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DIGITAL TRENDS FOR THE HOTEL INDUSTRY JANUARY - JUNE 2017 NET AFFINITY Welcome to the second edition of our digital trends report, designed to be the essential companion for the savvy independent hotelier.

Our in-house experts at Net Affinity are constantly collecting and analysing several sources of data in order to bring you the most relevant emerging trends, to help you get ahead of your competitors.

In this edition we have lots of great insights on trends affecting our business as well as holding a magnifying glass up to political changes such as Brexit and how this is impacting hoteliers across Europe.

As we continue to champion the book direct movement, we want this digital trends report to arm you with the information you need to get more bookings through your brand site and in turn reduce your cost of acquistion. GET IN TOUCH Website: www.netaffinity.com With our experience in hospitality and passion for achievement, Phone: +353 1 293 9906 our job is simple: we make yours easier. Email: [email protected]

The Forum, Ballymoss Road, William Cotter Sandyford, Dublin 18, D18 VE83, Ireland Managing Director

Our newly updated digital trends report focuses on current cornerstone items for hoteliers. We’ve analysed the data from nearly 13,000,000 hotel website sessions, including digital transactions, booking patterns and more, and compared what we are seeing with industry trends at large.

The report focuses on what our most prevalent data is telling us right now. Some key items to focus on for the second half of 2017 include mobile website performance, looking at the impact of global events on local demand for travel, and finding the best ways to evaluate your digital marketing efforts.

Each chapter gives a concise summary of the data, commentary on what it means for hotels, and clear actions points to help you get the most out of it.

The data reviewed the following from 1st January – 30th June 2017:

12,800,000 hotel website sessions

01/05 Who’s Travelling? 05/26 Device Trends Discover who your guests are. Who’s searching for How are guests finding your hotel now?Mobile your hotel, and who is making the booking . traffic continues to grow, and bookings are beginnig to follow. 02/9 Brexit Effect 06/30 Design Trends How Brexit has impacted the hotel industry so Mobile-first design and fast loading times.How to far. What you can do to plan for further challenges optimise your site for mobile users. presented by the falling pound. 03/ 14 Booking Behaviour 07/36 The Hotel Traffic Landscape When are people booking, and how long for? What The marketing mix. Activity for increasing brand patterns have emerged around booking purchases and awareness and revenue, and how to track your arrival. successes. 04/21 Booking Insights Conversion rates for special offer pages.Why they’re important and which offers work best.

WHO’S TRAVELLING? WHO ARE YOUR GUESTS?

Who are your guests? While you should be looking at your own guests in careful segments on a property level, it’s helpful to take a look at the industry at large. This data can tell you who you should be trying to talk to on different devices.

Let’s take a look at who visits, who books, and which devices they use:

Who Visits Women made up the majority of visitors. The ratio of female to male users is more than 2:1, at 69% female and 31% male. This may reflect that more women are doing research, or that women simply prefer to visit more sites during their research.

The young - but not too young - are the most enthusiastic travellers. 56% of visitors to hotel websites are 25-44, and the strongest demographic is 25-24 (28.8% of users).

Who Books While more women book than men overall, this number is skewed by the higher number of women visiting sites. On the whole, men convert 1.5 times more often than women, although they contribute less revenue and transactions overall.

As far as the age of your guests is concerned, the same pattern as above holds true for transactions and revenue as well. Those aged 25-44 make up about 55% of transactions and revenue.

However, it’s worth noting that those aged 45-54 and those over 65 convert more often. This suggests that by the time your more mature guests reach the website, they are more ready to book. Younger ones, most dramatically those age 18-24, tend to shop around a bit more before committing to a booking.

© NET AFFINITY TRENDS REPORT - 6 HOW DO YOUR GUESTS BEHAVE ON DIFFERENT DEVICES? People behave and book differently on different devices, as we’ll dive into more thoroughly in our Device Trends section. For now, here’s how mobile and tablet users stand out from the overall pool of your hotel website visitors:

Mobile visitors are slightly younger: 10% of mobile visitors are between 18-24, and 63% of them are 25-44. Tablet users are slightly older: only 4% of them are 18-24, and over 40% of visitors who browsed on tablets were over 55, compared to mobile’s 11%.

