Travelers look to family, friends and
review sites for guidance
Traveling is stressful, and consumers
often look to family and friends for
reassurance when making decisions
about where they stay and how they’ll
get there. Forty-two percent of
customers first heard about a travel or
hospitality brand they booked through
family and friends. Additionally,
almost three-quarters (72%) say they
chose NOT to use a brand because
of negative feedback from family and
friends.
Travel review sites (e.g., TripAdvisor or
Yelp) were the next most influential
source of information, with 17% of
consumers reporting that’s how they
chose the last new travel or hospitality
brand they used. Google took third
place with 14% — meaning customers
are not necessarily finding new travel
brands from search engines.
Consumers don’t only turn to third
parties to discover new travel and
hospitality brands — they’re booking
through them, too. While 55%
say they booked directly with the
brand the last time they made travel
reservations with a new company, 45%
purchased through a travel agency or
a third-party website like Expedia. This
is significant since you lose valuable
opportunities to learn more about your
customers if they don’t book directly
with your brand.
TURNING FINDINGS INTO
ACTION
Encourage and incentivize customers
to share their experience with your
brand with friends and family.
For example, offer an exclusive
referral code to current customers
and encourage them to share it with
their networks in order to earn rewards
or get additional discounts when new
customers book travel using their code.
Then happy customers can pass along
a discount with a positive referral and
be rewarded for their brand advocacy.
Brands like Spartan, for example have
found success incentivizing sharing
with friends and family.
Encourage customers to book directly
with your brand.
Almost half of consumers are booking
travel and accommodations through
external sources, which means you’re
losing out on valuable opportunities to
learn more about your new customers.
Consider nudging consumers to
book direct by offering lower rates or
additional perks. For those who won’t
book directly, be sure to encourage
them to provide their information,
travel and messaging preferences
prior to their stay or flight so you
can customize their experience
accordingly.
Marriott shines again with its Bonvoy
loyalty program by guaranteeing
the best rate to members that book
directly with the brand instead of a
third party. Marriott also offers bonus
points or a discounted rate to those
who find cheaper options on other
websites.
RETENTION
Travel companies have room
to improve when it comes to
understanding their customer
preferences
We’ve already shown that spot-on
relevant messaging is critical to attract
customers. Brands should be able to
perfect messaging for customers they
have already engaged since they have
a history of past behaviors with the
brand. But almost a third of customers
(32%) say they rarely or never receive
relevant communications from travel/
hospitality brands they’ve used before.
Additionally, while about six out of
10 customers say companies are
messaging them just enough for most
channels, that leaves four out of 10
who are unsatisfied. Customers are
much more likely to say brands are
emailing them too frequently rather
than not enough. Specifically, 32%
say travel and hospitality brands
are emailing them too frequently
(compared to 5% who say they don’t
get enough emails) and another
41% say they see too many display
ads (compared to 7% who don’t see
enough).
TURNING FINDINGS INTO
ACTION
Utilize journey mapping to target
customers with relevant content.
Customers are less likely to feel they
are getting too much or too little
content from travel brands if what
they get is relevant. Understand where
your customers are in their decision-
making process (i.e., consideration,
booking, pre-stay, during their trip,
post-stay) so you can tailor your
communications accordingly. Taking
the stage of their journey into
consideration can help you not only be
relevant when talking to them but also
move them along to the next stage
through the right content.
Use preference centers to refine
relevance and message frequency.
It’s likely that customers get email
fatigue not because they don’t want
to hear from your brand but because
they receive repetitive or irrelevant
messages. Ask customers directly
about their interests and how often
they’d like to hear from you.
For example, American Airlines uses
its AAdvantage program not only
to refine frequency preferences
and allow users to opt into certain
communications, it also asks customers
about their specific travel interests
related to destinations, activities and
more.
Customers expect content to be
informed by past behavior
The key to understanding travelers
is getting to know them. Forty-
four percent of customers say
they’d prefer that brands send them
communications informed by their
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