How travel booking websites use different tactics to push users to book faster

This is a multipart series where I look at how the existing travel sites use different tacts and messages to force a user to book as fast as possible. I will add the link to the next parts as soon as they are published.

The booking.com landing page

We all love to travel. There is always something exciting and unique about going to new lands, meeting new people, witnessing different surroundings and so on. Its an ultimate experience that just fills up with awe whenever we think about it.

Travel planning, and pre travel preparation however, is a cumbersome process. It fills fellow travelers with anxiety, nervousness, and doubt, so much so that they start researching months in advance, and keep on it until the day they travel. That anxiety though, is exactly the attribute exploited by these OTAs (Online travel agents, like Booking, Expedia) to push you towards booking with them quickly. Over the next few weeks, we will have a look at a few case studies on how these sites use tactics and messages — sometimes obvious and sometimes dark — to create the sense of urgency and push the users towards booking as fast as possible.

Case Study #1: How Booking.com pushes its users towards faster conversions.

I have used Booking a lot of times for hotel search. And every single time, I have been pushed into booking a hotel quickly with a feeling like ‘If I dont book now, nothing will be available’. All this, within the first five minutes of opening and browsing the website. Here is a look at how.

Let’s take a simple case study: I am planning to go to London for January 26–31 with my wife.

Booking.com’s landing page design and carefully placed texts push me into choosing a subpar hotel three months before the date of stay. This is when I am just casually browsing to see what the rates are like.

The Homepage:
There is the standard homepage like every other travel site, assuring that they have many properties, and they can cater to my needs however varied they may be. Just a small popup on the right, urging me to sign in and that I can get deals upto 50% off (#1). Notice how its ‘Welcome back!’(#2) and not ‘Welcome!’ slyly telling the user that he has been on the site before. It is a familiar booking website.

The Search:
As I said, I made a search for 2 adults for Jan 26–31 for London. When I was searching for London, it already told me how I was choosing a “Popular”(#3) place to go — making me feel good about my choice.

This is how the search page looks like. There about 12 subtle cues in each of the first two results.

This is the screen I landed on when I hit search. First the obvious cues. Booking shows its “Top Picks”(#4), making me think I am a priority customer. Then, the second result is the “Best Seller”(#5), which means I am getting the best results. The third result is already sold out, with a message saying “You missed it!”(#6) and I should hurry if I want a good room in London. “Your dates are popular”(#7) is creating a sense of urgency that if I don’t book soon, I may miss out on the best options and prices.

Then I looked closely at the first result, and I was told that it was “Close to City Center”(#8), “ In High Demand”(#9), “Booked 59 times in last 24 hours”(#10), “38 people are looking right now”(#11), “In high demand”(again, #12), “Excellent”(#13), “See our last available rooms”(#14), “Price is discounted to almost half”(#15), “A thumbs up”(#16) indicating the room is good. Hovering over the High demand tells me “Last booking was 10 mins ago”(#17).

The second result had the same characteristics, with an added “Best Seller tag”(#18)(obviously promoted), and that it was “Booked 283 times in last 24 hours”. And then there is “Great Value today”(#19). This is another push for me to choose this hotel. Today means, it won’t be everyday and I should hurry. I was in a mode of panic thinking I should pick a room soon. I clicked on second result as it was giving me a great value and looked better than the first one. (a lesson on how to make your promoted result stand out. Less price, best seller, great value, booked more times, more popular, and photo showing near a river, always a better location.)

The Hotel Detail Page:

Here is the hotel’s page I see when I click on it:

This has a lot of info crammed in. None of them is placed by accident, but serves a particular purpose. Even the lock symbol on photos.

Here in the most visible part of the page, right next to the name, there are more cues reaffirming that I am making a good choice. My hotel is “Great for Two Travelers”(#20), “Great Value Today”(#21), “Great Location”(#22), and then Only positive reviews(#23), with one emphasizing location(#24), again. Then there is “One of the top booked neighborhoods in London”(#25), and “One of our best sellers in London”(#26), again reassuring me that I am making a good choice, and this hotel is in a happening part of the city.

Scrolling down a bit, the part about good reviews is presented again. Look at the part about Loyal customers at the end. If customers keep returning, this must be a good hotel(#27). Keep in mind, that the initial price I saw is not even mentioned on this page yet, hidden till now. Booking is doing everything to convince me its a great place before I even think about the price again.

Oh, there is another small snippet on the side:

There are “5154 people looking for a place”(#28). I must hurry before they book a room too. Booking is also happy to show me similar hotels, if I am not sure yet.

Coming back, I am now at a stage where I want to check prices. I scroll down further for the same. As mentioned earlier, this is fully intentional. Booking wants us to absorb everything good about the hotel, before we even look at the price.

A mixture of red and green. Red to create urgency, green to give assurances

This part is a masterpiece in itself. First the texts in red: “Discounted price”(#29), “Price in bold red”(#30), then the “Save 44% today”(#31) with red background creating more urgency than ever, “27 other people are booking right now”(#32), “Jackpot! You got a great rate!”(#33), all these are increasing my anxiety and urgency that I should book this room right away.

At the same time, the texts in green, “no prepayment”(#34), “free cancellation”(#35), facilities(#36), Breakfast included (#37) etc. reassure me that I am making a great choice.

Keep in mind that all of this is before I have any basis for comparison, and this is the first hotel I have looked at.

Again a reminder why booking now is a great idea. The color scheme is slightly dark here, for the additional fees here.

Again, after scrolling down, I see tags like “Someone just booked this”(#38), and why I should choose the hotel(#39), and I should hurry(#40) given such hotels are in high demand.

On scrolling further down:

A popup just appears asking me to “finish your booking”(#41), and the hotel surroundings(#42) again reinforcing that I have made a great choice.