Those over 55 convert much less frequently on mobile, while those 25-34 book the most often. However, on tablet, the data shows that those 25-34 book much more frequently than any other demographic on any device. While tablet traffic is stagnant, this is a fact worth taking note of.

Are more women or men browsing on smaller devices? Nearly three times more women browse on their mobile than men. On desktop and tablet, these numbers are closer together: only about twice as many women as men browse on the larger devices.

In terms of revenue and transactions, while men still convert more often than women on mobile and tablet, the numbers are closer than they are overall. On mobile, men convert 1.25 times as often as women, as compared to 1.5 times more often across all devices.

This could suggest that in general, women tend to spend more time online to research and plan trips, whilst men tend to go on these sites to make the purchase.

Source: Google Analytics Demographic Data Data representative of: 12.8 million web sessions across all Net Affinity Clients. Age data is 67.87% of total users, gender data is 65.91% of total users.

1. Track your demographics carefully and look at individual markets. Our figures are averaged across hundreds of hotels and cover different markets, and yours might be quite different!

2. Gather geographical intelligence. Use Google Analytics and your booking engine statistics to your advan- tage. Begin by analysing the geographical breakdown of your bookings. Ensure you have other markets that you can focus on in low periods. Make this a part of your book direct messaging. Are you targeting guests in new markets? Use your own hotel’s data to create special offers specifically for your target markets.

THE BREXIT EFFECT WILL BREXIT CHANGE WHO BOOKS? On March 29th, British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 to start the process for the UK leaving the European Union. Then, less than a month later – on April 18th – the PM called for a snap general election, which fell out in a very different way than polls had predicted.

We at Net Affinity have being watching developments closely, along with the rest of travel industry and, indeed, everyone else. Brexit will certainly affect tourism – but what specific impact will this have on the hotel landscape?

Early signs from June 2016, when the initial vote for Brexit took place, showed few changes to demand in the market. However, with the recent change in dynamics in Westminster, has the outlook for hotels shifted?

Here’s one change we can currently analyse with certainty: the drop in the pound versus the euro now makes EU countries a more expensive destination in the eyes of the United Kingdom and Northern Irish traveller. We’ve examined the situation across Europe in depth below.

THE BREXIT EFFECT: WHAT WE KNOW

In June 2017, the CSO (Central Statistics Office for Ireland) released figures stating that UK visitors to Ireland were down by 7% and overall visitors to Ireland were down by 1% for the first quarter of 2017, compared to the same time last year. This occurred as other local destinations and long-haul destinations were up. including North America (+ 13%) and Australia (+16%).

However, it’s not all bad news, hoteliers in Ireland are reporting a strong start to 2017. Almost 3 in 4 Irish hotels show business levels are up compared to this time last year, according to the IHF. The 3.8% increase from January to July this year is coming from, US and continental markets.

That trend is also reflected across mainland Europe, the two most popular tourism destinations, Spain and France, have each reported a rise in tourism figures for the first half of 2017. Spain confirmed a12 % increase according to The National Statistics Institute, who announced that 36.3 million tourists arrived between January and June. 8.6 million of which came from Britain, an increase of 9.1 percent over the same period last year.

It is predicted that UK travellers will branch out to ‘cheap’ destinations where the weak pound will go further, such as Bulgaria, enabling developing countries to capitalise on this opportunity and grow tourism trade. The UK’s own tourism industry is also booming, due to many Brits opting for ‘staycations’, and it being seen as a more attractive destination to overseas visitors seeking out a bargain - topping 37 million visitors last year. US bank, Morgan Stanley, has given an unoptimistic forecast for the future of GBP, suggesting it’s likely to weaken in its own right, driven by weak economic performance, low real yields and increasing political risks.

Brexit’s Impact on Bookings and Arrivals In Ireland

A recent survey by the Irish Hotels Federation shows that 4 in 10 Irish hotels are seeing a drop in advance bookings from Britain, while just over a quarter have said that bookings from Northern Ireland for the remainder of the year are down compared to 2016. Brexit and the accompanying decrease in value of the pound is almost certainly the cause of this drop in UK and Northern Irish visitors.

Bookings for Border Counties

Northern Ireland and UK bookings have dropped slightly for Irish counties bordering the UK in the first half of 2017: a 3% drop for bookings and 4% drop in revenue.

However, they are still vitally important markets for these hotels. UK and Northern Ireland bookings collectively made up 49% of bookings and 50% of revenue for border hotels.

