As technology advances and the world of social media expands, more travelers are going online to book hotel rooms. eRevMax, the leader in hotel online distribution and channel management solution has released an infographic ‘Online Hotel Distribution’ to provide hoteliers with upcoming trends, which are backed by relevant data.
Travelers who book hotel rooms online are increasingly using smart phones and tablets. The infographic shows that 7% of all bookings were generated from mobile and tablet devices in 2013, and this trend is expected to grow by 20% this year. In 2014, hotel bookings through mobile will contribute more than $26bn of sales.
The eRevMax study sheds light on how metasearch sites realised a 13% increase in 2013. Google Hotel Finder, TripConnect and Trivago are becoming a driving force in hotel online distribution, as 60% of travellers shop by comparing rates on these sites. To shift the market share from the OTAs to direct bookings, hoteliers should utilise metasearch sites as a part of their overall distrbution strategy, as it offers better search experience and allows the traveller to find the lowest prices available online.
Bookings from OTAs surged ahead with a 12% rise in Q3 2013 and now stands at 13% of overall bookings in North America. It also shows that 33% of all bookings take place at the brand’s website, an increase of 5% in Q3 2013.
eRevMax suggests that hoteliers work with OTAs to increase revenues and to implement reputation management solutions for quick responses to their guests.
In this world of social media, SEO and analytics’ failure to adopt digital platforms in their marketing strategy is suicidal for hotels. The data shows that 81% of tech-savvy travellers found user reviews important, while 49% travellers booked hotel rooms only after reading reviews. Nearly 21% used Facebook to search for hotel information at least once while 14% of travellers used the Facebook platform to book a hotel room.
Hence, it is imperative that hotels take social-commerce seriously.