Currently, there are several indicators showing that there is significant indecision among customers when choosing accommodation. This stems from the huge diversity of highly tempting opportunities and offers that can be found in the online world.

NB This is a viewpoint by Pedro Colaco, president and CEO of GuestCentric.

In fact, the main players on the market, such as Booking, Expedia or Tripadvisor, have attractive promotional offers to capture the attention of potential customers.

On the other hand, we are seeing a significant increase in the use of innovative techniques incentivizing direct bookings, such as pop-up messages or remarketing, as a strategic backup to these promotional offers.

In practical terms, the consumer often shows some hesitation in their choice because they are not sure it there might be a better deal elsewhere on the market.

Hotel managers should take advantage of this online  indecision by offering customized deals. For this, it is necessary to identify specific behaviours – the moment the user enters the website, how they navigate within each page, when they are about to leave the website or booking engine or even when trying to close the window.

The deals you offer must be appropriate to how the potential guest is acting at the specific point in time. Innovative tools, such shopping recovery functionality, that can be triggered when the following events occur:

Landing

At the moment of arrival, the hotel can interact with the user by inserting a pop-up to convey an offer that is unique to the website, or offering attractive deals.

Scroll

The hotel can set a percentage of the scroll on the page to set the time when the pop-up appears. Thus, you may present the offer exactly when the user is querying information they consider to be relevant to their decision.

Inactivity/permanency

These pop-ups might appear in case the user is inactive on the page and spends over a certain amount of time without making a decision. In this situation, the hotel manager can set up a pop-up window to try to understand what the customer is looking for and entice him or her with a customized offer.

Exit-intent

This feature lets you detect when a user is about to leave the website or the booking platform, while trying to close the window. In practice, a pop-up window is activated, containing a personalized message and an unbeatable offer. For example, they could refer to additional discount possibilities, or details of how to contact the hotel directly for information about exclusive deals.

To succeed in securing reservations, these pop-ups should be windows that are personalized to various situations and should encourage user interaction. The fact that these pop-up windows emerge because of a determined behaviour will inevitably lead to a reaction from the user.

Pop-ups also helps hotels to get the user’s email address, which can then be used to offer exclusive deals via email, a powerful tool for increasing your database.

According to our own data, shopping recovery tools can help lift direct bookings by more than 30%. But they need to be used appropriately – the right message at the right time -to fulfil their true potential.

NB1: This is a viewpoint by Pedro Colaco, president and CEO of GuestCentric.
NB2: Image by BigStock.com