Sources: Irish Hotels Federation Central Statistics Office for Ireland The National Statistics Institute Graph represents data from all Net Affinity Clients for January - June 2017 FACTOR BREXIT INTO YOUR BOOK DIRECT STRATEGY

01 Use Google Analytics and your Booking Engine to Gather 04 Invest in Paid Online Activity Intelligence You must protect your brand online. In a space where paid activity Whilst global data is helpful and gives an indication on how accounts for nearly all “above the fold” search results, hotels the market is performing, your own hotel’s data cannot be today need to spend to appear. This is one of the cornerstones of underestimated. Consult your Google Analytics account to a book direct strategy. dive into user behaviour. Track individual markets to spot behavioural patterns. When you have a good grasp on your ‘ideal guest’ in these markets, you’ll be able to create special 05 Ensure Your Website Can Sell offers specifically for your target markets. to Various Markets Your website is your hotel’s virtual welcome mat, and it needs to appeal to a lot of different markets. If you’re investing in 02 Know Where Your OTA Bookings are Coming From new markets, does your website sell to them? For example, do Look at who’s booking your hotel on third party channels at a you have a translation feature on your website? Have you got higher cost. Interestingly, a lot of hotels believe that OTA’s bring currency convertor features on your site? These tools and tactics them “new” overseas business, but this may not be the case. help various markets convert directly, rather than leaving your site With a bit of work you could persuade people to book on your and going to an OTA. own website. By knowing what business your OTA’s give you, you can build a book direct strategy to get these customers booking on your brand site instead. 06 Content is King The best way to attract new customers to your hotel website is through content. Blogs and news feeds help your guests feel in 03 Simulate your guests online experience: touch with you, give you a perfect place to showcase different Take the time to go onto your website - read the descriptions elements of your hotel, and give your site new content for search and look at the price display. Is it clear? If anything causes you engines to crawl. When you have fresh, relevant content, you to hesitate, you can be certain potential guests are too – and generally rank higher on search engine results, getting you more chances are they have moved onto a third party or competitor organic traffic and direct bookings. site. ACTION POINTS

1. Create a contingency plan to grow other markets. Identify if your hotel is overly reliant on the UK market and create a plan to avoid losses in revenue.

2. Use your book direct strategy to lessen the impact of Brexit. Ensure your website booking process is easy and adapts to multiple markets, and invest in effective marketing for your hotel website.

3. Most importantly, be flexible.Watch your markets closely as well as currency exchange rates, so that when something shifts you can react to it quickly. 3 BEHAVIOUR BEFORE & AFTER BOOKING WHEN DO GUESTS BOOK... AND CANCEL? BOOKING WINDOWS We took a look at the behaviour of bookers before and after their purchase. Here’s what’s happened for all booking transactions which arrived for Net Affinity clients between January and June 2017.

• 27% of all bookings were made within 1 week of arrival • Bookings made within a month of arrival accounted for 53% of bookings overall • 29% of bookings were made more than 60 days prior to arrival, so there’s a good number of guests planning ahead as well

Booking windows by country vary: those travelling futher tend to book further in advance. Long distance travel is a bigger commitment, and most likely involves a flight purchase, and may also involve visa arrangements or other time-consuming processes. This highlights the importance of geo-targeting rate plans in your marketing: be sure the right rate plan shows at the right time.

We looked into what happens when a booking is then cancellled - how close to arrival are bookings cancelled, and how far in advance do bookings which cancel tend to book? Here are some intersting figures: • 40% of bookings which cancel do so within a week of the expected arrival date • 67% of bookings which cancelled did so within the month of arrival

The cancellation rate is higher on bookings made further in advance: • 15% of cancellations were for bookings made within the week of arrival • 57% of cancellations were for bookings made a month or more prior to arrival

If your hotel’s figures look like these, consider promoting an Advanced Purchase rate plan that offers a small discount, but no refunds on deposits, for bookings further in advance.

The high rate of cancellations close to arrival also needs attention. Keep in touch with the booker via pre-stay emails and upselling opportunities. You’re responsible for keeping them engaged before their stay!

People are more active early in the week. Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday are the most popular booking days, accounting for 50% of bookings combined.

Monday is highest with 17% of bookings, and Saturday is lowest at just 10%. Weekends clearly aren’t our most productive times!

