Why improving hotel website conversion rates is a top priority in 2024
16 experts shared their view
The average hotel website conversion rate (bookings divided by unique monthly visitors) is typically below 2%. Out of 100 people who visit the average hotel website, two or less will book, and 98 or more will abandon your website and make a booking elsewhere - either with your competitors or with the OTAs.
The situation is even worse with independent hotels, where conversion rates are even lower and range between 0.5% -1.5%. Most hoteliers do not even know what the conversion rates are on their property websites.
What are the reasons for these exceptionally low conversion rates?
Mobile-last property websites, poor user experience (UX), sub-standard CMS and CRS technologies, poor visual and textual content, lack of merchandising strategy and technology, lack of reward or guest appreciation program in place, market and rate disparity, lack of enticing offers and compelling reasons to even enter the booking engine process - less than 1/3 of website visitors do so, etc. are only some of the reasons for these poor results.
Hoteliers are spending their limited marketing dollars on SEO, paid search, metasearch, online media, PR, and social media in order to bring users to the hotel website, and allowing 98%-99.5% of them not to book. Complete waste of precious resources!
So, the question is, how can hoteliers increase conversion rates on their websites and boost direct bookings in 2024?
Many hoteliers have adopted interactive widgets on their homepage as well as on pages deeper in the hotel booking funnel.
The benefit of using widget technologies such as Userguest, The Hotels Network and TripTease (to name a few) is to attract and convert the website visitors into hotel bookers.
Key messages include a dynamic comparison between the hotel's prices vs major OTAs (Booking.com and Expedia most commonly) prices for the same dates that the hotel booker is searching for.
These calls to action are commonly used by leading OTA platforms to increase urgency with the booker and hoteliers should adopt the same strategies.
For those languishing under 2% CVR, the answer is usually pretty obvious. The best way to increase your conversion rate is to 'think like a booker'. Find ten minutes. Make a cup of tea, and before you pick up your phone or open a browser window, think about your ideal guest. Where are coming from? what dates are they considering? What's their name? Sarah? Ok great. You now need to 'be Sarah'. Go online and search for your hotel. Talk out loud every step of the way Ok, I see ads for Expedia, I'll open that on another tab, but I want the hotel website.. as you explore, look for things you know Sarah would be seeking. Keep talking. What room questions are in your head as you try to book? would Sarah go check that Expedia tab for prices? ... go all the way to adding in your card detailsIt's simple exercise, but few hoteliers do this regularly. And you can take it a step further by asking a friend to repeat the exercise infront of you.There are many clever conversion tools and widgets that can boost performance (Triptease can tell you more!) but the basics come first
Improving conversion rates on a hotel website should ALWAYS be a priority, not just in 2024. Indeed, hoteliers invest quite a bit into SEO, paid search, paid social media as well as content strategies across various digital outposts (newsletter, blog, social media, SMS, etc.).
The question here is: how can hoteliers improve bookings on their own site. Well, here's an idea: how about having a guaranteed best price policy in place, and communicating it prominently across your website and social media? (We know people shop around, but if they find a better rate for the same room on a different site, why not honor it?)
Other innovative hoteliers offer tangible perks for people who book direct, i.e. later check-out, earlier check-in, complimentary breakfast or premium wifi. These are often benefits of loyalty programs, but not every hotelier - specially independents or smaller chains - can count on one in-house.
Of course, better UX, sell-worthy copy, call-to-action buttons and other such tactics are a must as well. But sometimes it's the little stuff we tend to forget... and that are the easiest to implement!
I usually have a better booking experience with the Bonvoy App than Marriott.com, especially when browsing the properties on the map (more than just "super slow" on its website). Can you imagine what book-direct experiences people would have with smaller chains or independent hotels? Most travelers do not even bother to download hotel apps, which explains why hotels have incredibly low conversation rates.
To achieve a higher conversion rate, hotels must first improve user experience on their websites and simplify the booking process. Then, they should do everything possible to ensure travelers find exclusive or best deals by booking directly on their websites or apps through direct marketing, remarketing, and loyalty programs. When travelers know they can always find the best deals on a hotel website, they will choose book-direct after searching for the best option elsewhere (and if they have a better experience).
Max cites many of the reasons for poor conversion performance. I’ll expand on them.
The most sophisticated and comprehensive approach requires integrated solutions and an omni-channel strategy to fuel a hotel’s online visibility and profitability.
It’s critical to identify, using privacy compliant methods, the travelers that have intent to stay at the property’s destination. Access to a hotel’s guest management system (CRM) can identify the profile of guests that are most likely to book the property. This info can be used to find similar traveler audiences to target.
