Technology has transformed the way hotels acquire bookings. Travellers can now book a stay at a hotel at the convenience of a few keystrokes.
However, the booking abandonment rate in the travel sector alone is 81%. These are passengers who would book a plane ticket but will not pursue payment. Hence, it ends up getting cancelled.
This same scenario happens on hotel websites. Sure, some factors are out of your control. But, there are things a hotelier can do to help reduce booking abandonment (to an extent, if not completely eliminated).
So, if you have been wondering about how to fix hotel booking abandonment, then this article is for you.I have tried to cover all the aspects and help you deal with issues like losing bookings.
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Hotel Booking Abandonment and How it Impacts Revenue
Like booking abandonment in the airline industry, hotel booking abandonment is when guests book a room and do not pursue payment.
Often, hotels wait 24 – 48 hours for the guests to pay for their booked room. This means that their room will be unavailable to accept new guests during that period.
If the guests pay, good for them and your business. But what happens if they do not?
This means you have wasted at least a day keeping that reservation on hold and waiting for the guest to complete the booking. This is a day of lost revenue when you could have given that reservation to someone willing to pay immediately.
According to data, incomplete bookings account for $1.8 trillion in future revenue. And here are five common reasons people abandon their hotel booking:
- Travelers were checking how much a reservation may cost on specific dates
- Guests were shocked by the additional fees
- The booking process is long and tedious
- A technical issue on your hotel website occurred
- You are not offering their preferred payment method
So can you cope with this? Are there any practical ways? Well, the answer is an absolute YES. And this is exactly what is explained in the next point.
10 Tips to Reduce Hotel Booking Abandonment on Your Website
As mentioned earlier, hotel booking abandonment can hurt your revenue. Luckily, there are ways to mitigate this.
1. Simplify the booking process
Guests do not like it when it is difficult to book an affordable room during their preferred dates. This includes making your site visitors guess whether a room will be available on the said dates and filling out a lengthy form.
That said, you need to ensure that it will be easy for your guests to look for a room and see whether it will be available on their preferred dates. It can also help if you indicate how many rooms are left.
Another thing you can do is reduce the form length. If anything, minimize your booking process to two pages. The first page can be for indicating their preferred dates, number of guests, and choosing the rooms they want to book. The second page can be where they can fill in their payment details.
This is where a hotel management system like eZee can come in handy. It is a comprehensive management system wherein you can handle reservations online and offline. It also allows you to create hotel packages and manage booking rates with ease.
Make sure that you test out the online booking experience and that it’s simple, short, and efficient. Online bookings on mobile are also on the rise, so make sure that the booking process on these devices goes without a hitch as well.
2. Improve the website’s UX
Aside from simplifying your booking process, another way to reduce hotel booking abandonment is to improve your hotel website’s UX.
The first thing you might want to improve is your calendar’s usability. As much as possible, fill in the check-in and check-out dates with the current date, plus one. Make sure that the check-out date will change accordingly (plus one) whenever a guest picks a new date.
Say, someone chose to book a room for February 12, 2022. The check-out should automatically change to February 13, 2022. That way, it will be easier for your guests to book their preferred room. It can also help to block out previous dates. This is to prevent input errors and invalid date selection.
Other web UX improvements that you can add are a progress bar at the top of your booking page, detailed room information and photos, accurate and comprehensible room rates.
According to Sytian Productions, a website design Philippines company, “When improving your hotel website’s user experience (UX), the key is to make booking or reservation as intuitive as possible. At the very least, don’t make your booking engine look annoying by overcomplicating the booking flow”.
3. Optimize for a mobile experience
One of the reasons for hotel booking abandonment is a poor mobile experience. What I mean by that is many hotel websites aren’t optimised for mobile devices. And this is where they lose the race.
It's vital to have a mobile-friendly hotel website. After all, it is a revenue stream that you cannot afford to bypass.
But while mobile now makes up 41% of all traffic to travel sites, they’re only responsible for 18% of bookings. Users might still find bugs and other issues while browsing their phones. As such, they won’t hesitate to look for another hotel that can provide them with a much better guest experience.
An excellent way to ensure that your site is compatible with any device is by investing in a mobile-friendly site builder. The same thing goes for your online hotel booking system. They should look intuitive and easy to use whether the guest is on a desktop or smartphone.
