Matthias Tillmann: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Ron Josey from Citigroup. Please go ahead, your line is now open.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, this is Mike on for Ron. Thanks for taking our question. You mentioned potential uplift from the reopening in China. Can you maybe talk about any early benefits you might be seeing now that COVID restrictions have been lifted there? And could you maybe frame the size of the potential impact there as the recovery accelerates? Thank you.
Axel Hefer: So, yes, absolutely. We don’t operate a platform in China. So, the benefits that we are seeing and expecting are twofold. One is obviously more travel into China and particularly from Asia. And the other one is higher ADRs in Asia and in big western cities from outbound Chinese travelers. The latter we have not seen yet. Bute have seen a significant increase in searches and also bookings into China. The overall impact is difficult to quantify. We have still some travel restrictions in place in some markets into China. So, we do expect that trend to accelerate. But it is too early to tell and to quantify the exact effect for this year.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay, great. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Kevin Kopelman from Cowen. Please go ahead, your line is now open.
Kevin Kopelman: Great. Thanks so much. So, a couple of questions. First one, on the January metrics you gave, can you give us a sense of what those look like relative to 2019 for revenue specifically?
Matthias Tillmann: Yes, I can give you a bit more color. However, I deliberately not comment on 2019 levels as it’s been four years now, and we have rebased our revenue and trading at a different gross margin profile than before the pandemic. So, we think the year-over-year comparison is more meaningful, and that is how we look at our business now. But let me be a bit more specific with what we see year-over-year. As I said, demand continues to be robust. Qualified referrals increased by more than 10% year-on-year in Europe and around 5% in Rest of World, while qualified referrals decreased slightly year-on-year in Americas due to the decline in Latin America, which more than offset the increase in North America. Revenue per qualified referrals in Europe and Americas were up around 20% and slightly more in Europe than Americas and around 50% in Rest of World.
And then one other thing to call out. I mean I mentioned that referral revenue was up more than 30% year-on-year globally. You should keep in mind that January was lower relative to February and March as a percentage of 2019 levels in 2021. So, everything else being equal, year-over-year revenue numbers for the quarter will be lower than the January figure just due to this comp effect. I hope this gives you a bit more color and helps to model the quarter for you.
Kevin Kopelman: Yes, for sure. Thanks for that. And then just a different question. Could you talk about how bid intensity has trended on the platform, on average over kind of Q4, Q1 quarter-to-date? Thanks.
Axel Hefer: Yes, sure. So, Q4 was very strong. I mean, so we’ve seen a high level of competition both on our platform, but also on other performance marketing platforms and channels that we engage in. And we’ve seen a seasonal decline in bid intensity, which is quite common from December into January. So, the current bidding — current bid intensity is lower in January compared to what we’ve seen in Q4.
Kevin Kopelman: Perfect. Thanks Axel, thanks Matthias.
Axel Hefer: Thank you, Kevin.
Operator: Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Brian Fitzgerald from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead, your line is now open.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, this is for Brian. Thanks for taking our question. On your platform, we have a good mix of hotels and alternative accommodations. So, my question is, have you seen any divergence in the trends for traditional versus alternative so far in Q4 and in January this year?
Matthias Tillmann: Sure. Yes. So, the click-out share of alternative accommodation had increased during the pandemic on our platform. But we called out already last quarter, and I think even before that it trended back to our mix that we had pre-pandemic. So, right now, it’s roughly flat with 2019 levels, as city trip approach pre-pandemic levels as well in our travel type mix. And with travel recovering and in particular, city trips and international travel coming back, we have seen a reversal of the trend towards hotel, and that is not unexpected, to be honest. So, I think alternative accommodation has a meaningful share in our traffic mix and will stay relevant for our users going forward. However, key value proposition is the hotel price comparison and has a significantly higher share than alternative accommodation for us.
Unidentified Analyst: Very good. Thank you.
Matthias Tillmann: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. There are no additional questions waiting at this time, so I’d like to pass the conference back over to Axel Hefer for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Axel Hefer: Thank you for taking the time to participate in today’s earnings call. We appreciate your continued interest. We are very proud of the operational results achieved this year and we are very excited by the year to come. Our continuous focus on price, combined with the positive start of our Hotel Direct strategy, is giving us confidence that we can better serve our users and reach more travelers in the years to come. Thank you very much and see you next quarter.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.
