According to a recent survey, 81% of people abandon online travel bookings. 13% abandon because they felt the booking process was too long or the checkout was too complicated, 9% because they experienced technical issues and 7% had issues with payment. Roughly one-third of travelers abandon their booking because of issues with the booking process itself.
In order to decrease your booking process abandonment, here are three simple suggestions any hotelier can implement to make your booking process friction-free.
1. Make sure it’s mobile-friendly. With 65% of last-minute hotel bookings completed on mobile devices, if your booking process isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re going to miss out on a large portion of your audience.
What makes the booking process ready for a traveler’s smartphone? Well for one, make sure that any offer boxes are easy to close on tablet or smartphone. Struggling to close a box just causes frustration and booking process abandonment.
Also, make sure it’s easy to contact you directly, either by prominently displaying your phone number or a way to call you. This might sound backward given how low tech a telephone calls seems these days, but many prefer to call and ask a quick question or book. If your contact details are not easy to find, they’ll find someone else.
2. Highlight real customer reviews. With 80% of travelers reading at least 6-12 reviews before they book, and 53% saying they won’t book until they first read reviews, keep them on your website and thinking about your property by displaying the reviews they want on your own website. If travelers are heading to other sites to read reviews, they are easily tempted to look at other properties too.
Plus, reviews from other objective travelers will appear more trustworthy than your own descriptions. Knowing they’re getting a good room, price, and so forth decreases booking abandonment.
3. Place pictures throughout the process. Pictures in this day and age are worth at least a thousand words, especially for hoteliers. Looking at beautiful rooms with breathtaking views inspire travelers to turn from a looker to a booker. Make sure that pictures are incorporated in your booking process too and not just on the homepage. Seeing a peak of the room while booking reminds travelers of what they’re getting and they’re less likely to abandon and go elsewhere.
You can also upsell travelers during the booking process with photos of your serene spa or delicious dinners.
Tackling booking process abandonment is a crucial component of improving your hotel website’s conversion rate. Hoteliers aren’t powerless against low conversion rates and booking process abandonment. Get more tips, expert advice, and help creating a website that converts travelers throughout their entire path to purchase in Sojern’s eBook, How to Create a Hotel Website that Converts.
About the author
Grace Cheung is the Acquisition Marketing Manager at Sojern. Sojern, a data-driven performance marketing engine, works with top travel brands and independent hotels in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Since 2007, Sojern has helped top travel brands like Avis Budget Group, British Airways, Carnival Cruise Line, Colorado Tourism, Emirates, IHG, Samsonite and Starwood maximize direct revenue and profitability by delivering consumers who convert.
