Search Engines Still Key to Hotel Bookings?
Posted by Aaron on 26 Mar 2008 at 06:04 pm
I’m not sure how earth shattering this is, but this post from HotelMarketing.com refers to a study showing that most people searching for a hotel are using a search engine to find hotels rather than going directly to a hotel’s corporate site. No big surprise that the internet is helping to commoditize hotel rooms just as it assisted in pushing airline tickets that same direction.
For most people, I believe, hotel rooms are booked primarily — in this order — for their location (city & state), price, proximity to desired landmarks, amenities, and then brand loyalty. No real scientific data there, just my gut instinct on how the average person goes about finding a hotel room for a family vacation, weekend getaway, business trip, etc.
I don’t doubt that brand does come into play if there are two hotels that match closely on the other factors. But average people don’t much care if it’s a Hilton or a Radisson in most cases. So, searching by destination, as this study suggests, seems perfectly matched to my theory. And, if you look at the search data you’ll find that a city name with a qualifier such as “discount” or “cheap” are the next most popular.
The danger for OTAs and Search Marketers or resellers depending on search marketing, though, is the risk of becoming nothing more than a price and amenities comparison engine that enable users to pick out a property, from a location search, and then go directly to the chain’s website to book the room. This study suggests that just that is happening:
“The BDRC said bookings are increasingly being carried out on hotel sites but third parties such as Expedia (40%), Lastminute.com (36%) and Ebookers (22%) continue to feature prominently during the research stage.”
If all you sell are hotel rooms, how do you differentiate from the rest of the pack? How do you use all of those great rankings to convert visitors to buyers?
Here may be a clue… The PhoCusWright Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey, published in December of last year, says that,
“When it comes to making travel purchasing decisions, most American travelers would rather see the options for themselves than simply act on the recommendations of others. In fact, travelers want to view the options in detail via pictures, online maps and video.”
Frankly, I’m surprised at the fact that hotels aren’t trying harder to compete head-on in search engine marketing. Aren’t they leaning on their brand a little too much? Or are we just doing the hard work for them?
Search engines dominate how consumers look for hotels
Tagged as: Travel Marketing, SEM, SEO, Online Marketing, travel search marketing, PhoCusWright, BDRC, Hilton, Radisson, Hotel Marketing, HotelMarketing
Interesting post! I am a very budgety budget traveler. I use the Internet to search for hotels, but I always search through a hotel-finder search engine. I am an average traveler and for me I break down the importance like this:
Location
Price
Brand name
Online reviews and website of hotel
Amenities
Proximity to landmark (we drive)
Online reviews, like those from TripAdvisor, are very important. I give them great weight and might even try to contact the reviewer if possible. I know some are rigged, but not all.
Finally, I ALWAYS call the hotel directly. This is to test their customer service and to reassure myself that the phone number, location, and price are accurate. Phone numbers are real humans are very important. If I get a recording or no human, I move on. I always make reservations directly through the phone contact, too. And I tell them I am a travel blogger, to keep them on thier toes.
Hope that helps.
[…] I read an interesting post today over at Aaron Dalrymple’s blog. It was about how the “average” traveler books hotels. I have a fondness for demographics and other such studies, so I read on: I’m not sure how earth shattering this is, but this post from HotelMarketing.com refers to a study showing that most people searching for a hotel are using a search engine to find hotels rather than going directly to a hotel’s corporate site. No big surprise that the internet is helping to commoditize hotel rooms just as it assisted in pushing airline tickets that same direction. […]
Thanks Mecomber - we both agree that location and price are number 1 and 2. Proximity is probably more dependent on the type of travel. If I’m passing through town or just on a leisurely visit, proximity isn’t as important. If I’m in Boston for a three day conference - being close (walking distance) to the convention center is very important.
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This is interesting in that even the budget minded peple seem to prefer looking up hotels rather then motels, BnB’s and so on. WHen I travel (I do a lot of trekking) I usually sleep in the cheapest places I can find, as long as I know they’re reasonable. I use a socail network to ask people for recommendations, which I think beats the search engine method. Personally, I use www.trekcafe.com but anyone can use whatever they like, my point being that search engines are not always the best for this kind of things - if you can, always ask for someone’s opinion.