Hostelworld YTD revenues approach pre-Covid levels

Online booking platform operator Hostelworld told shareholders on Wednesday that a strong start experienced in the first 12 weeks of the year had continued through April and into early May, with both bookings and demand approaching 2019 levels.

Hostelworld stated that net bookings reached 73% of 2019 levels in week 18 and, due to higher booking values, while revenues came in at 97% of those recorded at the same time two years earlier.

Overall, Hostelworld said it was seeing recoveries continue across all destinations and demand segments - most notably in Europe, which has almost fully recovered to 2019 levels with some markets exceeding 100%.

It has also seen booking momentum return in Oceania and Asian destinations as markets reopen for international travel, albeit more slowly, while long-haul bookings have now reached 70% of 2019, with trips from the US and Canada into European destinations at 2019 levels.

"We are very confident in our business model and in our proven capability to capture the pent-up customer demand to travel, to share experiences, and to Meet the World. The performance to date has been stronger than we had initially expected, and we are well geared to the travel recovery," said chairman Michael Cawley.

"Despite a number of external factors including inflationary pressures and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, we anticipate this strong recovery trajectory to continue."

As of 1130 BST, Hostelworld shares were up 5.16% at 85.18p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com