Late searches for London hotel rooms almost trebled at the height of yesterday’s Tube strike,
The action on the London Underground saw an across-the-board double-digit increase in hotel searches as commuters sought to stay overnight in the capital rather than risk lengthy journeys home.
LateRooms.com reported searches via its mobile app increasing by as much as 261% with two massive spikes during the day.
The data suggests that people were waiting later than ever to decide whether they should stay in London or find a route back home.
The hotel booking company compared searches made for London on July 29, the Wednesday before the latest strike, with searches made on two Tube strike days – July 8 and August 5.
Searches for the same night were up 187.5% between 7am and 9am compared to searches made during the same time in the previous week. Between 9pm and 11pm, searches were up by 261.9% on the same time the previous week.
The searches made between 7am-9am on July 8 were up 137.5% compared to a standard day. And between 9pm-11pm, searches were up 47% on usual.
More than half (53%) of all London searches made on the LateRooms.com app on July 8 for that night were made between 2pm and 11pm. But during the second strike yesterday, 68% of all searches made that day were made between 2pm-11pm.
The data suggests that people have become more confident about waiting until later to look for their hotel stay following the first strike.
Spokeswoman Andrea Tarpey said: “We know that people are increasingly comfortable in using mobile apps to make late or spontaneous bookings, and in fact 40% of bookings made on our app are for stays the same day.
“But the London searches we saw through the app during this week’s Tube strike show that significantly more people were searching for a late stay in the city.”