic pricing and well-crafted offers, based on in-depth, real-time business intel.
For example, the difference between the most and least expensive night in the UK converts to US$50 using average exchange rates across 2025, while in neighbouring Ireland this reached US$87. Similarly, the difference between the highest and lowest priced months decreased to £65.40 from £66.60 in 2024, despite the overall increase in annual average rates.
The UK also remains among the world’s most short-stay-heavy destinations, with 81% of bookings lasting a single night compared to 73% globally, driven by the relative importance of business travel, city breaks and stopovers.
Hotels should ensure they are effectively using the tools available to identify and monetise high-demand windows, while crafting shoulder-season and midweek offers with attractive conditions around variables like cancellation terms, add-ons and discounts for booking extra nights.
While domestic bookings predominate, SiteMinder’s Top 12 booking channels unveils a more layered distribution picture
Domestic bookings held firm at just under 70% of all UK hotel arrivals, while also gaining share in several major markets. In Germany, local check-ins rose from 65% to 68% of all arrivals; in France, from 45% to 47%; and in the US, from 74% to 77%.
That said, we shouldn’t allow a stable guest mix to overshadow the shifts beneath the surface of the distribution landscape.
The entry of London-based G2 Travel into our Top 12 list for the first time, alongside the consolidation of WebBeds, Hotelbeds and global distribution systems (GDSs), underlies the tendency for B2B and specialist intermediaries to increasingly complement the familiar split between OTAs and direct bookings.
Likewise, notwithstanding the sustained predominance of domestic travel in the UK, Agoda consolidated its fourth-place position on SiteMinder’s annual list of Top 12 booking channels for UK hotels, while Indian B2B platform TBOHolidays retained its place on the list. This reflects the growing importance of Asian travel globally, which is widely believed to have surpassed its pre-pandemic outbound travel volumes for the first time in 2025.
Despite diverging predictions about AI’s effect on direct bookings, their position in our list remained unchanged, sitting third behind Booking.com and Expedia. That stability is not an invitation for complacency, however. Hotels that retain or grow this channel will be those who stay visible not just in traditional search, but in the AI-generated results that are increasingly shaping how guests discover and book.
In a steadier market, distribution must be a strategic priority
With UK hoteliers receiving a planning confidence boost due to more predictable booking behaviour from their guests, alongside relatively long booking lead times and relatively low cancellation rates, distribution should be a primary focus in 2026.
As SiteMinder’s annual list of Top 12 booking channels indicates, this means hotels adopting a genuinely multi-layered approach. Strong visibility on the major OTAs and hotel websites remains essential, particularly as AI-driven search and discovery continue to shape how guests evaluate and compare options. Beyond that core layer, B2B wholesalers and specialist intermediaries play an increasingly complementary role, extending reach into incremental and international demand segments.
Rather than viewing channels in isolation, operators should think in tiers. Direct websites and metasearch form the foundation; major global OTAs provide scale and consistency; B2B platforms broaden access to packaged and corporate demand; and specialist or emerging channels offer targeted exposure to specific source markets, including higher-spend and long-haul travellers.
Clearer demand and pricing patterns mean breathing room for UK hotels to identify underleveraged source markets, refine rate positioning around event-driven demand, and craft a revenue-driven channel mix. The advantage in 2026 will go to hotels who avoid excessive complexity and instead prioritise data-led precision in their pricing and distribution strategies.
SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report, including UK-specific charts and the Top 12 hotel booking revenue-makers of 2025, is available here.
The Top 12 booking channels for UK hotels in 2025 were:
The annual SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report, based on more than 130 million hotel bookings, is the most authoritative analysis of hotel bookings across 20 of the world’s most established destinations. It is powered by data from SiteMinder, the world’s leading guest acquisition and revenue platform, which serves more than 50,000 hotels, generating 250 million+ room nights and over US$55 billion in revenue for its hotel customers each year.
SiteMinder’s newly released Hotel Booking Trends report uncovers a more predictable booking environment for UK hotels in 2025, a welcome shift after years of volatile guest behaviour in an already competitive market. For hoteliers, this represents a genuine opportunity to move beyond reactive decision-making and plan pricing and distribution strategies with real confidence, finding a more optimal balance between revenue and booking volume in the process.
With demand patterns well established, smarter pricing and offers become imperative in 2026
SiteMinder’s data reveals that average daily rates (ADR) across the UK rose modestly by 1.35% year-on-year in 2025, to £191.55 up from £189.00 in 2024, while cancellation rates and booking lead times remained largely unchanged, staying at 18% and 35 days respectively. It’s a similar story globally, with cancellations staying at 19% and booking lead times at 32 days.
