If there is one thing Hoteliers have acquired from the past 2 years of recession, its the increase in hotel direct reservations, and more specifically, mobile direct reservations.
NB: This is an article from Guestcentric
As the app economy continues to grow and hotels encourage guests to have direct deals, it is anticipated that mobile will continue to play a crucial function in increasing hotel direct reservations in 2022. We evaluate the rise of mobile bookings over the previous two years, how it is anticipated to continue growing in 2022, and how Hoteliers ought to adjust their online sales and marketing methods to meet this rapidly-growing demand.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter and remain up to date
The Rise of Mobile Direct Bookings in 2020
2020 is a year that most hotels dont desire to remember, with lots of closing their doors in both the first and 2nd waves of the pandemic. From a different perspective, customer behavior changed dramatically and hotels had to adapt. As more customers turned mobile to make hotel reservations, Hotels needed to adjust their mobile innovations to satisfy this demand.
Two of the dominant drivers behind this advancement in consumer habits was the drastic reducing of reserving speed and the rise of millennial tourists during the very first year of the pandemic. Below, we dive deeper into these chauffeurs:
Reserving Pace
Millennials
Hotels tried to promote reservations with flexible cancellation policies, but the unsure environment required consumers to book last-minute. We observed this trend across all markets that represent our portfolio of hotels. Even visitors that typically prepare their stays further in advance (Danish, Germans, British) saw booking rate decline from 26 days to a mere 12 days or less.
Millennials (born in between 1981 and 1996) are formally entering middle-age and represent almost 32% of the worldwide population, according to recent international travel stats released by Condor Ferries UK.
Although reservation rate gradually increased in 2021 vs 2020, this rise in mobile hotel bookings reveals no sign of slowing down. In 2020, usually, mobile reservations represented over 27% of overall reservations for hotels studied, increasing to 40% in 2021.
Total reservation speed stayed in line with 2019 at 57 days, for validated bookings the reservation speed decreased to a simple 8 days in 2020. This was likely due to changing travel constraints which forced most visitors to cancel longer-term reservations and confirm their stays last-minute.
Contrary to popular misunderstanding, millennials are not teens any longer. Yet unlike their predecessors, this generation is characterized by an insatiable thirst for enriching experiences and living for the minute, which manifests through comprehensive travel. This makes their $200 billion purchasing power, as shown in the current data above, difficult for the industry to ignore.
In effect, this means that mobile reservations doubled in simply two short years. We anticipate this pattern to continue in 2022 and beyond.
The favored channel for these last-minute bookings was mobile. By the summer season of 2020, according to the data processed by over 1,500 hotels within our portfolio, mobile reservations increased to over 24%, nearly one-quarter of all hotel reservations.
In addition, a report by Expedia reveals millennials are mostly adding to the increase in mobile bookings worldwide. Approximately 66% of millennials book their trips using a smartphone, while 74% use it to research.
How are Mobile Bookings expected to Grow in 2022?
According to forecasts by KPMG and Facebook, the growth in mobile bookings shows no signs of decreasing, showing that 9 in 10 reservations will be mobile by 2022. In December 2021, year to date, our research reveals that mobile represented almost 30% of overall bookings.
Check out remainder of the post at Guestcentric
2020 is a year that the majority of hotels dont want to keep in mind, with many closing their doors in both the first and second waves of the pandemic. From a different perspective, customer habits changed dramatically and hotels had to adjust. As more consumers turned mobile to make hotel reservations, Hotels required to adapt their mobile technologies to meet this need.
Hotels tried to stimulate reservations with flexible cancellation policies, however the unpredictable environment required consumers to book last-minute. Even visitors that typically plan their stays even more in advance (Danish, Germans, British) saw booking speed decline from 26 days to a simple 12 days or less.
