floods and rain may have impacted hotels book ings in chennai an anomaly this time of the year with margazhi and holiday season fortunately the holiday spirit of chennaiites has not been hit according to travel industry sources an increasing number of chennaiites are set ting off on road trips to holiday destinations this weekend stayzilla an online marketplace for hotels and homestays has recorded a 30 increase in travellers from chennai compared to the previous two weekends the destinations are puducherry yercaud mahabalipuram and for some ambitious travellers ooty said ceo yogendra vasupal this includes both normal holiday goers and those who had to alter their plans when the airport was closed due to the deluge earlier this month we had booked a trip on december 6 but cancelled it because the airport was shut we later rescheduled it to the new year weekend and we had to book it at the last minute said nandhitha r a traveller from chennai industry observers state that holidaying itself is undergoing a makeover in an age when people are pressed for time with increasing workload at office lastminute travels seem to be the only resort for many today many youngsters do not have time even at workplace the window for advance leave is small as sometimes things crop up that require people to stay put said abraham alapatt chief innovation officer and head marketing and service quality of thomas cook india stayzilla in fact has seen an increase in lastminute bookings across the country this year rising smartphone penetration has also contributed to travel plans made in the eleventh hour wi t h ap p s l i ke stayzilla rooms tonite and oyo rooms travellers can now book hotels with a swipe data from rooms tonite a lastminute hotel booking app shows that around 3040 of bookings are by leisure travellers the app operational for more than a year saw a spike in the number of leisure bookings in 2015 there has been a marked increase in the number of bookings this time with leisure travellers clocking at 40 a rise from 15 in 2011 said karthick prabu chief product officer rooms tonite with ratings available for hotels online travellers are more confident about lastminute bookings sidharth gupta cofounder treebo hotels said we receive most lastminute bookings from 2035 age group when they have an option to verify ratings they put more trust on the hotels and tend to book last minute he added however this practice is predominantly an urban phenomenon