For instance, guests should quickly find the different types of rooms available on your hotel website. This includes viewing a photo gallery of each room. Additionally, your "Book This Room" button should stand out and be large enough to tap.
Lastly, you should keep in mind that Google aims to make browsing convenient for smartphone users. Hence, you need to ensure that your hotel website functions properly, whether a guest is booking via desktop or a mobile device.
4. Create special offers for direct bookings
Many sites fail to mention this or actively promote it. But how will your target audience know that you want them to book with you directly if you don’t spell it out?
That’s why you must come up with a special offer for direct bookings. This doesn’t have to be solely focused on the price. This can include giving complimentary drinks on arrival, providing Wi-Fi in every room, or offering an early check-in.
You can also consider upselling other services like organizing a day tour or airport pick-up and dropoff services.
5. Provide clear pricing
When you publish the pricing of each room, ensure that it is inclusive of taxes and service charges. That way, your guests would know what to expect.
Seeing how a room costs per night can help them decide whether to book a room in your hotel or not. However, presenting an affordable price only to see it increase once they start booking can give your guest the shock of their lives.
What you can do is indicate whether the pricing is inclusive of tax and service charges. Better yet, publish the total costs of booking a room.
Here’s the thing: Some guests wouldn’t mind paying for a premium experience, as long as they make the most out of it. This could mean booking a hotel room with a private jacuzzi, free Wi-Fi, and complimentary breakfast.
Hence, it would be better to be upfront with the costs. You can indicate the amount a guest needs to add in case they want to enjoy other services like laundry or full-body massage service.
6. Offer various payment options
According to studies, 10% of customers get lost in the checkout stage. Therefore, the more choices a traveler has in paying for their booking, the happier they’ll go through the booking.
Now, if they fail to find their preferred payment method, they’ll end up frustrated. Although credit and debit cards are some of the most popular ways of buying something online, it isn’t always the case for everyone.
These days PayPal and other digital wallets like Amazon Wallet and Apple Pay are some of the most widely accepted payment options.
Word to the wise: The payment infrastructure can make or break a hotel. So, make sure, you have got a supremely seamless payment process.
You can read this blog to learn more about it in detail. Also, this blog is a gem.
7. Improve page load time
Similarly, a lot of travel bookings get abandoned because of a slow website loading time.
So, make sure that your hotel website is optimised enough to load quickly. Further, website page load time not only reduces booking abandonment but also helps your website rank higher on google.
Google shows people sites on search results that take less time to load.
Now, how can you improve your page load time?
One of the things you can do is reduce the image sizes. Because it impacts the website’s load time significantly. Other than that, also pick the best web hosting services that help improve your site’s page load speed.
A hotel website needs to be created strategically and to help you with that, here’s an amazing blog about it.
Read: Hotel Website Features Checklist
8. Incorporate live chat
Whenever guests encounter issues while booking on your website, they need someone who can help them resolve them immediately. Hence, it would help if you could incorporate live chat on your hotel site.
Doing so can help your guests book a room successfully. It also prevents you from incurring another abandoned hotel booking.
A live chat feature can also be helpful when guests have some questions before booking a room in your hotel.
Speaking of live chat, a hotel chatbot could also be of great benefit. It can not only resolve queries but can also drive more bookings.
Here’s a detailed blog to help you understand more about it.
9. Share unique and authentic local stories
The thing is, there’s very little you can do with someone’s budget. Nonetheless, you can enhance your hotel’s perceived value through good storytelling.
Use your site to show what makes your hotel unique from all your competitors in the area.
It might be having loyal staff who have worked with you for years. Another is a restaurant brand that is associated with your hotel. You can also showcase the special events you host for your guests.
Humans love to hear stories since it’s easier for us to connect and remember these stories. So, don’t be afraid to stand out.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that hotel booking abandonment can be problematic in the hospitality sector. And if hotel’s are overlooking it, then there are chances that hotels might witness a downfall. (Ultram)
However and fortunately, there are effective ways to cope with this troublesome scenario. And this blog talked about all the possible ways to reduce abandoned bookings at your hotel. All the points mentioned in this piece of article are legitimate. So, I hope you now have the answer to how to reduce hotel booking abandonment.
If there’s anything else you have in mind, do let me know in the comments and I will surely address them.
