How to Improve ROI on Mobile Bookings

The opportunity and benefits of having a mobile platform are becoming a reality in the hospitality industry. With the continued growth of mobile use, desktop use is inevitably on the decline for travel planning and booking. Based on these mobile trends in the hospitality industry, Hoteliers must integrate their business into the mobile domain to remain competitive. Hotels must find creative ways to reach and engage guests through their mobile devices to not only stay top of mind but to create more opportunities for additional revenues.

For starters, hotels must have a mobile-optimized website to reach a large segment of on-the-go travelers. After many years of conducting studies and analyses, experts have determined that mobile users generally require short, straightforward information on mobile websites. The most valuable information for users in regards to a hotel's mobile site is typically the hotel location, maps and directions, an easy to use booking engine, click-to-call reservation number, and a summary of the hotel's offerings. The easier it is for users to navigate through a hotel's mobile website to make a reservation, the more revenue the hotel will achieve in the long term.

Google Analytics is an excellent tool that can be used to measure website performance and monitor the customer acquisition channel across all three screens for free, at no cost to use. It also features mobile website analytics, an essential means of analyzing the performance of your mobile platform to see the level of mobile engagement of users and to use this information proactively to grow your mobile base. After verifying the needs and wants of customers on a mobile website, hoteliers can determine how visitors interact with their web pages. They can see where they are clicking on the booking button, TripAdvisor review feed, social media icons, advertisements, and any content found that is more important to the mobile user. Hoteliers can then modify the marketing initiatives on their mobile platform for maximum effectiveness.

The use of call tracking is now more critical than ever for the hospitality industry. More consumers are getting into the habit of using their mobile devices to call hotels directly instead of dealing with the complexities of the booking process. Much of a hotel's revenue is done via voice. This is why hoteliers need to implement call tracking because it provides actionable insights into which marketing initiatives offer the best ROI.

With the demand and necessity of having a mobile platform in place, hoteliers must revisit their marketing strategies to make a substantial impact on mobile travelers. Having a mobile-optimized website with specialized content, utilizing Google Analytics to measure website performance, and adopting call tracking to determine the best marketing initiatives are just a few of the many ways to improve ROI on mobile bookings.