Hotels might not have seen advance bookings for the week in Christmas this year, but there is still good news. The hotels are seeing last minute guests and many of them are opting for drive downs in these times. Driving down is a new trend as compared to flying down in pre-Covid times, when guests could make all bookings beforehand, including flight and accommodation.

The director of the Alcon Victor Group, Varun Albuquerque said, “So even if some rooms may not be taken, hotels can still expect them o be filled up by last-minute arrivals. Some bookings are even received on the day the guest arrives. Basically, the booking pattern has changed because of Covid. The booking window period, which was earlier a week or ten days, has reduced to two to three days now.”

In the last two days, Goa has seen a considerable increase in domestic arrivals with occupancy rates in hotels shooting up by 80%. Bookings have increased, but with availability of so many hotels, tariff is still low in spite of high occupancy.