Mobile-only pricing as a promotional tool
More than 85% of the world’s population are smartphone users, which is growing rapidly. These trends underline the need to integrate mobile devices into your marketing strategy. And using smartphones for promotions has proven effective in almost every market sector. For the hotel industry, mobile-only pricing is a great tool.
The practice of splitting rates between smartphone bookings and standard website bookings is becoming increasingly common. This is due to the widespread use of mobile devices to find hotels and restaurants and make travel arrangements. Statistics show that most travellers use smartphones to book a room at the last minute. In such cases, offering rates is an excellent way to attract attention. When booking on a mobile device, lower prices are available than when searching on the website. This encourages the user to make the booking immediately rather than postponing it. In this case, the ad demonstrates the benefit to the traveller. They will also be more likely to look at other hotel offers. This can increase conversion rates and drive traffic to the website.
Effectiveness of mobile booking
Smartphone booking is a good option for businesses for other reasons, too. Rankings on services such as Booking.com differ between the mobile and standard versions. Statistics from this application show that:
– mobile bookings account for 59% of total bookings;
– separate prices for smartphone bookings drive 3% more clicks;
– users make 24% more booking attempts on mobile devices;
– smartphone bookings are 22% higher than website bookings.
Therefore, Introducing different rates will help attract a wider audience and increase hotel traffic.
Other rate options
Separate pricing for mobile bookings is not the only way to diversify the offering. A company can also introduce special rates for guests from specific locations. This way, the company can attract travellers from different countries. Foreign guests usually book a room in advance and are much less likely to cancel a reservation. It allows the hotel to manage occupancy optimally.
Another tool is the price per guest or PPG. This approach offers the opportunity to improve profitability on a room-by-room basis. You can set different room rates depending on the number of guests or the length of their stay.
As with the Booking.com service, offering a discount to a user with many bookings is possible. Similarly, travellers can be encouraged to leave reviews about their stay at the hotel.