ARRIVALS BY DAY OF THE WEEK We have seen the same trend as when we looked at the bookings from Q4 2016: as expected, Friday and Saturday have the largest number of arrivals.

Tuesday and Wednesday see the fewest, at just 11% each.

While Sundays currently account for 13%, anecdotal feedback we have heard from our leisure properties is that Sunday is increasing in popularlty. It is seen as a better value night to get away. Offers such as ‘girls’ getaways’ work particularly well for hotels with spas for Sunday night stays.

Bookings peak for the evening hours between 7pm - 10pm, accounting for 22% of transactions in a 3-hour period.

However, bookings are steady throughout the day from 11am - 6pm, with 6% of bookings per hour recorded.

78% of bookings made on the day of arrival are transacted between 9am - 6pm. Although only 8% of bookings are made later than this, be cautious about restricting the time your property is accepting bookings on the day of arrival. Keep late bookings possible for your guests.

How long are people staying? On average, not very long!

62% of bookings were for just 1 night, followed by 25% for 2 night stays, and then 8% for 3 nights stays. Although the longer stay can be more valuable, take a look at your hotel’s data. It may not be what most of your guests are looking to book.

1. Leave nothing to chance. Keep your rates and inventory up to date. Both very short and longer lead bookings are valuable, and account for a sizeable amount of bookings.

2. Pay attention to cancellations. Cancellations are becoming more of an issue for hotels. From January to June 2017, two things are clear: cancellations are close to the expected arrival date, and bookings reserved further in advance have a higher cancellation rate rate. If this is an issue for your hotel, you may need to look at the following as options to curb the cancellation rate: Using a deposit or pre-payment on long lead bookings to add a commitment, or sending pre-stay email well in advance of arrival (try 4 weeks) to remind the guest of their booking.

3. Don’t overcrowd with too many rateplans. 62% of bookings are staying for just 1 night, so be sure you are offering rateplans which match the market demand.

BOOKING INSIGHTS BOOKING INSIGHTS: SPECIAL OFFERS

The special offers page is one of the most important pages on your website. It’s a key decider in who books, and who doesn’t. In fact, the conversion rate for users who visited a special offers page is more than 3 times that of users who did not visit a special offers page.

There is a difference between mobile and desktop, perhaps lending credence to the idea that mobile is used much more for research, with users turning desktop computers only when they are nearly ready to complete the transaction.

How many people looked at the special offers page? On mobile, 24% of users visited the special offers page, versus only 20% on desktop. Furthermore, users who visited the special offers page delivered 53% of transactions, versus 44% of transactions on desktop.

Overall, 52% of people who booked on mobile visited the special offers page, compared to43% of people who booked on desktop. There is still a significant variance in conversion rate on both devices, but it is smaller on desktop.

On mobile, users who visited the special offers converted at 3.6 times the conversion rate of users who did not, versus 3.2 times on desktop.

Considering that special offers are so important, which rate plans and special offers should you be offering? After analysing rate plans in detail, the resounding feedback is to keep it simple.

Don’t over-complicate the process with cumbersome or ambiguous names and descriptions. You only have a short amount of time to sell a potential guest on staying, so don’t make it hard for them to figure out which is the best room and rate plan to book! Here are 4 of the most profitable rate plans hotels typically offer, with a list of the advantages of each:

Room Only: Book Directly on Our Website for the Best Available Rate Bed and Breakfast: Save €5 When You Book Online

01 Guarantee for guests that the best rate will always be 01 One step up from Room Only rates, Bed and Breakfast when they book direct. packages are your first opportunity to upsell.

02 Don’t offer this rate plans to 3rd parties or other openly 02 Make sure to incentivise them to book - this can be available sources; it gives them the chance to margin achieved by having a lower breakfast supplement test your rate. Margin testing involves an OTA or other online than you offer in the hotel, e.g. €10 as part of the site ‘testing’ your rate by taking a small percentage off package but €15 in the hotel. Highlight the savings to the commission they receive to offer a lower rate. You the guest. lose the direct booking, and they still get commission. 03 Include ‘Breakfast’ in the headline. It’s often a powerful 03 Eliminate the risk by only offering room only rates incentive, especially for families with children or busy directly on your official hotel website. business travelers.