Often, offers are insufficiently personalized to drive conversion. Privacy compliant data on the traveler can then trigger ads with relevant, compelling messages.
In any competitive market, another destroyer of campaign performance is not offering competitive rates. Access to hotel CRS data to identify the best source markets, seasonal occupancy patterns and changes in the booking window are essential for high performing campaigns. Modern CRSs are built with e-commerce best practices in mind, moving shoppers naturally through the booking process with personalized offers, upselling opportunities, and calls to action to further encourage conversions.
When it comes to online marketing, most hoteliers underestimate the central role their website(s) play in driving direct business. Despite being where evry prospect from search, email or social media marketing eventually ends up, under funded and unloved, hotel websites typically present visitors with generic messages and pretty pictures rather than focusing on why the visitor has come to the website in the first place.
Customers visit a website for two reasons - because they want to know something or they want to do something.
To maximise conversions, rather than trying to build brand or image, websites should instead focus on telling customers what they need to know or allowing them to do what they want to do as quickly and easily as possible. Anything else is simply a distraction, leading to dissatisfaction and lower sales.
Ironically, to drive conversions, hotel websites need to work less on selling and more on solutions. In fact, to be really successful, they need to focus relentlously on the customer's needs.
Developing a robust website conversion strategy should be a top priority for hoteliers in 2024. This is a crucial step for improving direct bookings and lowering distribution costs. Any investment in your website conversion strategy will not only pay for itself, but will reward the hotel generously by improving the bottom line.
Here are the main factors that improve website conversion rates:
- Business Factors: Who "owns" the property website among your staff and held accountable for the results and production of the property website
- Revenue Management Factors: Market parity and rate parity adherence.
- Marketing Factors: Are there enticing promotions on the website?
- Credible website content: Both textual and visual content should be credible, mobile-friendly, engaging and unique.
- Technology Factors: Mobile-first website design, technology and user experience.
- Website Download Speeds under 2.5 seconds to load.
- Quality of the Booking Engine: A weak booking engine with slow download speeds, and its lack of good product presentation and UX, hurts conversions and revenues.
- Website merchandising tech to sell rooms via a complete ecosystem of modules and capabilities?
- Reservation abandonment technology to win back users who start the booking process without completing it
- Website Personalization: promotional, textual, and visual content tailored to each visitor?
When platform companies dominate the hotel distribution businesses, hoteliers must leverage platforms as their showrooms and differentiate with unique value propositions. Assuming the hotel is more attractive than competitors, potential customers may visit the hotel website. At this moment, hotels compete against platforms for bookings. Hoteliers need to offer something that is only available on their websites to drive purchase intention. Platforms have a rigid template and limit their ability to provide information that resonates with travelers. Knowing platforms' restrictions, hoteliers should leverage their local knowledge to serve as the one-stop-shop local concierge and help travelers enjoy their precious vacation time. Instead of traditional packages, design packages centered on local experiences. These local experience packages make target customers' lives easier and are only available on hotel websites. That's how customers may decide to buy from hotels instead of platforms.
Sadly, many hotel chains also behave like platforms, and their corporate websites have limited opportunities for participating hotels to communicate unique value propositions. Consequently, customers can't differentiate between platforms and hotel chain websites. To compete against platforms, hoteliers must have a strong value proposition to convince customers to buy directly and offer something only available on their websites.
If you have a conversion problem with this equation (bookings divided by unique monthly visitors), you need to see if what percentage of people are checking rates, and what percentage of people are booking that checked rates.
Then you can see if you have a rate issue or mialignment with people that are targeting through the mentioned digital strategies.
I would also suggest looking at seasonality patterns against your booking and planning windows.Also, benchmark your conversion data against like hotels, using a tool like Cogwheel Analytics to see if you over or under index on conversion rates.
How you can drive a higher conversion rate for your property's website is a great question — and one that's tough to answer in just a few words. If there were a single, simple, proven fix to drive more direct revenue that worked every time, you'd have done it by now. Instead, improving conversion rate takes dedication. It requires focus. And, it takes a willingness to invest in your property's future.
Growing direct revenue from your website starts by focusing on two areas:
- Defining a clear channel strategy
- Building trust with visitors to your website.
Your strategy starts by knowing where you are today in terms of channel mix and costs, then building a plan to shift your mix back towards direct.
At the same time, shifting that mix requires a commitment towards a trustworthy environment for your guests. Guests hate surprises; surprises suppress bookings. Your website and booking engine must always work towards being more clear, easy, and transparent.
Building a strategy that drives direct revenue and focusing on increasing trust with guests works. Your question should be, how can you do a better job of those every day?
