One of the most profound changes in customer behaviour as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the switch to mobile bookings. While the potential of mobile is hardly a new insight - Booking.com reported that more than 50% of their revenue was from mobile in 2018 - the need for renewed focus on this channel is now more pressing than ever.
At Triptease we’ve been tracking the relative resilience of mobile compared to desktop over the past few months, with mobile bookings taking less of a hit and recovering much faster. The percentage of mobile bookings is now at double pre-COVID levels, which suggests this is a trend that's here to stay.
The obvious concern for hotels right now is how to capitalize on this opportunity and provide the premium mobile experience that their customers expect. This is particularly challenging when internal teams are likely more stretched than they’ve ever been before.
A quick and simple way to optimize your mobile website right away is to use the mobile-ready message options available in the Triptease platform. These help you tailor the guest experience right across your website for all different types of guests. While these mobile nudge messages are a highly effective way to move people down your booking funnel and tempt them to convert with offers and promotions, their success ultimately depends on the quality of your broader mobile infrastructure.
Mobile messages are an effective way to guide customers towards your booking engine, but unfortunately the journey doesn't end when they arrive there. If your mobile booking experience is overly complex and confusing you’ll still lose potential guests back to those familiar OTAs who’ve spent time and money investing in an effortless mobile experience.
For most hotels it’s probably been some time since you reviewed and updated your mobile booking experience. Right now this is one of the most important steps to take as you begin your booking recovery. If you want to supercharge your mobile experience and get ready to capitalize on increasing demand get in touch with the Triptease team today to see how Targeted Messages could work for your hotel.