The Real Cost Of Ignoring Feeder Market Data

December 5, 2024
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Common KPIs such as Average Daily Rate (ADR), occupancy and booking window are great at giving destination marketing organizations a bird’s eye view of how their financials are shaping up, but it’s often the data on feeder markets that tells you why you’re seeing them change.

Feeder market data is the DMO’s gateway to the deeper insights needed to really maximize occupancy and revenue. 

While headline KPIs vary according to macro-economic changes and fluctuations in demand, feeder market data can tie some of the shifts you’re seeing to the changing make-up of your visitors’ profiles — and that of competing destinations. It is particularly valuable in larger destinations that boast year-round appeal, and busier ‘off-seasons’. Your visitors may differ from season to season.

What Constitutes Feeder Market Data? 

Short term rental feeder market data tells you where guests are traveling from and which platform they booked on — but that’s not all. Because we’re the short term rental data platform that has direct source data obtained straight from property managers’ booking systems, we can also tell you the value of those guests. This unlocks the potential to pursue an enhanced strategy because you can now target increased spend per visitor, rather than just volume of stays. 

What Can This Tell You? 

Feeder market and spend per visitor data will highlight whether your rental, your destination or your competitors are attracting different types of guests from different origin markets at different times of the year. The changing make-up of your guest profile can clue you into events that weren’t on your radar, and seasonal trends that see people from different states or countries arriving at different points in the calendar. Over time, it can even help you identify important new markets locally or overseas. 

How Destination Marketing Organizations Can Respond

If your competing destinations show superior ADR and RevPAR (Revenue per Available Rental) performance, then exploitation of a market you are not targeting could well be the reason. Once you’ve identified these discrepancies, you’ll be able to measure the revenue potential of your new audience and target ad campaigns at specific zip codes or international locations. It’s easy to visualize our Destination Data feeder market information using our heat maps, which will give you an immediate sense of whether you’re getting your marketing right. 

These feeder reports take into account both hotel data powered by Amadeus Hospitality and short term rental reservations, so you’ll also be able to see the whole picture of demand and performance. Plus, you can see performance for different unit types and compare rental data to hotel data to see which is attracting more guests. 

Guests from different feeder markets can have dramatically different budgets. One study discovered travelers from Maryland have the biggest vacation budgets — $2,700 vs $355 for those from West Virginia. So, it’s important to be evaluating target locations on a regular basis.

For Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), feeder market analysis can also identify entirely new feeder markets or confirm that an annual marketing push is missing the start of a key market’s main booking season.

If you want to learn more about using our DestinationData Dashboard feeder market data, why not sign up for a personalized demo?

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