In 2022, 68% of travel and tourism sales were made online. As travel purchasing happens predominantly online, there is also more information readily available.
NB: This is an article from Hotelchamp
As a result, the variety of choices for travel consumers has increased significantly. Particularly for booking accommodation, online travel agents continue to attract guests with aggressive discounting. This is why travellers have become used to seeking the best prices.
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In fact, 26% of people did not make a booking because they thought the price was too high.
To maintain high conversion rates, it’s crucial to give potential guests a reason to choose you over competitors. And this should be regardless of their position in the customer journey. To stay competitive and get direct bookings, a hotel created a special winter discount on their direct channel. We look at how they communicated it at every step of the journey through a 360-degree campaign.
What was the hotel’s goal?
Generally, the months between November and March are off-peak for the hospitality industry. With increasing operating costs and continuing challenges, it’s essential that hoteliers maintain high occupancy rates even during off-peak periods. Ready to offer a discount for guests looking to book between November and March, our customer wanted to increase their occupancy rates with a 15% off special winter deal.
Knowing the importance of giving potential guests a reason to stay during all stages of their buyer journey, they aimed to communicate their offer holistically.
Step 1: Create a strong offer
With the help of Hotelchamp Convert, our customer created a website message for the mobile version of their website. Personalised with the hotel’s unique branding, the message conveyed the 15% off deal for travellers booking between November and March. On top of that, it also included more details about the offer, to further incentivise guests to take advantage of it: free cancellation, modern and cosy rooms and a reassurance that the direct price is the best. Lastly, the message had a call-to-action (CTA) button which encouraged guests to “Book now with discount”. By clicking the button, guests would be redirected to the booking engine, where a discount code was applied.
This offer acted as a basis for all of the website messages in this campaign. We then adapted it accordingly for each goal that our customer wanted to achieve.
Step 2: Mobile website messages to help with guests’ research
By the end of 2022, over 60% of web traffic came from mobile devices. Already pre-pandemic the number of travellers that had completed a booking after researching on their smartphone had reached 79% and was still increasing. Over 63% of US consumers find it extremely important to be able to research and book their trips on mobile. Plus, 48% of US smartphone users are happy to plan, research and book their trip just using their phone.
Consequently, hoteliers must make sure their hotel is present at every step of the journey—particularly during guests’ research. This is why our customer decided to create a mobile welcome message. Like the base message, it included all of the offer’s details, their branding and the CTA button. To ensure a smooth browsing experience for the mobile user, it appeared only once per session, after 15 seconds of browsing time.
