If there’s one thing every small hotel owner knows, it’s that the only
certainty is change.
The Indian hospitality market is always changing, and the success of your hotel is going to depend quite a bit on your ability to recognise those changes and adapt to them. Hotels that do this are far more likely to resonate with their customers, get more bookings, and grow.
2024 was a good year for Indian hotels, with the occupancy rate finally exceeding pre-COVID levels. But what will 2025 hold? In this
post, we’ll show you 5 booking patterns we’ve seen across tier-2 cities in India (cities with a population of 50,000 to 99,999), and what this means for you.
1. More domestic travel (and smaller breaks)
More and more Indians are choosing to travel domestically instead of abroad. This coincides with a growing middle class in India, where more families than ever before have the disposable income to take trips.
2023 saw a 44.98% increase in domestic travel in India over the previous year. On top of this, Indian tourists seem to be showing more interest in “micro breaks”, short weekend trips spread over the year as opposed to one, single holiday. This trend is especially popular with younger travellers, and often tends to target smaller, Tier 2 cities.
What does this mean for hotels? Create packages and offers specifically aimed at domestic tourists and shorter-term travellers. A good Booking Engine, such as ours, Hotel-Spider, helps you do this.
2. More mobile bookings and digital natives
In 2024, mobile bookings made up 66.67% of the Indian travel market, and this number is projected to keep growing.
On top of that, as members of Generation Z come of age and start booking their own trips, more hotel guests are now full “digital natives” and expect seamless, smooth online experiences.
To adapt to this trend, you’ll need a booking engine that’s fully optimised for use on mobile devices. Any clunkiness, bugs, or delays
on mobile devices will seriously harm your conversions. You’ll also want to make sure your Channel Manager works across all mobile-friendly OTAs and metasearch engines.
3. Experience-based trips and niche tourism
Millennials and Gen Z now make up a large chunk of the Indian travel market, and these demographics tend to prefer authentic, immersive
experiences. These experiences often take place outside big, famous destinations in smaller, Tier 2 cities.
This can be an excellent opportunity for smaller, boutique hotels to offer more bespoke experiences to guests. Create custom packages and give guests the option to customize their own trips within your booking engine.
Trips based on adventure, wellness, culture, and cuisine appeal strongly to these types of travellers. In terms of marketing, think about
collaborating with social media influencers who specialize in specific activities and interests.
4. Religious and spiritual tourism
India has always been a major destination for religious tourism, with an almost endless list of festivals, events, and religious sites, including many Tier 2 cities. Today, religious tourism in India is booming. The Maha Kumbh in 2025, for instance, saw a truly staggering 660 million attendees.
Make sure your Channel Manager is optimised to target channels for religious groups such as pilgrims, as well as tourists who have a deep interest in India’s spiritual and religious traditions. Your booking engine should also offer specific packages around religious events and activities.
5. Vernacular search queries
Vernacular search queries in local languages and dialects grew by 18.02% year on year in 2025, and many of these searches come from smaller, Tier 2 cities where residents feel more comfortable searching in their own local language.
There is a big potential market here, which many hotels are missing out on. Make sure your ad and SEO strategy are geared towards potential customers searching in vernacular language, and make sure your Google My Business and OTA listings are optimised for this. You should also add multiple language options like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali to your booking engine.
WORK WITH HOTEL – SPIDER
At Hotel-Spider, our suite of tools, such as Channel Manager, Booking Engine, META & Payments Solutions, is designed to help you manage your properties, connect with more guests, and delight your customers. We can help you drive more bookings from Tier 2 cities and cater to a wider range of potential guests.
Schedule a demo with us to learn more