Fridays unsurprisingly continued to command the highest average rates, averaging £215 across 2025, up 0.93% from £213.02. With an ADR of £193.59 Saturday is now the second highest priced day, while Thursday is now third––down from second––averaging £192.31, and Sunday remains the lowest priced day at £220.86.
Seasonality remains strong, with July and August together accounting for just over 19% of all bookings and seeing above-average annual rate increases, with ADR in July increasing by 2.4%, to £215.39 from £210.36, and by 1.7% in August, to £200.41 from £197.08. The lowest priced month was again January, with rates averaging £149.95.
The data uncovers some clear gaps where hotels can leverage the relative stability of current booking conditions to make incremental gains through dynamic pricing and well-crafted offers, based on in-depth, real-time business intel.
For example, the difference between the most and least expensive night in the UK converts to US$50 using average exchange rates across 2025, while in neighbouring Ireland this reached US$87. Similarly, the difference between the highest and lowest priced months decreased to £65.40 from £66.60 in 2024, despite the overall increase in annual average rates.
The UK also remains among the world’s most short-stay-heavy destinations, with 81% of bookings lasting a single night compared to 73% globally, driven by the relative importance of business travel, city breaks and stopovers.
Hotels should ensure they are effectively using the tools available to identify and monetise high-demand windows, while crafting shoulder-season and midweek offers with attractive conditions around variables like cancellation terms, add-ons and discounts for booking extra nights.
While domestic bookings predominate, SiteMinder’s Top 12 booking channels unveils a more layered distribution picture
Domestic bookings held firm at just under 70% of all UK hotel arrivals, while also gaining share in several major markets. In Germany, local check-ins rose from 65% to 68% of all arrivals; in France, from 45% to 47%; and in the US, from 74% to 77%.
That said, we shouldn’t allow a stable guest mix to overshadow the shifts beneath the surface of the distribution landscape.
The entry of London-based G2 Travel into our Top 12 list for the first time, alongside the consolidation of WebBeds, Hotelbeds and global distribution systems (GDSs), underlies the tendency for B2B and specialist intermediaries to increasingly complement the familiar split between OTAs and direct bookings.
Likewise, notwithstanding the sustained predominance of domestic travel in the UK, Agoda consolidated its fourth-place position on SiteMinder’s annual list of Top 12 booking channels for UK hotels, while Indian B2B platform TBOHolidays retained its place on the list. This reflects the growing importance of Asian travel globally, which is widely believed to have surpassed its pre-pandemic outbound travel volumes for the first time in 2025.
Despite diverging predictions about AI’s effect on direct bookings, their position in our list remained unchanged, sitting third behind Booking.com and Expedia. That stability is not an invitation for complacency, however. Hotels that retain or grow this channel will be those who stay visible not just in traditional search, but in the AI-generated results that are increasingly shaping how guests discover and book.
In a steadier market, distribution must be a strategic priority
With UK hoteliers receiving a planning confidence boost due to more predictable booking behaviour from their guests, alongside relatively long booking lead times and relatively low cancellation rates, distribution should be a primary focus in 2026.
As SiteMinder’s annual list of Top 12 booking channels indicates, this means hotels adopting a genuinely multi-layered approach. Strong visibility on the major OTAs and hotel websites remains essential, particularly as AI-driven search and discovery continue to shape how guests evaluate and compare options. Beyond that core layer, B2B wholesalers and specialist intermediaries play an increasingly complementary role, extending reach into incremental and international demand segments.
Rather than viewing channels in isolation, operators should think in tiers. Direct websites and metasearch form the foundation; major global OTAs provide scale and consistency; B2B platforms broaden access to packaged and corporate demand; and specialist or emerging channels offer targeted exposure to specific source markets, including higher-spend and long-haul travellers.
Clearer demand and pricing patterns mean breathing room for UK hotels to identify underleveraged source markets, refine rate positioning around event-driven demand, and craft a revenue-driven channel mix. The advantage in 2026 will go to hotels who avoid excessive complexity and instead prioritise data-led precision in their pricing and distribution strategies.
SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report, including UK-specific charts and the Top 12 hotel booking revenue-makers of 2025, is available here.
The Top 12 booking channels for UK hotels in 2025 were:
The annual SiteMinder’s Hotel Booking Trends report, based on more than 130 million hotel bookings, is the most authoritative analysis of hotel bookings across 20 of the world’s most established destinations. It is powered by data from SiteMinder, the world’s leading guest acquisition and revenue platform, which serves more than 50,000 hotels, generating 250 million+ room nights and over US$55 billion in revenue for its hotel customers each year.
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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