How Identity Resolution Unlocks Hidden Travel Marketing Revenue

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

For travel brands, anonymous website visitors represent a major blind spot. Travelers browse multiple sites over an extended consideration period, often leaving without a trace, making it difficult for brands to personalize their experiences or re-engage them effectively. Despite many companies believing they have a strong understanding of identity resolution, the reality often falls short.

“Most of the people coming to your website are functionally anonymous,” said Ronen Kadosh, head of travel and ticketing at Wunderkind, a performance marketing platform. “Even if they’ve booked before, they might not be logged in, they might be on a new device, or their cookies have expired. That means the majority of high-intent visitors are slipping through the cracks.”

This article examines how identity resolution transforms travel marketing by recognizing anonymous visitors, enhancing personalization, and driving higher conversions.

The Value of Identity Resolution

Traditional tracking methods — cookies, email service providers (ESPs), and customer data platforms (CDPs) — often fail due to incognito browsing, cross-device usage, and evolving privacy settings. With third-party cookies disappearing and privacy laws tightening, hotels and travel brands can no longer rely on outdated tracking methods to retarget potential guests.

Wunderkind’s identity resolution technology fills these gaps by recognizing anonymous visitors and linking them to known profiles. This unlocks opportunities for brands to personalize messaging across channels like email, SMS, and digital ads.

“When we talk with travel brands, their biggest frustration is the inability to personalize and retarget site visitors,” Kadosh said. “The vast majority of people coming to their sites — even if they are potential customers — aren’t actually retargetable.”

With AI-driven insights and first-party data, brands can move beyond fragmented tracking and create consistent, personalized experiences that drive engagement and conversions.

Leveraging Intent Signals for Smarter Engagement

According to Michael Goldrich, an industry expert and hospitality consultant, most hotel websites operate in the dark, with 95% of visitors remaining anonymous and conversion rates averaging just 2% to 3%.

“Because guests rarely log in before booking, hotels lose the ability to track high-intent visitors who browse, compare, and leave,” Goldrich said. “AI-driven identity resolution changes this by recognizing visitors across sessions and triggering personalized emails or texts based on their behavior. A high-intent traveler who views a suite multiple times can receive a targeted SMS with an exclusive upgrade offer, while a casual browser may get a softer email nudge.”

Identity resolution isn’t just about recognition — it’s about understanding visitor behavior and intent. Travel brands can leverage key intent signals to craft more relevant and timely interactions:

• Browsing Behavior: Identifying users exploring specific destinations or vacation packages enables targeted outreach.
• Abandoned Bookings: Sending timely reminders and exclusive offers helps recapture potential customers.
• Lifecycle Signals: Engaging travelers based on past interactions fosters long-term relationships.
• Cross-Device Behavior: Recognizing users across multiple touchpoints ensures a seamless experience.

“The vast majority of abandoned sessions receive no follow-up,” Kadosh said. “With identity resolution, brands can identify high-intent visitors, link their behavior to a persona, and re-engage them at critical moments.”

The Business Impact: Higher Conversions and Stronger Retention

More accurate targeting leads to higher conversion rates, better ROI on marketing spend, and stronger customer loyalty. For example, a major car rental company saw its retargeting reach grow from 1,500 to 11,000 new people per day after implementing Wunderkind’s identity resolution technology.

“As soon as they activated Wunderkind, their revenue grew fivefold,” Kadosh said. “Because these users were previously anonymous, the company not only increased bookings but also built its first-party database, strengthening long-term marketing efforts.”

This level of personalization is critical in travel, where consumers frequently browse multiple sites before booking.

“When a potential guest abandons a site, most brands don’t follow up — because they don’t know who that person is,” Kadosh added. “Identity resolution ensures brands can recognize these users and deliver the right message at the right time, driving direct bookings and reducing reliance on intermediaries.”

Future-Proofing Travel Marketing

As privacy regulations tighten and third-party cookies disappear, travel brands must shift to first-party data and identity resolution to remain competitive.

“Without real-time, intent-based engagement, hotels will continue to lose potential guests to competitors with better personalization strategies,” Goldrich said.

The ability to recognize anonymous visitors, assess booking intent, and deliver tailored outreach isn’t just a competitive advantage — it’s the new standard for success. AI-driven identity solutions allow brands to move beyond outdated, one-size-fits-all approaches and create timely, relevant interactions that convert interest into bookings.

Whether it’s a well-timed email with a personalized discount or an SMS nudging a potential guest back to the booking engine, proactive engagement will define the future of travel marketing. Brands that fail to adapt risk falling behind in an increasingly data-driven and competitive landscape.

For insights into leveraging these strategies effectively, download Wunderkind’s playbook: Unpacking the Power of Identity Resolution in Travel.

This content was created collaboratively by Wunderkind and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.