01 The welcome drink gets people into your bar or 01 An extremely popular rate plan across all hotels, there restaurant for their first drink, and the savings hopefully are still a few aspects you must focus on. encourage them to stay for a second. 02 If offering Room Only rate plans on all distribution 02 A busy bar means other guests will come in, persuaded channels, try offering the Advance Purchase discount by the lively atmosphere. only on your website. This encourages guests to book direct. 03 If a welcome drink doesn’t make sense for your hotel, consider a €20 spa or golf credit. 03 What are your lead times? If you tend to get long lead bookings, e.g. 50+ days, offer an Advance Purchase 04 For dinner, do the same as you would for a breakfast rate no shorter than 60 days in advance of arrival. supplement: if possible, make your offer slightly cheaper than your in-hotel rate

1. Keep your special offers page prominent and up to date.Fill it with rate plans tailored to your guests, and keep a sharp eye on it to make sure all rate plans you’re offering are valid and bookable.

2. Write rate plans that will appeal to your guests. Pay careful attention to your guest personas, and write clear, compelling rate plans for those guests. Not every rate plan will suit every guest, so ensure that you are offering a variety for each key target market.

DEVICE TRENDS THE DEVICE LANDSCAPE HAS EXPERIENCED SIGNIFICANT CHANGES OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS.

Here’s what matters:

Mobile Tablet

Mobile devices have stayed on top for traffic, but Tablet devices remain in decline. Since growth in the first half of 2017 has not been as peaking in July 2015, the tablet has witnessed dramatic as in previous quarters. a slow decline.

As of our most recent data, mobile As of our most recent data, tablet contributed 56% of total website visits. traffic contributes just 11% of all website visits for hotels. In terms of revenue from mobile, there has been a minor decrease since Q4 of 2016, and a similar, if smaller one for transactions Revenue and transactions for tablet are similarly in decline for on mobile. This could indicate that guests are making fewer, but tablet, in sharp contrast to desktop, which is losing traffic but still not smaller, purchases on mobile, although seasonal and other far ahead in bookings. While hotels should still ensure that their external factors could also be at play. website provides a good experience across all devices, tablet should not be the core of your focus. Hotels must continue to work on the mobile booking process, from security to ease of use, to make guests more comfortable booking on mobile.

Desktop traffic has continued to dip in recent months, as mobile absorbs traffic.

As of our most recent data, desktop accounted for just 33% of total website visits.

Desktop traffic may be slowing down, but they have actaully increased in revenue and transactions in recent months. These gains appear to be coming from both tablet and mobile, although more from mobile in the second quarter of 2017. This may be a temporary blip as mobile payments continue to be refined, or it may be a sign of a larger trend. Only time will tell.

1. Mobile should be your number one focus going forward. Everything you do should be mobile first. This includes your booking experience, website design, content, marketing, and even SEO. As Google keeps working on their mobile-first index and traffic grows, mobile isn’t getting any less important.

2. Don’t ignore desktop. Desktop might be decreasing but it won’t dissapear in the foreseeable future - it still accounts for a large proportion of traffic and the majority of bookings.

This data is based across all Net Affinity Clients and sourced from Google Analytics

DESIGN TRENDS MOBILE WEBSITE BEST PRACTICES

Increase in Mobile Bookings Advantages Of Mobile First Design With mobile traffic outperforming desktop, and mobile bookings also on the rise, mobile websites or web apps 01 Enables you to make the tough decisions about the content are now a must for hotels. However, all mobile websites were not created equal. Site weight affecting the load 02 It forces the designer into a content hierarchy time of the site is crucial for converting leads into sales. 03 Many users will likely only ever see the mobile version of your site so mobile first design naturally makes for a better user experience. Mobile First Design

For the past few years the industry was talking about Disadvantages Of Mobile First Design Responsive design, meaning the content would respond to the user’s screensize, platform and orientation. There’s 01 There are more constraints such as a smaller screen and fewer resources a growing trend in the industry though to flip this workflow

on its head and actually begin with mobile considerations 02 It’s difficult for designers to start small and work upwards to desktop and then work up to a larger desktop version. 03 Designers are less comfortable with mobile first design. They’re more familiar with mouse hovers and clicks than finger taps on mobile.

