Booking.com has nearly doubled the number of accommodation facilities it offers on its booking system this year, its 10th year of operation in the Croatian market, reaching almost 50,000, and recorded growth in all business segments, highlighted on Wednesday by the head of the company’s Croatian office, Goran Pleše.
Emphasizing that the number of accommodation facilities in Croatia accounts for about 5 percent of the total global number of such facilities in their system, Pleše assessed this as a significant success in the Croatian market, where they are marking 10 years of presence and five years since the opening of the office this year. Globally, Booking.com operates in 226 countries, where they have around one million accommodation facilities and websites in 42 languages.
“In terms of the number of accommodation facilities in our system, Croatia is one of the stronger countries in Europe, while among Mediterranean countries it ranks second, behind Italy where we have about 100,000 facilities,” Pleše noted for Hina, assessing that their success has also been contributed to by the increase in Croatia’s popularity in the global tourism market, as evidenced by the fact that in the past year, tourists came to Croatia via Booking.com from as many as 240 countries.
In Croatia, they collaborate well with almost all types of accommodation, among which hotels, apartments, rooms, family accommodation, holiday homes, hostels, villas, and others are almost equally represented in the system, and they are currently in Croatia and globally in the testing phase of camps that they only sporadically offer.
Those who decide to collaborate with them will continue to pay a commission of 15 percent of the room or accommodation unit price, and regarding prices, as Pleše states, Booking.com does not influence or determine them.
“We have noticed that the increase in demand has also brought a certain increase in the prices of tourist accommodation in Croatia, especially in August when we did not even have as many rooms as were requested. The company’s policy is not to disclose absolute figures regarding the number of arrivals and overnight stays booked through our platform, nor about revenues and other business indicators. I can only say that we have had increases in everything this year, especially in the pre and post-season from Far Eastern markets, primarily from South Korea, and we expect similar results next year,” emphasized the head of Booking.com’s Croatian office.
Among their top five fastest-growing destinations in Croatia, according to demand and reservations from around the world, are Novalja, Crikvenica, Trogir, Šibenik, and Rijeka. However, the most sought-after remain Split, Dubrovnik, and Zagreb, with the highest number of arrivals this summer via Booking.com coming from Italians, Germans, and Austrians.
“The average stay of guests in Croatia this summer was four nights, and among the millions of recommendations left by travelers on Booking.com, the most were for visiting the old town (historical core), beaches, food, relaxation, and nature, while the popularity of local and authentic facilities in family accommodation is also on the rise,” said Pleše, adding that more and more Croatian citizens are using their system and that this year they most sought accommodation in Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Budva.
He also presented a new global pilot project of Booking.com Experiences, which is actually a new mobile application that currently allows travelers who book accommodation through this platform in several of the most visited cities in the world (Paris, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, and others) to easily book and pay for tickets to attractions in those cities.