Conversion is a key metrix - imagine you go speed dating have 100s of dates but no second date - same situation. So now lets break it down:
1. Traffic - do you have an issue with people coming to your site?
2. Booking funnel - do you have an issue from people going from site to the actual starting to book.
3. Conversion - do you have people coming out the other end? ie bookings
each of those requires a different strategy and therefore actions. you could converstion 100% of traffic but only get one person coming to the site. you could have 1mil peopel coming to your side and not one person going into the funnel, or worse, all going in and nobody coming out.
at the end of the day, the conversion matters as those are the only people that loooked and then booked. The rest.... work to do!
Unlike OTAs, hotels rely on their websites to drive direct bookings and, therefore, sales. Where OTAs invest money in marketing and acquiring customers, hotels do not. Most hotel chains zero in on website conversion, driving conversion through loyalty programs and mobile platforms. This makes a stellar website experience a worthy investment for hotel chains.
However, website conversion cannot be a priority for independent hotels, where conversion or booking is an entirely different game. Most independent hotels do not have loyalty programs to bring in repeat purchases, nor can they invest in SEO, marketing and other sales promotions like OTAs.
If independents want to improve website conversions, they need to really invest in the booking experience and provide promotions that add value to direct customers. It"s a balancing act to keep the OTAs happy and drive booking directly
Adults spend only 12% of their online time on websites (source: eMarketer). Why? Because the first website ('91) and today's fancy hotel sites share the same fundamental flaws. Sure, there's been some (not much, TBH) UX improvement, but it's mostly lipstick on a pig. Every hotel website forces users to navigate a new interface just to book a room. It's not just annoying; it's a conversion killer. UX uniformity is the only way to save conversions. Open the Booking.com app or a Custom GPT, and you know exactly what to do, whether getting a cheap apartment or a palace. One learning curve, finito!
Now, here's a crazy thought: Imagine if all 700K hotels worldwide used the exact same web template. No frills, no BS about
our website should be unique, as our hotel is unique!Just a straightforward, user-friendly, same-for-all design. This would drastically reduce the cognitive load on users, who wouldn't have to relearn a new interface every time. Amazon dominates because it offers a consistent, to the point of being boring, experience. So, when creating a website, remember what Tyler Durden used to say:You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
'cause none of us is.
Direct sales are a critical element of any hospitality business. After all, each point of distribution past the business itself comes at a direct cost.
Therefore, the energy to shift customers to a direct relationship is as perennial as the grass.
In today's business and digital environment the ongoing opportunity via a direct relationship with the customer are increasingly exponential in terms of reach, understanding and alignment of individual customer needs to the products and services you have in your stable to offer each customer. Some say personalization.
Beyond the transaction value itself a direct relationship and therefore a direct (e)mail opportunity is still one of the most sought after in the marketing world. The customer 'likes' you and wants to hear more. A gesture of trust and value.
An open door. Or at least unlocked.
How many organisations in your life can you say that about?
Getting users to book direct requires a few different things: the website needs to provide relevant information and value, inspire trust and credibility, and reduce friction during the process.
Firstly, the website needs to load immediately and on different devices. It must be easy for guests to click through the website to find what they need. Compelling, interactive content, especially video, is essential for communicating the brand story and showcasing the property. The rate should clearly be displayed, utilizing a rate comparison tool, to ensure users they are getting the best rate possible. Just as important, making sure it is easy to pay with one-click payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, and similar options can significantly boost conversions. Additionally, offering installment payment options for larger travel packages can attract guests by providing payment flexibility.
Taking it a step further, website personalization can improve conversion rates by tailoring content based on visitor behavior, demographics, geography, loyalty attributes, or other data points. Even simple personalization around offer strategy can drive higher conversions.
By embracing these strategies, hotels can enhance their online presence, drive more direct bookings, and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market.
Related article by Tina Markowitz
Hotel websites almost exclusively cater to users with transactional intent, making a 1-2% conversion rate unsurprising. Hotels must optimize their websites to engage upper-funnel visitors in the dreaming and planning stages of travel planning, reflecting most website visitors who aren't ready to "book now."
Dreamers, in search of inspiration and travel insights, are the audience for engaging blogs and destination guides on hotel websites. To effectively cater to these potential guests, the content quality must be on par with that of an online publisher, offering original and useful travel tips for savvy travelers.
Planners, who are comparing properties within their budget, often face a challenge due to the prevalence of professional yet templatized layouts on many hotel websites. To stand out in this competitive landscape, it's crucial for hotels to emphasize their unique branding and website design, providing planners with a sense of the property's distinct character or selling points.
When the hotel website shifts from prioritizing 1-2% of users with transactional intent to meeting the needs of ALL users across the travel planning journey, hotels will see higher conversion rates and more direct bookings.
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