© NET AFFINITY TRENDS REPORT - 31 Mobile transactions were lagging behind traffic; however, SITE SPEED: WHY IT figures are starting to suggest a rise in mobile bookings. MATTERS Booking abandonment on mobile represent billions in lost revenue annually, and there is still a long road ahead for creating So why do we keep going on about site speed? What difference a seamless online checkout experience. does 2 seconds really make? Studies show, the longer it takes a site to load, the more website visitors blame the content provider instead of their mobile service provider – blame shifts to the Speed Related Challenges content provider after 4 seconds. 01 47% of users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less According to Google, 60% of travel searches came on mobile 02 40% of users abandon a website that takes more than 3 devices in 2016. Additionally, conversion rates have grown 88% seconds to load on mobile travel sites. 03 79% of users dissatisfied with website performance are less likely to buy from the same site again Here’s what our own data, aggregated across hundreds of hotel clients, shows: 04 44% of users will tell their friends about an unpleasant experience online • Mobile traffic surpassed desktop traffic in Quarter 3 2015 05 46% of people say that waiting for sites to load is their least favourite thing about shopping on mobile • Mobile traffic cut through the 50% of traffic mark in Quarter 3 2016 06 60% of users say they have encountered a problem while browsing on mobile in the last 12 months

Source: Google, KissMetrics.

© NET AFFINITY TRENDS REPORT - 32 6 SOLUTIONS FOR IMPROVED SITE SPEED 01 ADD TEXT TO ICONS SO USERS KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN You can’t count on all your icons to be identifiable to everyone browsing your hotel website. While the ‘hamburger’ icon is a classic way to display a menu, even that icon can cause brief hesitations. These hesitations are referred to as friction, the more friction you have on your site, the lower your conversions and higher your bounce rate will be. To avoid that, just make sure all your icons have small text labels to identify them, to even your least-technologically savvy visitors.

02 03 FEWER AND LIGHTER IMAGES DON’T TRY TO SQUEEZE You must reduce the content on your desktop site when you move to IN INTERACTIVE MAPS your mobile website. Images have much more digital ‘weight’ than text, Interactive maps embedded in your site are so they are even more important to cut back on. heavy, and slow things down. They’re also one of Keep it to one image per page, where possible. On pages like galler- those things that often don’t function properly on ies, make sure the images only load as people scroll down the page mobile websites. If your map hasn’t loaded properly, – this reduces load time. your visitors will end up frustrated. Instead, just link a map While images are important for hotel websites, you must balance that button or a still image of a map to the Google Maps app. You with the user experience. You can also compress images to make sure can link it directly to your hotel’s address, and even include they’re as light as they can possibly be. directions in the URL if you like.

© NET AFFINITY TRENDS REPORT - 33 04 HOST VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE, NOT YOUR SITE! Videos won’t need to load with the page – instead, they’ll only load when a user is ready to watch. This speeds up the page. If your video is on YouTube, you can use it in video advertisements across Google if you wish. Keep your site light, fast and user-friendly by embedding videos.

05 KEEP FORMS SHORT AND SWEET As with most things on your hotel’s mobile website, the rule of thumb for forms is to keep it short. This is hugely important when you want guests to sign up for your newsletter or make a booking. Consider what information you absolutely need from a guest during booking – it may be as simple as a name, email address, phone number and credit card number, once they’ve selected their booking package. If you’re focused on segmentation as part of your revenue management strategy, this may mean training your front of house to collect data.

06 LIGHTEN UP YOUR DESKTOP CONTENT FOR MOBILE You may have lovely, lengthy paragraphs describing your hotel and grounds on your desktop site, but you need to be concise on mobile. As a general rule, people read less than we think they do (about 60% of the text on any given page). Make sure your pages are scanna- ble – that people can easily see an image, a quick description with the relevant facts highlighted or even bolded, and a clear call to action, e.g. the ‘Book Now’ button. Take note of what your visitors are actually looking at, then decide which parts can be cut.

1. Before choosing a mobile solution to either create or upgrade your current site to, carefully consider your options. Bespoke mobile sites, adaptive sites and responsive sites all have their pros and cons. Take into account your available budget, and your goal.

2. Take site friction into account think about what can be done today, as well as in your future mobile site maintenance plan in order to reduce user hesitations.

3. Overhaul your website and take away any items and functions weighing it down. Consider what is necessary on each page, strip your content back to the essentials. Streamlining your hotel’s website will not only make it easier to navigate for the user but it will also make it ‘lighter’ and therefore load quicker.

