Expedia has revealed differences in how travellers from different countries prefer to pay by analysing data from its Expedia Traveller Preference™ (ETP) program*. ETP-enabled hotels offer travellers choice on how they would like to pay for their reservation: either at the time of the booking, or at the hotel at the time of the stay.
The Expedia analysis found that, where customers were offered a choice of when to pay for their hotel stay in Australia (standalone/room only), more than two-thirds to three-quarters of travellers from Western Europe, the US and Asia preferred to pay for their hotel stay at the time of booking with Expedia. Conversely, for travellers from Australia, New Zealand and China, the split was roughly half who preferred to pay at the time of booking and half who preferred to pay at the hotel.**
The Expedia group data*** also showed that hotels in Australia that enabled the Expedia Traveller Preference (ETP) program experienced an additional increase in their standalone (room only) year-over-year net room night production of approximately 10 percentage points on average.
More than 3,900 hotels are currently ETP-enabled in Australia and New Zealand.
“We’ve found that providing travellers with a choice of when to pay for their hotel room increases the bookings from Expedia sites, which is good news for our partners,” said David Hamblin, senior director of Market Management in Australia and New Zealand.
“Since implementing ETP in Australia and New Zealand, we’ve experienced a positive impact on our business. Expedia Traveller Preference allows us to deliver better service by offering customers the choice of payment, helping attract more domestic and international visitors to stay in our hotels,” said Hazel Rigler, group marketing manager – Australia & New Zealand, Hotel Grand Chancellor, a member of Grand Hotels International.
“In addition to the benefits for hotel partners, ETP is also great for travellers who get to choose whether to pay for their hotel stay at the time they book, or at the time of their stay, and this functionality is now live on Wotif.com for participating hotels. We are pleased to offer Wotif customers more travel options than ever before, including access to approximately 435,000 hotels and a choice of when to pay for their hotel stay for hotels that elect to participate in ETP. This is all with the elimination of the hotel booking, change and cancellation fees Wotif previously charged,” Mr Hamblin said.
* Hotel Collect and Expedia Collect analysis includes production from 2014 for all ETP-enabled hotels in Australia and New Zealand as of January 1st 2014.
** ‘Asia’ includes Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia. ‘Western Europe’ includes UK, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland.
*** These figures are based on analysis from Expedia and include all ETP-enabled hotels in Australia/New Zealand as of January 31st 2014. The analysis of net room night production was based on standalone bookings from these hotels 28 days after the ETP-enabled date, versus 28 days before the ETP enabled date through January 31st 2014.
