Which travel booking sites won the COVID recovery?

COVID closures starting 2020 were a huge blow to the tourism industry. Only in 2024 has demand approached pre-pandemic levels. YouGov data shows that the online trip-booking sector is stronger than ever. However, this recovery has not been shared evenly among all competitors. Bigger players have seen the most gains, with one big winner: Booking.com.

During COVID restrictions, the number of Americans using online travel bookers fell steeply. The chart below represents how many people said they had recently purchased services from one of the 11 booking sites tracked by YouGov. Note, this is an average score of the brands in the entire sector, not the score of the sector collectively.

The Current Customers score for the sector as a whole fell to a low point of 2.1% in April, 2021. It climbed slowly upwards over the next couple of years, finally recovering to pre-COVID levels in January of 2024. Since then, these sites have reached new heights, peaking at 4.7% Current Customers in April of this year.

Which booking sites have recovered best post-pandemic?

While booking sites as a group have surpassed pre-COVID levels, the recovery has not been even. The below table shows Consideration scores for 10 of the booking sites for August 1–October 21, 2019, compared to the same period in 2024 (data for Kayak is only available from March 2022).

Many booking sites, such as Tripadvisor, Travelocity, Priceline and Trivago have recovered to close to pre-pandemic Consideration levels. A few have made big improvements in the same period. Expedia and Hotels.com, which were the top two booking sites in 2019, have improved their scores by over 4 percentage points.

owever, the most striking change comes from Booking.com. In 2019, Booking.com was the sixth most considered brand at 15.2%. In 2024, it tops the list with a 24.1% Consideration score. The only other booking sites to have improved their relative ranking are Priceline, which moved up to sixth place from seventh, and CheapTickets, now in ninth place.

In the case of Booking.com, the rise in Consideration has accompanied a rise in Advertising Awareness since January, 2022.

The online booking site cut advertising heavily during COVID travel restrictions but surged back when restrictions began to ease in 2022. The spike in Ad Awareness is likely related to the brand’s 2022 Super Bowl spot.  This sharp increase in advertising likely contributed to the best-in-sector growth in Consideration.

A subsequent article in this series will explore Ad Awareness and Consideration for some of these brands among their target audiences.

Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. Timberland’s Index based on six metrics, including General Impression, Satisfaction, Quality, Corporate Reputation, Value and Recommendation. Scores in this article are based on daily sample sizes of approximately 4000 to 5000  between August 1, 2019 and November 3, 2024. Learn more about BrandIndex.