How Fast Are Consumers Really Moving to Same-Day Hotel Bookings?
Photo Credit: Lots of hotel bookers are booking rooms within 24 hours of their stay, but plenty of travelers prefer to book well in advance. Pictured is a standard harbor view Room is featured at Hotel Icon in Hong Kong. Hotel Icon/MCT
Skift Take
The majority of U.S. hotel bookers aren't booking on mobile, and don't book the day of their stay -- although things are trending in that direction. Travel marketers need to cater to the trend, but can't overlook the variety of consumer behaviors and devices in play.
Let's face it: Mobile and same-day booking trends are transforming the user experience in hotel bookings, but the travel research and booking experience is still very much a multi-device phenomenon, with desktops, phones, tablets and even foot traffic/walk-ins playing a role, and both the desktop and longer booking windows still play a leading role in transactions.
Travel providers know that the same-day market is big, but just how big is a challenge to measure.
We recently ran an article that looked at user behavior from partners of Sojern, which include brands like Starwood, Hyatt, and Hilton, as well as many travel aggregators. Sojern's said in its Q4 2013 Travel Trends Report that according to its 600 million data points, in the fourth quarter of 2013, 29% of U.S. hotel bookings were done on the same day -- defined as within 24 hours -- of their stay.
That data is specific to Sojern's partnerships w
