Net Affinity’s booking engine, designed for conversion optimization, analyses tons of hotel bookings every day. Looking at that data, we realized we’re sitting on a whole lot of information on booking patterns for independent hotels across Ireland and Europe.
Today, we’re sharing, for free, the most significant booking patterns of the last quarter of a million bookings to go through our booking engine.
We’ve dug into the demographics of who books, the devices they book on, and information on when they book.
The most significant feature we found was the fact that over one-fifth of all bookings were made on mobile phones. And, when bookings tablets are taken into account, that figure jumps to 37% of bookings made on mobile devices.
This is another piece of the puzzle confirming the shouting that every digital marketing blog and company – yes, ours too! – has been doing for the past few years about the mobile revolution.
Mobile is important, both in the wider field of travel and for independent hotels. Mobile bookings aren’t a phenomenon for big chains or OTAs to claim alone – they’re sweeping independent hoteliers too. This is partially due to more hotels making sure their websites are responsive on mobile and optimising for conversions on those devices. It also has to do with technology improving, potential guests getting more comfortable with their phones and tablets, and the many and varied ways there now are to pay on mobile.
What else did we discover? We found out that while men convert on site more frequently than women, women represent 60% of all bookings and revenue – so they’re visiting your hotel website more often. We also found out that January is the most popular month to make bookings in – although it’s not when most people are actually travelling. Those January blues have a significant effect on your hotel’s bookings!
For the rest of our booking patterns analysis, check out the slideshare above or download the complete infographic.
Words By Taylor Smariga