Article

Graham Charlton
Graham Charlton 24 April 2019
Categories B2C, Ecommerce, Research

How Travel Websites Can Increase Online Bookings

​In this post, we’ll look at some of the key features and tactics used by the top online travel sites to improve conversion rates.

We looked at the features and tactics used by the top 50 transactional travel websites (based on Alexa rankings).


Auto-Complete in Site Search

As users type a destination, auto complete in site search suggests possible matches for the user based on the text entered.

This speeds up the process for travellers, and avoids mistakes which could lead to inaccurate or zero search results. Google claims that autocomplete can speed up searches by 25%.

Here’s a good example from Expedia, which suggests destinations as you type. It avoids user errors when entering tricky spellings.


Flexible Search

This allows people to search beyond specific days, perhaps across an entire month, or for available holidays three days either side of the dates entered.

This means travellers can see what’s available without pinning them down to specifics. It's good for a broad search when you start researching holidays, and means you don’t have to narrow down your options or carry out lots of separate searches.

Thomas Cook is a good example here. It allows you to be relatively vague about dates and destinations. 
 


Booking Abandonment Emails

Booking abandonment emails are sent when users begin a booking online but abandone before they finish. These emails remind users of the flight or holiday they were about to book, and send them back into the booking process.

This can help users in the research phase by saving booking details for them, and allows sites to recover abandoned bookings. 30% of the top 50 travel sites send emails after users abandon a booking.

Iberia-booking-abandonment-email.png


Use of Maps

Maps are a great way to help travel shoppers understand their destination better. For example, they can be used to show how close a hotel or villa is to key locations such as the nearest beach, town centres or restaurants.

They can also be great for search, as customers can search by location, finding available hotels near town centres, local beaches, and so on.


User Reviews

Reviews are great social proof, and they help customers to decide what’s right for them, and to avoid hotels with poor service or smelly bathrooms. Indeed, many people don’t often book without them – 95% of travellers read reviews before booking.

Having reviews helps with the research process and, for travel sites, providing reviews  means they’re more likely to stay on their site to research rather than using tripadvisor.


Address Entry Shortcuts

Postcode look-up tools or autosuggest options can speed up the address entry process, making booking easier. It can also help to avoid address entry errors.

However, just 4 of the top 50 travel sites use this. It’s a little surprising as this is a very good way to simplify the booking process.

 


Content About Destination

Content on-site, ideally available during research and booking, can help users to research their holiday without having to leave the site.

It gives them this useful information at the point when they’re considering a purchase. We found that 40% of sites used content, but often it was located away from the booking process where it may not be seen. 


Use of Urgency

Key information showing customers how many people are booking, how many hotel rooms are available on a given date, or how long they have left to take advantage of a special offer can nudge people into making a decision more quickly.

For example, if there are just three rooms remaining in the hotel they are considering, they’d better move fast to avoid missing out. 

For example, Hotels.com provides useful information which helps customers to make a decision.

Please login or register to add a comment.

Contribute Now!

Loving our articles? Do you have an insightful post that you want to shout about? Well, you've come to the right place! We are always looking for fresh Doughnuts to be a part of our community.

Popular Articles

See all
The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

Technology has impacted every part of our lives. From household chores to business disciplines and etiquette, there's a gadget or app for it. Marketing has changed dramatically over the years, but what is the...

Alex Lysak
Alex Lysak 22 September 2020
Read more
The Carrot of a Bigger Market is More Powerful Than the Stick of Legal Action in Driving Web Accessibility Investment, New Research Finds

The Carrot of a Bigger Market is More Powerful Than the Stick of Legal Action in Driving Web Accessibility Investment, New Research Finds

Getting web accessibility right is a massive commercial opportunity. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3bn people worldwide are living with some form of impairment. The benefits of making it easier for...

Michael Nutley
Michael Nutley 30 November 2023
Read more
It’s Time For Brands to Move From Personalised, to Personal

It’s Time For Brands to Move From Personalised, to Personal

At a time when almost every brand is tailoring content and offers to individual customers based on their demographic data, purchase history, and online behaviours, are these personalisation efforts still adding value?...

Shafqat Islam
Shafqat Islam 27 November 2023
Read more
The 3 Most Important Stages In Your Presentation

The 3 Most Important Stages In Your Presentation

If you want to deliver a presentation on a particular topic and you have to prepare yourself for it you should make sure that you go through several very important stages in order to craft a compelling, persuasive and...

Nicky Nikolaev
Nicky Nikolaev 16 February 2016
Read more
From Success to Setback: Lessons in MarTech Decision-Making

From Success to Setback: Lessons in MarTech Decision-Making

We often talk to clients about the consolidation of MarTech capabilities across vendors, to the point that it’s often not too difficult to pick up a new technology if you’re comfortable working with an alternative...

Andrew Addison
Andrew Addison 29 November 2023
Read more