The booking window is shrinking — and reshaping the funnel
Booking windows have shrunk dramatically since 2020. For wintersport, the European average is now 22 days. For city trips it's 14. For summer holidays, 47. Each shift demands a different media-mix and campaign-timing approach.
What's driving the compression
Flexible cancellation policies after COVID normalised last-minute decisions. Weather and snow conditions have become more decisive than calendar. Inflation pressure pushes families to wait for deal moments. And AI-assisted planning lets travellers compress weeks of research into hours.
The net effect: the 'awareness → consideration → booking' funnel that used to take 8 weeks now takes 8 days for many trips.
What it means for campaigns
Front-loaded brand campaigns (September for winter) still build the shortlist but don't drive bookings. The conversion window is December → February for winter, and that's where retargeting, last-minute deals and addressable CTV earn back their cost.
For destination boards: budget allocation shifts from 70% inspiration / 30% conversion to closer to 50/50.
What this changes for us
At Spalder, we're advising clients to plan two-wave campaigns: a shorter, sharper awareness wave in October-November, then a heavier conversion-focused wave in December-February. Same total budget, fundamentally different timing.
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