Market Pulse: East Kent

We took a look at what’s been happening in East Kent so far this year, and what to expect for the rest of 2021.

Key Takeaways:

• Booking pace is returning to pre pandemic patterns in East Kent as guests are booking similar to 2019 pace.
• Recently updated travel restrictions for late June proves a promising future of increased long-term travel plans
• Ahead of summer, East Kent has returned to normal booking pace as it is in line with 2019 and overall occupancy levels look promising as travel continues to be on the rise.

In the East Kent market, for example, the chart above displays all bookings that have been made over the past 21 days by their check-in week. Additionally, the same values for 2019 are included to provide pacing context for the entire market.

In the short term, average booking lead time for the East Kent market is mostly in line with 2019 with more guests booking closer to their arrival dates in 2021. At this same time in 2019, more guests were booking 3-5 weeks out. This is likely due to high post-covid travel demand and eased restrictions.

Overall, the East Kent market is booking up in the next two weeks with an additional bump in pickup for select weeks in July and August. We can see that this is a similar  pattern compared to a “normal” year already exceeding 2019 in some periods. That being said, property managers that have not seen an increase for bookings in the first and third weeks of July and August this year need not worry as the market is pacing well in line with 2019 data and is projected to make a comeback with recently eased travel restrictions announced for late June.

In general, the East Kent market has continued to recover in 2021 with occupancy levels finishing in line with 2019 totals for April-June.

For a more detailed look of your properties against the market, check out our Insights tool today.

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