Is Anyone Traveling Right Now?

published on May 7, 2020 by RedWeek

A recent Forbes article pointed out that 100% of travel destinations are now affected by COVID-19. With so much unknown, is anyone booking travel right now? Believe it or not, there are some people booking trips.

Since the pandemic outbreak, most of our members have had to cancel their spring vacations. Our customer service team continues to work tireless hours to help every owner and renter with cancellation solutions. We recommend owners who have not booked their weeks yet to move their reservations out as far as possible to allow time for travel to resume.

As the pandemic begins to level out, we are now beginning to see trickles of bookings coming in again. Here are some insights to our recent member activity:

Hawaii is our most-booked location, taking up 34% of our bookings since April 1st. Members are booking an average of 149 days in advance – with the first check-ins beginning at the end of June.
California seems to be getting a lot of attention, at 20% of our bookings since April 1st. The average time between booking date & check-in is only 85 days. Most bookings are from relatively local travelers – primarily Californians or Arizonians heading to the coast. Even though resort amenities are still limited due to COVID-19, we have quite a few bookings in May and into the summer.
South Carolina bookings (Hilton Head & Myrtle Beach) make up 15% of bookings since April 1st. Many hope to get there at the end of May, now that things are starting to re-open. People are booking only 86 days out, on average.
Although our members are itching to get back to warm weather destinations, they aren’t booking those locations too soon. June 20th is the earliest check-in date for the Caribbean Islands.
It seems members are less confident about Mexico, as the earliest check-in we see is October 19th.
Surprisingly, we are seeing a spike in Missouri bookings from mid-west travelers. Big Cedar Wilderness Club has a few guests planning June – July weeks.