Three things that hotel brands should know about in 2015

1. Social is increasingly part of the decision process for travelers.

Many and leisure travelers now leverage e-commerce tools, such as social Q&A and ratings & review tools, when booking rooms online. In fact, 53% of travelers won’t commit to booking a room until they’ve read reviews of the property* and 21% needed to check with other travelers before booking**.

2. Guest feedback broadens SEO reach and reduces call center inquiries.

Fresh and engaging content is essential for any successful SEO strategy. And user-generated content (UGC), such as feedback that is developed by your site visitors, provides unique content for your website — which ultimately feeds Google and other search engines.

As pointed out in a recent Harvard Business Review case study, « most customers these days demonstrate a huge — and increasing — appetite for self-service ». E-commerce tools that front-end your hotel inquiries help increase customer satisfaction (by answering many questions instantly) and decrease support costs.

3. Mobile booking will continue to grow in 2015.

According to the Skift « Megatrends Defining Travel in 2015 » Special Report, mobile booking is poised to grow exponentially over the next five years, with 60 percent estimated growth from 2014 and 40 percent in 2015. Having enhanced e-commerce tools, such as a community Q&A tool and ratings & reviews platforms, for mobile browsers have been known to effectively increase conversion rates.

*Custom Survey Research Engagement. Independent PhoCusWright Dec 2013 study of 12,225 respondents
**2014 SalesCycle Travel Survey of 1,000 travel consumers