A year ago we looked at how mobile hotel traffic measured in our overall traffic landscape, and predicted continued growth for the device; 12 months later, mobile has continued on its growth trajectory but revenue levels haven’t quite caught up to desktop and travellers’ confidence remains a large stumbling block on mobile.

In this article we’re going to explore the current traffic and website statistics for Net Affinity clients and what hotels need to do to get the most from mobile sales in 2018 and beyond.

What We’re Seeing

Website Visits: Mobile continues to dominate site traffic. As of March 2018, 60% of sessions are on mobile devices (an increase of 13% on last year), with both desktop and tablet in a continued decline. In general, according to a recent report from Ericsson, between 2016 and 2022 the traffic generated by smartphones will increase tenfold!

Revenue: Desktop is steadily losing ground but remains the largest source of revenue at 56% for Q1 2018 (down 6% on last year). The strong revenue is in part related to the higher average booking values achieved on desktop, with a 23% difference in ABV between mobile and desktop.

Tablet has been on a continued plateau since Quarter 4 2016 with very little movement in terms of traffic and revenue share and only a marginal decline in transaction volume.

What Does This Mean for Hotels?

While desktop devices continue to deliver the bulk of the revenue, mobile should be ignored at your peril. We are seeing significantly higher growth levels in revenue on mobile than on any other device with mobile revenue up 43% for Q1 2018 versus 24% on desktop.

In the US 40% of travel sales came from mobile in 2017 and mobile commerce now accounts for at least half of total e-commerce spend in 5 categories – toys & hobbies; video games & accessories; music, movies & videos; jewellery & watches and flowers & gifts.

According to the latest Travel Flash Report by Criteo , mobile also accounts for 45% of bookings for OTAs.

Mobile Performance Hinges on Confidence

In a recent study by Google 55% of surveyed travellers found they have too many sources of travel information to check before making a decision. In addition, a third of those surveyed stated they feel uncomfortable researching and booking travel on their mobile device.

Offering a secure, easy to use mobile experience to your site visitors can alleviate some of the stress they experience when trying to book on mobile. According to Criteo, 32% of hotel bookings were preceded by a click on another device, so if your mobile users decide to switch to desktop to complete their booking, it is crucial the information you offer is consistent across all devices.

Conclusion

Mobile hotel traffic continues to grow but revenue is still lagging behind desktop for a vast majority of hotels. We are starting to see isolated cases where mobile is now delivering over 50% of the revenue and we are expecting to see this become more widespread in the near future so is your site ready to offer a great experience to mobile visitors? Find out what you can do with our handy resource to combat mobile cart abandonment.

Christiane Foller is a Conversion Optimisation Specialist and Head of the Net Affinity Conversion Team. Christiane trained in Austria, Switzerland and in the US before taking on various management roles in Ireland, including General Manager at the Hampton Hotel Dublin. She has a keen interest in revenue and conversion optimization. As the head of the Net Affinity Conversion Team, she leads conversion projects, refining and polishing booking processes and user journeys. Christiane is also a master baker, and has a strong dislike for Universal's yellow Minions.

www.netaffinity.com