How to use Call Tracking to Drive Mobile Bookings

It’s easy to become accustomed to answering phone calls from the front desk, but is there a way for hoteliers to capitalize on the monotony of the voice channel to bring in more ROI for their hotel? The answer lies in the power and benefits of call tracking. Call tracking is a powerful analytical tool that enables hoteliers to find which sources lead to conversions, determine the value of phone reservations, and discover how online users interacted with the hotel’s website during the entire phone call process. Even with the rise in mobile and tablet bookings making approximately 15% of total bookings, don’t underestimate the power of the voice channel (which may very well be coming from the mobile channel, as well!). Therefore, hoteliers must measure mobile to voice conversions by the use of call tracking to determine the actual value of their voice channel in the form of ROI. 

Call tracking works by installing a small amount of code to your website with a unique phone number for incoming calls from each of your online marketing campaigns. The number generated for each caller provides essential information, such as the keywords used to get to the website. You can know the date and time of the call, the webpage the user was in at the time of the request. This way, you can determine the overall value of the call. You can know the total number of calls in a day, the geographies of overall calls, or find out which sources (organic search, pay-per-click ad, etc.) users are calling from. You can also know the total amount of mobile to voice conversions in a week, or the level of customer service offered to all callers. Call tracking reveals all of this and much more! As a bonus, call tracking can also be integrated into Google Analytics, AdWords, your CRM, analytics tools, or reporting systems that you use for a complete analysis of your marketing campaigns.

Call tracking is extremely useful in determining the number of mobile bookings that resulted from the hotel’s mobile website or mobile marketing campaigns. Hoteliers can see which campaigns are generating the most conversions, and more importantly, track the ROI of each marketing channel to see which areas are performing well and which areas need improvement. Several benefits of call tracking include, but are not limited to:

1. Favorable organic search engine traffic: Determine the specific landing pages that are generating the most calls.
2. Enhanced pay-per-click campaigns: Find the best and most relevant keywords that bring in the most conversions.
3. Improved digital advertising campaigns: Establish which display advertisements perform the best by implementing a different telephone number to track the ads that you run.

The holy grail of call tracking is to analyze for the potential value of each reservation inquiry and to determine which marketing initiatives/channels are worth investing in more than others. Call tracking allows you to picture the results – hoteliers can find precisely where conversions originated, thereby improving their marketing initiatives to drive the total amount of mobile bookings. Turn your hotel’s phone system into another useful tool for your business by merely integrating call tracking into your marketing initiatives!