Hopper's Hayley Berg on Fourth of July travel outlook

4th of July weekend is quickly approaching and already millions of travelers are expected to be taking off. According to travel site Hopper, 24,000,000 seats are expected to depart from US airports. That's a 7% increase from this time last year. Joining us right now on the outlook for travel and what it's going to cost you is Hoppers lead Economist Hailey Berg. Hailey, where are all these people going? We're seeing a lot of demand to major U.S. cities, which is typical over long weekends. So think New York, Seattle, LA. But as with most summers, Europe is top of mind and there is a tremendous amount of demand also going to London, Paris, Rome, Athens, even Tokyo, which is a top destination. More people traveling. Are they paying more or less than they were last year? Less. Airfare domestically is down about 18% compared to this time last year. International airfare is down different amounts to different regions. But the good news is most travelers are paying 10% less or more on some of those most expensive long haul tickets. Why? Why is that? Is it fuel prices down or something else? Fuel prices is part. Another part is capacity. Last summer we saw an incredible amount of demand to destinations in Europe and Asia in particular, but capacity hadn't recovered. Most airlines had focused on domestic capacity coming out of the pandemic and weren't there yet on international when international demand exploded. This summer, most airlines have added back more capacity than they had pre pandemic to some of these top international destinations. Combine that with more more demand and slightly better jet fuel prices, we end up with much better prices than last year. What about rental cars once you get there? Rental cars in the US averaging about $48 which is pretty much in line with last year $48 a day, $48 a day. I never imagined paying 48 bucks a day. I'm always looking at more expensive prices. Is that because I'm putting too many add-ons on or paying for insurance or something? Likely is driven by where you're looking to pick up a vehicle. Take Florida for example. You can get a rental car in Florida most major cities for about $20 a day. But if you're renting in New city, another major hub, you'll likely see higher prices. You get so tired from pedaling those cars you're talking about Haley. I think that me and my suitcase wouldn't. These are actual $20.00 I need. You need to send me the the list. I actually rented a car in Florida and I can attest about $24.00 a day is what I paid. What was that called? The sub compacts. Maybe a sub compact? Yeah, an EV. They're trying to get rid of it. They'll pay you 24 to drive with. Yeah. Oh, really? What was the car? What kind was it? It was a minivan. What? No way. I and it's like 100 bucks a day. No, I get that 100 bucks. I get that. Here we have a minivan for you. Well, you don't understand. I wouldn't. I'll pay twice not to have to drive over twice as much. Especially if you go to Orlando. Forget it. Everybody wants a minivan. Haley, let's talk a little bit about hotels. What about those costs? Factoring into it, Where does it stand this year? On average about 232 per night for a hotel stay. But rental homes are very popular, especially in the US for travelers going out with family for the long weekend. Those are averaging about $400.00 a night or about $200.00 per bedroom per night. So most travelers looking at at least a two-bedroom vacation rental has that capped prices for hotels. Have they not been able to write raise prices more because people would prefer to go to an Airbnb or VRB VRBO? If you're traveling with with family, it's a heck of a lot cheaper. Most travelers are making those trade-offs themselves, so prices between rental homes and hotels are actually very competitive. What we typically see is that consumers are self dividing. If it's a larger family, most of the time they're going with a vacation rental if the economics are better. But think about a city like Miami. Oftentimes in cities where there is such a high supply of hotels, it can actually be cheaper to rent multiple hotels rooms then get a vacation rental on the water, for example. So in different markets the competition is different, but most of the time we see that hotels and vacation rentals can be pretty comparable as long as you're not looking at a luxury beachfront house or the pool, etcetera. Haley we we've got to run but very quickly. If you haven't booked already, is it too late? It's late, but there are still some deals available. You have to be flexible. Depart on 4th of July, come back a weekday the week following and be flexible on where you go. You might be able to find a deal that way and what you want to drive TV of minivan, pick your choice. You may be in a Toyota Sienna. I like the Toyota Sienna.