There is no better feeling than putting on those sunglasses as you are set to catch your flight, the visit that dream beach spot, but all of a sudden you get a notification and that dream vacation is canceled. So shades off and you just took a week off from work for nothing to avoid this problem, especially during the COVID 19 pandemic. Travelers have been trips stocking by planning multiple trips and then canceling all but one. We asked Chris McCurdy, head of engineering at Kim Kim, about the trend, and he says Kim Kim hasn't seen it, but he believes it can be dangerous for smaller companies. So, in short, trips stacking. This is when travelers plan multiple trips, often for the same dates as a type of insurance policy if something goes wrong or they can't do a trip. The intention is to cancel all but one of the trips and to delay that decision as long as possible. For people who are doing this, I understand the reasons. I just hope you keep in mind, especially for smaller companies that are involved. It's harder for them sometimes to absorb cancellations as bigger companies can. And the uncertainty of if the trip's going to go through makes it harder for them to plan their comeback or rehiring and things like that. And they may take a more cautious approach and wait longer to hire people back and things like that. If they're not sure the trips are going to go through. Another thing I would say is there can be an aspect of the tragedy of the Commons with multiple bookings, double triple bookings of hotels and whatnot. This can lock up supply, which means fewer options for everyone and possibly higher prices too. So I understand the reasons. I think those are also things that would come with that as well. So all that said, Kim Kim, I'm not really seeing that much of this happen, and I think that's for a couple of different reasons. The first is travelers pay a deposit when they book a trip on Kim Kim, and this is often not refundable. It can often be postponed, but that money goes on to hold reservations at hotels with guides, other activities, and it also goes to pay the specialists for their time and work. They put into customizing this itinerary, making all the plans, et cetera. !invisible!, also, our specialists are based in their destinations, and they often have quite a good read on the local situation, how things are progressing with border restrictions and rules and things like that. What's open, what's partially open, the restaurant situation all that. So our travelers get a pretty good understanding of what's going on and how things are changing and how they have been. And our specialists can also help set up and arrange COVID tests rapid tests either on arrival or before returning to the US if needed. And that's all integrated into their travel plans and whatnot. So I think all of this gives a bit more information and confidence that the trip will go through. But also our specialists have been pretty direct in recommending people delay trips or delay paying a deposit a little bit longer. Or maybe they'll hold something for them, but not pay for it, just to make sure that everyone sort of happy with the whole planning experience. Travel during the pandemic has been difficult, and it takes a little bit of creativity to. McCurdy tells us some of the other trends they are seeing from travelers at Kim Kim in general, sort of the summer. And now people are starting to plan trips again, fall trips, holiday trips even next summer to get a jump on things we've seen over the last few months. More of a demand for outdoor destinations, which makes sense. Costa Rica, Iceland, Greece were all quite popular this summer, some even hitting record levels for us, which is great to see. And I think also places that are easy to access via direct flights from the u.s., which means more straightforward border rules. Less time in transit, so if there's a test, you might have to take that expires in 72 hours. That's for the full duration of your travel. So the shorter that travel is, the more that covers. And also less chance for any of those one flights to be delayed or changed or anything. In terms of the planning, we usually see about two to three months of lead time from when they start planning their trip to when they're actually looking to take it. Now that's based on 2019 numbers, and early in the beginning of this year, that was a bit longer. People were uncertain about the summer in maybe April through August that went back to about those normal levels. But then August, actually at the end of it, got closer to about two months, and September was even quicker around 1 and 1/2 months from people. So I think people are maybe trying to sneak in a last travel, a last trip this fall before things get Colder and get darker, et cetera. We've also seen the planning process a bit condensed and accelerated. So typically we see maybe roughly on average two weeks of planning time back and forth before someone will make a deposit over the summer. That was slightly less and down to just over a week in September and October. And the data still early there. But so I think people are planning pretty quickly as well for those last-minute trips. And those are some of the main things we're seeing now, but happy to keep everyone updated as we learn more as we get into the holiday season and then kind of the big planning season typically starts beginning of the year for summer, which you expect to be pretty popular this year as well. For more travel tips, be sure to check out the latest episode of Say Yes to travel. We're host Sarah Dan. She speaks with a special guest about travel tips when traveling abroad during this current climate, as always. Be sure to visit marcas as well as subscribe.