Many hotels have questions about which types of online campaigns are best, what return to expect on them, and the true value of those campaigns. Campaigns for a specific special offer or a rate plan, have clear goals and targets. However, prospecting campaigns – ones designed to introduce your hotel to new audiences and increase brand awareness – are part of a bigger picture. They help your hotel in the medium and long run, not just the short term.

The Modern Marketing Mix

Branded campaigns and non-branded search campaigns are essential parts of the modern advertising and marketing mix for hotels.

With regards to non-branded prospecting campaigns, whether they’re display or longtail keyword campaigns, one good approach is to have a discretionary budget that is considered an investment. Then, measure the level of impressions you’re getting and see how many new people are being fed into the funnel. Each click on your longtail keywords campaigns will have to be more expensive to be able to better compete with the other bidders, driving costs upwards.

However, your ads in this space are showing alongside those of your direct competitors and all OTAs. If you reduce spend or remove these campaigns, you ensure that the only results searchers will see will be for your competitors and OTA’s. While your organic listing will show up for relevant keywords, Google’s continued focus on monetization means that organic results are being made less prominent.

There is an intrinsic value to these campaigns that cannot easily be quantified, and is entirely dependent on your strategy.

© NET AFFINITY TRENDS REPORT - 37 PROSPECTING CAMPAIGNS ARE INVESTMENTS The return on prospecting campaigns can be minutely measured due to the attribution models and online tracking in place. However, these campaigns also have an unmeasurable effect in terms of brand awareness. True, impressions can be accurately measured. However, it is still difficult to gauge how many of those impressions sparked interest or generated recognition for your brand in the user’s mind.

The Challenge of Cross Device Attributions

Understanding how and where a customer found your hotel gets even more complicated by the fact that cross-device conversions – a relatively new development for the industry – do not always account for the total of last click conversions we see on the reports. See an example of a complex customer journey below, imagine this journey taking place across mobile, tablet and desktop:

© NET AFFINITY TRENDS REPORT - 38 ATTRIBUTION MODELS WORKING TOWARDS A CLEARER VIEW Attribution Models As digital marketing gets more sophisticated, the topic of attribution models has come up repeatedly in 01 Linear: each step of the funnel gets attributed with an equal portion of the conversions. If there’s 5 steps in the user journey, each step gets 20% of conversations with clients: every hotel wants to know the conversions, and so on what, where and how their guests are booking online. When you fully understand your online conversions, you 02 Time Decay: a percentage value is assigned to each of the steps in the can make better business decisions. user journey, based on the closeness of each to the conversion moment

Position Based: in this model, 40% of conversions are attributed each to Attribution is one of the trickiest aspects of the industry: 03 the first and last interactions, with the remaining 20% being distributed in a world where each and every user is interacting with throughout the remaining touchpoints your brand through a multitude of channels, it becomes very difficult to properly assign the correct value to each 04 Last Non-Direct click: ignores direct traffic 100% and credits the sale to the channel. last channel clicked by the customer

05 Last Adwords click: credits the last paid click through Adwords. Paid Most of the time, we end up using the simplest attribution Search would here be taking all the credit in the instances in which paid model available in order to at least have something to search was involved. base our conclusions on. 06 Personalized: attribution models can be customized and personalized User journeys can be extremely complex. Travelers based on the specific needs for each account. It requires in depth understanding of the business, the user journey and each of the channels. today have many touchpoints on their journey to get Any tracking issues that might exist in the account will pollute the data and from “I want a vacation” to “I’m ready to book.” might end up having a major impact in how the conversions are attributed.

1. Be aware of the external reasons traffic is changing, and monitor channel performance. It’s essential to hotels’ future digital presence to be aware of the different causes that have led to this traffic shift, and to be aware of which channels are rising and falling in popularity among hotels

2. Both branded and non-branded campaigns are essential. In just the same way that you value your traditional marketing channels.

3. Discover your hotel’s user journey. Study your Google Analytics data to find out how long your user journey is, using the Multi-Channel Funnel tool.

Maeve Walls Head of Revenue Strategy

Hollie Faulkner Director of Marketing

Christiane Foller Conversion Optimisation Specialist

Gemma Hynes Director of Client Services

Abby Ward Content Marketing Specialist

Ji Hye Uhm UI/UX Designer