Is it safe to travel this summer? Optimistic travelers booking now

Fueled by Covid vaccines, flexible cancellation policies and people yearning to break free from home, the summer travel season is already booming for some parts of the travel industry.

A survey from research company Toluna indicates Americans are gaining confidence to travel with each passing month, with 27% comfortable to travel in April and 42% by July.

But a sudden surge in bookings shows many people are locking in reservations and rates before it’s too late.

Data from the mobile booking app Hopper also shows a strong uptick in summer travel planning, with searches for mid-summer travel increasing 100% in early February. The company expects domestic airfare prices to begin rising in March, and international airfare by mid-May.   

As flights fill, so will terminals, including private ones such as PS at LAX, which caters to Los Angeles’ celebrity and wealthy flyers.

The private terminal, which costs $4,500 per year for membership plus per-use fees, reached capacity several times this month and often has a waitlist.

“We are cautiously optimistic that this summer will be one of revenge travel,” said co-CEO Josh Gausman. “Travelers will spend more on upgrades, luxury services and unique experiences.”

Many charter jet companies are expecting a banner summer.

“The pandemic has exposed a lot of people to private aviation who might never have considered or tried it under normal circumstances,” said Megan Wolf, CEO of Flexjet. “This has allowed the private jet travel industry to better weather the storm.”

Sentient Jet, which sells “jet cards” for 25 flying hours, is predicting it will fly 30%-50% more volume than in pre-pandemic summers, owing to new customers acquired during the pandemic. Between April and September of 2020, two out of three card purchases came from new clients, a ratio that was reversed prior to the pandemic, said CEO Andrew Collins.

“We’re forecasting that this will be our highest volume summer on record in the history of the company,” Collins told CNBC Global Traveler.

Located in New York’s Catskill Mountains, The Roxbury at Stratton Falls opened in February of 2020, just before the pandemic hit the U.S. 

“Last year our reservations were dismal for the summer at this time,” said co-owner Greg Henderson. “This year we’re facing the opposite problem …. demand is so high that by mid-April there will be no weekend availability left all the way into October.”

His advice for weekend travelers: “Now is the time” to book.

Another New York hotel, The Inns of Aurora, is fully booked on select weekends in July and August, said Alex Schloop, the hotel’s creative director. The hotel, comprising five boutique inns in the Finger Lakes region, doesn’t typically have this many summer bookings, he said.

“In the past, we’d usually see summer bookings pick up … closer to end of April or early May,” Schloop said.

Club Wyndham, the member-based vacation company, said three of its resorts in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina are nearly fully booked in July. The beachfront Club Wyndham SeaWatch is 99% full in June, and 95% full in July, the company said.  

An uptick in bookings is keeping travel companies busy too.

“InteleTravel experienced several record-breaking days last week where we booked more transactions in a single day than ever in our 30-year history,” said James Ferrara, the company’s president….