Location is the most important thing about a hotel, I definitely know that now.

Another section on reviews(#43) as to why this is a great location. When you scroll down, till similar hotels and more options, at the very end, they show the actual reviews from users, and those reviews aren’t very nice. Unless you scroll to the bottom, you have no idea, what the actual reviews from users are.

These are the latest reviews and its a slide show. Some of them are unexpectedly funny though.

Although before getting to the end, I have seen enough, and it is important that I move forward with the booking, else I will miss out. There are options to see more, but I think I am convinced enough to go ahead with the booking than read the reviews.

There is also how booking only takes two minutes and no account creation is needed when I hover over the I’ll reserve button. (#44)

In a state of stress and panic, of missing out on a great hotel, I click the “I’ll reserve” button to go ahead with the booking. (Different wording. They know what the user is thinking at this point, and move away from standard terms like Book, or ‘Add to cart’.

One the next page, before details show up, a popup surfaces telling me “I am almost there”(#45), and “I need to fill in a few details”(#46). This line is repeated a few times at different places though. Also, that “I am getting a good price” (less than London average, #47) and that this hotel was just now booked by someone else (#48, again creating the urgency). The best bit is “3 more people are booking this property right now”(#49), subtly telling me to hurry and simultaneously giving me a social proof that I have made a good choice. Also that “They can’t save my reservation/deal”(#50), so I should not leave this page.

The Checkout Page:

I have already reached 50. In terms of cue count, its half way. Never thought it will be so many.

So many things to note here:

• First, the top. I get to know its a three step process (easy), and that I am already on step two, just one more to go. Yay! (Those steps are not clickable. So you can’t go back. Nothing on the page is. That is you can’t mis-click and end up somewhere else. Amazon does this too, and on their checkout page, even the logo is not clickable.)

The address is good to have, but you will have to open google maps to see the exact location. Booking shows the approximate area where it could be.

• Another reinforcement of why this hotel is a great choice. “Great Value Today”, also, “Pet Friendly”, “One of our best sellers in London”. Assurance and social proof. And another to create urgency “3 people are booking this property right now.”
• Pricing on the left, again reinforcing that I am getting a great deal. (This is a departure from existing flows, maybe because they don’t want users to focus on pricing)
• Then, in green, “Almost done…” telling me I am almost there, just a bit to go.
• Email address placeholder says “Double-Check for typos”. I love how booking puts me first and does not want me to make a mistake.

Even if London was one of my options, having not decided on the city, I would have booked this at this stage.

• Scrolling down a bit further: Free Cancellation is highlighted (only for ones with free cancellation) in green twice — once on the left too.
• Then there is a “Dont miss this” on the left.
• Then the Payment schedule part is also in green, pushing you to reserve quickly and assuring that nothing will be charged on your card.
• Review highlights again, and Location highlights too.
• Then in green, the added perks of booking now. Discounts at attractions, Free travel guide, and Changes to booking at zero cost. I must definitely book this now since I am getting so many options.
• I click on make payment and final details.

• Another almost done. I have moved to final details in the step completion on top.
• There is a sly “Download the app” CTA, which is worded as ifit will help to keep the confirmation handy. Just a checkbox, and they will text you the link to download the app. (Will do a deep dive on app too in the future.)
• Also, once you have booked, the email that you get is from the Hotel name. (Email address is still a generic booking.com address). This is pretty smart too.

To Summarize:

• The overall experience lasted about five minutes. I had the high of ‘Finding one of the best places in London at incredible prices’ and the low of ‘Oh Sh*t! this deal is not gonna last long and I should book right away.”
• Completing the transaction made me feel good and I ended up with a smile on my face to score a deal in London so early. Of course, I have free cancellation so if I see a cheap deal, I can always switch. (Which we will find out later is not really free.)
• What I have shown is a stressful experience for any user. In my opinion, Booking overdoes it,but it works for them. Reducing bounce is one of the key aspects for any ecommerce website, and they do a bloody good job at it. That too, if you consider the timeframe those messages are for. (about 5 minutes)
• Personally and on an emotional level, I would not want to go through an experience like that again. And I wish, not all users who book through them goes through the range described above.
• I think the way they do it is genius. And something many new upcoming websites could learn from. There are hooks for conversion at every step and the combined effect of all these is huge.

Here you can find a similar post on Linkedin, and one of the inspiration for this post.

For the curious readers, clarity on some of the aspects that Booking uses:

• The result which is already booked is there just to create urgency. They are not running out of rooms, and if they do today, more rooms will be added in the inventory tomorrow.
• Offers and deals are kind of fickle and can change overnight. But, more often than not, you will get a better deal somewhere else if you miss out on one. (Does not apply when the stay dates are too close to booking dates)
• If you go through the aggregators, like Trivago or Tripadvisor, then too you will end up at the same price. (Trivago has 76% of inventory from Booking or Expedia, while TA has about 50%)
• Always read the fine print, and yeah, they will send you emails if you could not complete your reservation.
• Just to be safe, always look at where the hotel is located. On the map. Do a google search with Hotel’s name, and see for yourself if the hotel suits you.
• Also, the pictures do not show how the room will look, or how big the room will be. It is very hard to discover that on the website.

About Me: I am an avid traveler always up for new experiences, and currently working on the future of travel. We are building an amazon like experience for travelers, where its possible to have personalized results, more intuitive flow, one click checkout, and making travel booking as easy as buying a product on Amazon. I don’t have a problem with the way these sites operate, but feel like we are always shortchanged in the booking experience.

It should not have to be like this for a user to convert. These things should not create anxiety, instead they should be fun. Or at the very least, they should not be this stressful. These experiences are one of the reasons travel sites lack loyal users.