Travellers booking their accommodation have access to more information than ever before.
NB: This is an article from Hotelchamp
Visiting on average 38 websites before making a booking, potential guests come across plenty of hotels that could satisfy their needs. And nowadays, the online environment brings about increasingly fierce competition.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and stay up to date
It’s more important than ever to stand out against your competitors and give guests an incentive to choose you.
There are many things that influence the behaviour of travellers landing on your hotel website. From price, to copy and imagery, many factors can either draw guests closer to booking or push them away. However, there are insights into the psychology behind consumers’ purchases that can help your marketing efforts immensely. We will look at how you can use consumer psychology to present information in a captivating way. You will learn what draws and keeps attention so that you can ultimately convert your website traffic into paying guests.
Why consumer psychology can help you
We face many decisions on a daily basis. From what to eat and what to wear, to who to talk to, and what to buy. Particularly when it comes to buying decisions, it’s impossible to personally evaluate all the different available options. This is why the human brain resorts to shortcuts in thinking to ease complex decisions, regardless if the decisions are the most beneficial ones or not. These shortcuts are the reason why you bring an umbrella when you see clouds in the sky without checking the weather forecast. They’re also the reason why you use the same dish soap your family, without checking for better options.
These shortcuts are called heuristics, and they affect consumers’ decision-making and judgements. As a result, knowledge of how heuristics influence travellers’ decision-making is crucial. Ultimately, it can help you avoid having your hotel thrown in potential guests’ discard pile.
Learning to influence decision-making
You might already be familiar with several types of heuristics without even realising. A popular one in the hotel industry is the use of the scarcity heuristic. This heuristic indicates that when an object is considered scarce, it is perceived as more valuable. You can often see this being used by OTAs to encourage purchases through messages like “Only 1 room left at this price!”. By giving the impression of limited availability, the perceived value of the room increases, making travellers more prone to booking.
However, there are more useful heuristics you can use when communicating messages and offers on your website. Particularly, the two that we will look into are anchoring and framing. Used together, these consumer psychology effects can have a powerful impact on travellers’ decisions when choosing a hotel.
