A study of small hotels and hostels found current bookings are higher than pre-pandemic levels, with bookings from foreign tourists exceeding those of domestic tourists.
As the tourism industry recovers quickly, bookings have increased by 26% more than the pre-Covid era, said Supakrit Phansomboon, Little Hotelier's country manager for Thailand.
The data was gathered from operators of small hotels and hostels below the three-star level in Thailand, most with 20 rooms or less per property, featured in the database of two hotel management platforms: Little Hotelier and SiteMinder.
The booking growth rate in Thailand also surpassed the global rate, which surged 13.5% from the rate prior to pandemic.
In March 2022, bookings from foreign and local tourists were equal. However, foreign bookings now dominate at almost 80% this month.
After China reopened last month, Mr Supakrit said bookings from mainland tourists surged by 41% from mid-December last year.
He said China will become a major foreign market this year.
Mr Supakrit said even though major online travel agents (OTAs) such as Booking.com and Agoda emerged as the top channels to create revenue for Thai accommodation last year, direct bookings also played a key role, ranking third in terms of generating revenue.
The rankings of OTAs focused on specific markets have also increased because of the surge in foreign arrivals, including Trip.com for the Chinese market, Goibibo.com for India and Tiket.com for Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
The study found tourists now tend to stay longer, driven by the rising trend of "workations", especially among European and American tourists.
Tourists also look for more personalised services and spend around 21 days before making a decision, prompting hotels to prepare room promotions 20-30 days in advance, said Mr Supakrit.
As foreign tourists began to dominate bookings in small hotels last year, the average room rate in 2022 increased from 2019.
Meanwhile, the hotel cancellation rate in 2022 was 21%, declining from 26% in 2021 as travel curbs around the world were mostly lifted.
The pre-pandemic cancellation rate was 15%.
He said customers using Little Hotelier in 2022 grew by 35% from 2019, with increasing demand based on technology that assists small hotel management.
Mr Supakrit expects the customer database to grow 30% this year.
The company features roughly 9,000 small hotels and other accommodation globally, with Thailand contributing the largest share regionally.
