Study: 73% of economy hotel searches happen on mobile

Dive Brief:

Mobile is the dominant channel for hotel searches, making up 73% of the economy segment, 62% for midscale, 53% for upscale and 45% for the luxury hotel segment, according to performance marketing engine Sojern, which teamed with Google for a report on travelers ' path-to-purchase per a company press release.
A key finding is the difference between search and bookings on mobile, with only 11% of mobile bookings happening 30 days or more in advance of a trip, suggesting that mobile searches are not converting into mobile bookings.
"Travel audiences are incredibly savvy researchers and comparison-shoppers, sometimes visiting 30 or more websites, apps, and aggregators to research and book. When you account for the different devices being employed and overlay that with the multitude of channels visited throughout the path-to-purchase, the complexity for marketers increases exponentially," said Kurt Weinsheimer, Sojern's SVP of property solutions, in the press release.

Dive Insight:

More those in the travel industry, the findings suggest the need to enhance the mobile booking experience. Clearly, travelers have already embraced mobile for their search needs but have not yet made the transition to booking on mobile.

The findings also point to how mobiles' relevance to travel cuts across all categories of travelers. Although luxury hotels was the only segment below 50% for mobile search, it was the segment with the fastest growth with an increase of 23% year-over-year. Luxury hotel travelers also conduct 50% more searches overall compared to the economy and midscale segments, per the report.

Travel and hospitality marketers are looking at a number of ways to enhance the digital experience for travelers beyond search and bookings. Expedia is using facial recognition technology to parse a video with images of Hawaii and create a customized travel recommendation for each viewer. Airbnb recently tested 360-degree video tours while Marriott recently updated its app with swipeable experiences and real-time messaging.