2017’s digital experience trends show how hotels can increase direct online conversions

The Sabre Digital Experience team recently concluded an analysis of hotel website and customer shopping behavior for the first half of 2017. Travelers are relying more on mobile phones and tablets for both hotel shopping and booking, spending less time on webpages as a result, but showing more willingness to book once they’ve checked availability in a hotel’s booking engine.

Here are a few of the insights from our data analysis:

• Look-to-book up 19 percent year-over-year: The number of visitors who complete a transaction after checking availability in the booking engine rose to 5 percent this year – a 19 percent year-over-year increase
• Significant increase in mobile traffic: Visits from smartphones and tablets now account for 51 percent of total traffic to hotel websites
• More revenue per site visit: Average revenue per visit to hotel websites for the first two quarters of 2017 increased by 15 percent versus the same period in 2016

This increase in mobile device traffic to hotel websites leads to another question hoteliers must consider, sooner rather than later: Are you losing bookings because guests can’t find the information they’re looking for, easily, on their phones?

During a recent webinar, we asked hoteliers whether they still rely on separate mobile websites instead of having a single, responsive site design. The results surprised us: 40 percent of hoteliers said they still have a separate mobile site instead of a single, responsive website.

That decision could be costing hoteliers a lot in terms of revenue and lost bookings. When we analyzed data from 26.5 million hotel website visits from the first half of 2017, we found that responsive websites greatly outperformed non-responsive websites: Look-to-book rates for responsive hotel websites averaged 5.5 percent, compared to 3.9 percent for non-responsive sites, while revenue per site visitor averaged 16.5 percent higher for responsive websites versus for non-responsive sites.

With such a clear difference in revenue, the importance of having a responsive website and booking engine can’t be understated. Research shows that the top factors impacting hotel website bounce rates are page load times and how well content displays on the screen – especially on mobile devices.

This is why the new SynXis Booking Engine provides hoteliers with a fast, responsive web booking solution – one that helps guests quickly find the information they need on any device. By offering dynamic personalization and a true shopping cart experience, SynXis Booking Engine can increase conversions on your website.

Get more insight into how travelers are engaging with hotel websites. Get in touch with us today to create a strategy that increases look-to-book rates and converts more guests while they’re shopping.