BookLogic publishes results on Turkish hotel market 2015

  • Turkish travel bookings diminish by 50% in 2015
  • Amid hotel closures throughout Turkey in 2016, BookLogic reviews direct sales performance against rates and occupancy and the immediate opportunity for businesses to remain afloat.
  • BookLogic records 7% ADR rise and 18% increase in room nights • BookLogic announces top performing sales channels and identifies the strongest performing direct consumer channels
  • BookLogic identifies the keywords that are still driving traffic and direct sales
    Monday 25 April 2016: BookLogic records seven percent growth in Average Daily Rate (ADR) and an increase of 17.88% of room nights in Turkey following a turbulent year for the region’s travel industry.

BookLogic has reviewed the performance of its hotel booking business in Turkey for 2015 during a year of political and financial crisis diminishing travel bookings by 50%. The hotel software solutions and marketing services provider continued growth through optimising the full revenue management sales channel network.
Reviewing a selection of 20* hotels picked at random, the data showed that rate parity has performed well in the Turkish Market, and the ADR increased from 2014:€116.88 to ADR 2015: €125.05.

The revenue and marketing specialist identified a change in the top performing sales channels between 2014 and 2015 as Booking.com and Expedia took first and second place, HRS significantly diminishes as it focuses on a change of business model away from acting as a sales agent, Agoda business drops and HotelBeds increases its share by 20 – 30%.

The BookLogic team who help over 1,500 hotels with their revenue technology and services have focused on optimising keywords to drive direct bookings. Announcing that the most successful formula for creating the keyword databases continues to be :
City + Hotel + location + hotel type
With the following keywords thread the most challenging sets:

  • istanbul airport hotels
  • istanbul hotels old city
  • antalya hotels 7 star
  • cappadocia cave hotel

BookLogic has leveraged online digital marketing channels to enhance visibility for its clients and drive direct business around their own brands. Based on top keywords almost all of BookLogic customers listed between first and fifth result pages of Google. The BookLogic marketing optimisation team have created an online marketing formula in its Optimisation Marathon, which in three months results in a change of Return of Investment (ROI) rate between 1:20 and 1:50.

The general travel market in Turkey is experiencing a significant drop in business from Russian tour operators and holidaymakers, which represents one in every three visitors.
“It’s been a turbulent year for the Turkish market and the significant drop in business from the Russian market has hit the travel industry hard,” said Oral Yigitkus, CEO, BookLogic. “Hotels have to change tactic fast and move their business utilising more flexible online and distribution marketing channels. In volatile and dynamic markets hotels need to respond quickly which many of their traditional suppliers, tour operators are unable to achieve. More travellers are circumventing tour operators and booking and planning their own holidays.”

Top Sales channels:

  • Booking.com
  • Expedia
  • Agoda
  • Hotelbeds
  • HRS
  • GTA

Top direct channels

  • google / organic
  • yandex / organic
  • yahoo / organic
  • direct / none
  • bing / organic
  • google / cpc
  • facebook / referral
  • tripadvisor / referral
  • tophotels / refferal
  • ask / organic

Top keywords for direct bookings

  • istanbul airport hotels
  • istanbul hotels old city
  • antalya hotels 7 star
  • cappadocia cave hotel

*Data source:

Market: Turkey
Data: 20 randomly selected hotels – BookLogic clients
Hotels: boutique, 4 and 5 star or similar room size
Cities: Istanbul, Antalya, Cesme, Bodrum, Fethiye