4 Trends Driving Mobile Growth in the Travel & Lodging Industry
Think about the last time you traveled, whether it was a quick work trip or a weeklong vacation. How many mobile apps did you use to research, plan, and coordinate your experience?
From hotel searches to flight reminders, today’s savvy travelers rely on mobile applications to make their adventures easier, more affordable, and more convenient. According to Travelport Digital, jet-setting consumers are consistently choosing the app experience over mobile web for almost every travel activity. The firm’s 2019 report on Mobile Travel Trends shows that 78% of consumers are “downloading either the same amount or more travel apps than last year and of those downloading apps, 60% use them regularly.”
With this increased usage comes increased conversions. According to Criteo, travel advertisers with a mobile application see 5x higher conversion rates on the app than through a mobile browser.
So just how are major travel brands driving this kind of engagement on their apps, and what should you do to see the same results? Here are four key trends driving mobile growth in the travel and lodging industry:
Unique Experiences
Gone are the days of checking out guidebooks, hiring a travel agent, or asking a hotel concierge for local tips. Beyond the booking and price comparison tools we’ve grown to expect, major travel brands are using their mobile apps to offer consumers curated experiences they may not find elsewhere.
AirBnB recently launched AirBnB Experiences, which allows travelers to search and book unique activities hosted by local experts in their destination. The platform already counts over 30,000 activities around the world, including cooking classes, bike tours, sailing excursions, and intimate concerts. According to the company, Experience bookings grew 2500% during 2017, a growth rate 25x higher than their Homes platform saw in its first year.
Booking.com launched a similar offering in 2016; when customers book a hotel on the app, they get access to tours, activities, and attractions in their destination city, all “with special discounts or added benefits like skipping the line.”
Mobile Deals
Another opportunity to drive growth is through mobile-exclusive deals.
Expedia excels at driving app engagement by giving mobile customers access to room rates that are 10–30% off what they’d find on Expedia’s website. Similarly, Trivago’s mobile app offers a “Show Top Deals” feature which shows exclusive nightly hotel rates that are cheaper than other third-party listings.
Priceline is another travel brand leveraging exclusive deals to drive mobile growth. Their “Tonight-Only” feature shows special same-day rates that are only available for 12 hours within the Priceline Hotel & Rental Car Negotiator app. The company also launched Packages, offering discounted, bundled bookings for mobile customers, as well as Road Deals, a new feature available exclusively on mobile. Consumers traveling by car can input their destination and get access to deep discounts in real-time along their route.
Voice Assistants and Chat
When you’re on-the-go and need help with something, the last thing you want to do is spend your precious time calling customer service. Travel brands can increase loyalty and provide seamless customer interactions by leveraging voice and chat technology in their apps.
Travelport’s research shows that 39% of travelers have used voice assistants during a trip; busy business travelers are even more likely to use voice, “with 81% claiming to have used mobile voice assistants during a trip.”
Travel search and booking platform KAYAK has capitalized on the trend, allowing mobile users to book flights, hotel rooms and rental cars, receive trip updates, and explore trip prices through Amazon Alexa. Customers can ask Alexa things like “Alexa, ask KAYAK to book me a hotel room in Chicago,” or “Alexa, ask KAYAK when is my next flight?”
Chat is another opportunity for brands to interact with consumers and foster mobile engagement. According to Travelport, 30% of travelers have used a chat platform to research or book a trip and 52% of travelers expect to be able to text/message a travel brand.
Convenience
Travelers are turning to the small screen to streamline all their trip logistics so they can actually enjoy their time away. Brands that tap into the demand for convenience will drive mobile growth and customer loyalty.
KAYAK has paid special attention to business travelers, developing features to make their work trips easier and more efficient. They recently rolled out an integration that allows travelers to search for flights and hotels directly in the business chat platform Slack. Users enter a query into Slack (i.e.: “/kayak flights from NYC to London from August 5 to August 8”); once the results are populated, they can book directly in the app.
Expedia has taken it one step further with their new mobile app itineraries feature, giving travelers one easy view of their entire trip. Through mobile itineraries, consumers get access to their flight information (including confirmation code, flight number, travel dates and times, gate information and flight status) and hotel information (complete with a map and contact info) and can share their travel plans with friends and family via text message.
As the experience economy grows and consumer behavior shifts more dramatically towards mobile, there are huge opportunities for travel brands to drive app downloads and engagement in the next year. By harnessing these four industry trends, along with targeted, fraud-free advertising campaigns and strategic app delivery techniques, travel and lodging brands will be on track to a successful mobile journey.
