The Mobile Travel Journey -- Phocuswright Europe Presentation

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Inspiration & Discovery

Booking In-Transit

Stages of the Traveler Customer Journey

Expedia, 2015

156Mpeople in the US who engage

with digital travel content

90%of monthly travel visitors are

on a smartphone or tablet

Inspiration & Discovery: Primarily Mobile-Driven

Google, 2014

87%of these events occurred on mobile

34 Searches5 Videos380 Web Page Views

One Trip In Planning…

Let’s take a look at how some of the travel research experiences feel today on mobile.

Say I’m thinking about a trip to Bali, but first, I want to understand some of the potential

hotels there.

I found a hotel that really appeals to me and I want to know more. But there’s no easy

way to do that from this publisher’s content.

So instead, I decide to copy it myself.

There we have it…

Copy and paste it into Google. And here I am seemingly finding

the direct supplier myself.

Here’s an example of how we can do this better.

Say I’m doing the same activity — looking at hotels I’m interested in for a trip to Miami, and I

find the Faena Hotel on Conde Nast Traveler.

Only this time, there’s a link to send me straight to a booking through Hotels.com

Even better, this link can preview the hotel for me, and send me straight to Hotels.com’s

app since I’m already a loyal customer (or offer to install it beforehand).

Now I can book simply, and that publisher gets attributed that referral.

Google, 2015

46%made their final booking decision on mobile yet moved to another device to complete

Bookings: Still a Mobile Gap to Close

Criteo, 2016

Mobile Travel Bookings

46%Mobile Web

57%In-App

151 tapson mobile from decision to

travel purchase

Let’s take a look at how a typical OTA works to drive a user to their end goal —

a booking — that will make them revenue.

After inputing my travel details, I wait for results, and scroll through, maybe even

filtering to find the right time, price, or flight duration.

Now the OTA has to check to see if that itinerary is still available with the airline, so I wait here

with this loading screen.

Great, it’s still available. I’ll check the times again, maybe pick my seats. I scroll down and verify the price one last

time and hit continue.

Now I have to enter my information, my name, birthday

and gender, maybe even my frequent flyer program, and hit

continue once again.

Finally, after 5-6 steps, I’m at the booking page. But I still

have to enter my credit card and billing information. I’m not sure how secure the mobile website is, and it seems like too much

effort, so I’ll likely abandon.

So I double-tap my home Button and abandon, probably

to go do this whole process over again on desktop.

Let’s see how we can do this better. Here’s an example

metasearch app that I love to use.

And I see a hotel in London I’ve always wanted to stay at.

And here I get a price comparison and different booking providers. Great. Again, let’s say I’m a loyal Hotels.com user, and even after

searching, they still win me over. I click to book.

I get a great preview of the hotel and an option to book in app or in

mobile web.

And again, I’m either prompted to install the app, or am sent directly

to it to book with my same info and payment credentials I’ve used

before. Simple — we’ve reduced 151 taps to a matter of 3 to 4.

“Travelers now consider their smartphone to be the single most indispensable item they carry with them when they travel…

…ahead of their toothbrush, deodorant and driver’s license”

Expedia, 2016

In-Transit: Smartphone over Hygiene

TripAdvisor, 2015

Looking for hotels60%

Looking for things to do67%

Looking for restaurants71%

Reading reviews64%

Finding my way around/maps81%

In-Transit: Travelers’ Smartphone Activities

How can you help in this stage?

Provide services that fulfill the whole travel experience.

For example, on Hotels.com’s app, when looking at my hotel

confirmation, I see a mobile concierge for my stay — including

uber, OpenTable, and Groupon.

And when I tap…

I see a preview of the deals from Groupon, for example, nearby my

hotel.

And after selecting the deal I’m interested in, I am sent to install or

directly to Groupon’s app to complete my purchase.

Inspiration & Discovery

Booking In-Transit

Button Connects Mobile Experiences

Local Experiences for Destinations, Too

With Results You Can MeasureMeasurement, attribution, and affiliation built right in

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