Net Affinity analyzed guest booking behaviour across 6 million hotel website sessions as part of our digital trends report; we looked at how long it takes guests to book, and which device they like to book on. We also examined booking and cancellation rates, and even which rate plans and room types perform the best.
What did we find?
Firstly, how many days on your hotel website does it typically take to persuade someone to book?  The answer: usually, just one! On every device â€" mobile, desktop and tablet â€" a vast majority of transactions happen on the first day someone visits your site.
Do devices affect when guests book? Yep â€" mobile users usually book more quickly. This might be due to people making more last-minute bookings on mobile, or researching on desktop and booking on mobile (although this is usually the other way around!).
Okay, that’s all interesting. It tells you that your website needs to make a great first impression (while not forgetting to drive further engagements). There’s a lot more we can learn, though…
How far away from arrival do your guests book? Here’s a key statistic: we discovered:
29% of all bookings that arrived from August 1st to October 31st were made within just one week of arrival.
What ever happened to long term predictive power? All is not lost, though: a full quarter of bookings were made more than 60 days before arrival. You still have some room to plan.
After a person books a room, how close to arrival are they likely to cancel? As close as they can! In fact, our revenue specialists noticed that in the last week before an arrival date, the percentage of cancellations actually outstrip bookings.Â
The complete trends report comes with a deep dive into all this data and a thorough analysis, complete with bookings and arrivals by day of the week. We also cover bookings by rate plan and room type, action points for the savvy hotelier, and 5 other topics ranging from design to device trends.
To check out the full, free trend report, just click below:
Net Affinity
Focused exclusively on the hotel sector, Net Affinity has collated the brightest, most commercially focused, experienced and passionate team of online marketers, account managers, designers and developers whose combined skill set ensures our clients online success and continued growth. We created this blog because we wanted to share our expertise with you, and offer you the knowledge that over 15 years experience in the hotel industry has given us.
