The following is a chart from ComScore that breaks down mobile use for the first three months of this year. What is notable is that every aspect of online guest pre-booking behavior is being done on a mobile device. It’s no surprise that nearly 30% of all trip takers used their smartphone to look up hotel directions, but what’s startling–and should give us pause–is that nearly 20% of them actually booked a room from their mobile device:
| Top Mobile Hotel Activities while Planning a Trip or Traveling During Previous Three Months February 2012 Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 18+ Source: Custom Mobile Travel Advisor Survey |
|
| % of Smartphone Owners | |
| Looked up hotel address/directions | 29% |
| Looked up/ researched attractions/ things to do at my destination/near my hotel | 23% |
| Looked up/researched places to eat at my destination/near my hotel | 22% |
| Read a hotel review | 22% |
| Compared hotel prices & availability | 21% |
| Booked a hotel room | 18% |
| Received price alerts for hotels | 18% |
| Looked up/researched ground transportation at my destination/near my hotel | 17% |
| Cancelled a hotel reservation | 10% |
As recently as May, mobile browsing travel data continues to amaze. In the following lovely infographic produced by the fellows at My Destination (shown below) we discover the following gems:
- 2/3rds of all travelers say they are likely to book travel activities using mobile devices
- 54% of all travelers own smart-phones
- 45% of those that don’t have phones that can at least browse the Internet
Mobile optimization is no longer a nice-to-have. it has become necessary to conduct business. However, not all mobile optimized websites perform the same. When choosing a vendor to deliver mobile optimization, look for the following:
- Large, clear photography formatted for smaller screens
- Big buttons in high contrasting colors that are easy to tap
- Simple, easy to find one-tap phone dialing
- Simple, easy to find one-tap online reservations
- Rich, detailed and compelling content (remember, 17% of travelers research their trips from their phones).
- Good mobile SEO–that is, keep your mobile site tied to your regular website domain
Stay tuned for exciting mobile innovations from buuteeq!
Made by My Destination, locally informed, globally inspired travel guides.
About Brandon Dennis
Brandon is the Technical Marketing Manager at buuteeq, the digital marketing system for hotels. He manages buuteeq’s SEO, paid media channels, content creation, and the company blog. You can connect with him on Twitter @buuteeq.
