We have some important reads for you this week, starting off with Talia Wolf's complete DIY guide to optimizing your landing pages. We also have a Piper Jaffray survey which found that OTAs and travel search sites offered the lowest prices 21% of the time, while hotel supplier websites offered the lowest prices 13% of the time. We then have an interesting case study on how Germany’s Berge & Meer used data-driven attribution to increase bookings by 24%. And a good reason to invest in a mobile-friendly hotel website - according to J.D. Power and Associates' annual North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, guests are more satisfied with hotels that are mobile-friendly.
The power of being able to look at your landing page, analyze it and follow a step-by-step process to optimize it, is huge. Once the test is complete, you get all the knowledge, you know exactly what worked, why it worked and, most importantly, you have a much better idea of what to do next. Understanding what works best on your audience, what makes them convert and spreading that knowledge within the business is priceless.
Piper Jaffray surveyed 1,000 U.S. customers who reserved rooms at 86 chain hotels in the world's largest 25 cities. It found that OTAs and travel search sites had the lowest price 21% of the time, while hotel supplier websites had it 13% of the time. In about two-thirds of the cases, room pricing was the same across distribution channels
Bidding on upper-funnel keywords wasn’t particularly profitable for leading tour operator Berge & Meer. Or so the business thought—until it adopted data-driven attribution. Shifting to get a better view of keywords that drive sales has boosted conversion volume without increasing the CPA.
Airbnb has long been a big problem for corporate travel managers, leading to leakages and safety concerns when travelers decide to stay in an apartment or shared home instead of an approved hotel room. It now appears, however, that Airbnb is poised to make major inroads into the corporate travel marketplace.
