Rooms behind Webjet’s success

Hotel room bookings rather than flights have done most of the heavy lifting for Webjet as the travel business achieved a full-year profit for the 12 months to March 31.

A $150m turnaround in earnings to $134.8m helped deliver the $14.5m net profit, up from the previous year’s $81.6m loss.

Webbeds was the standout performer for the company with a 36 per cent leap in bookings compared to 2019, and a 22 per cent jump in earnings.

In contrast Webjet OTA failed to match 2019 volumes for the year due to airline capacity constraints, and the omission of bookings made with travel credits.

But high airfares meant there was an increase in the average booking value of flights from $890 to $1024.

The third brand in the group Gosee, a car and motorhome rental platform, fell well short of pre-pandemic levels due to the lack of inbound tourism into Australia and New Zealand.

Managing director John Guscic said overall the results were ahead of expectation with bookings, revenue and earnings exceeding 2019 figures in the second half of the year.

Sales in North America were three times that of pre-covid, and the business was 50 per cent more efficient, he added.

“We’ve been able to do that in a market that’s not fully recovered, and deliver $30m more in earnings this half than we did in the same half of 2019,” Mr Guscic said.

“That’s been the most pleasing for me.”

He said the strength of Webbeds was aided by domestic demand in key markets, with one or two night bookings bolstering longer bookings made by international travellers.

As a result, Webbeds’ revenue jumped to $236.7m, well ahead of Webjet OTA with $107.8m, and Gosee’s $19.5m.