In a data-driven and mobile world, the expectation is that you will put your customer first. Are you getting it right?

In the first of a three-part series on Mobile in the Travel Industry, EyeforTravel turned to the hospitality industry for insights into where they are investing time and energy. Knowing how important it is for these industry players to understand their customer, the research also involved a survey of 20,000 travel consumers.

While both hospitality executives and consumers had the same top four priorities, they ranked them in a slightly different order. The good news, however, is that when it comes to the number one priority hotels and consumers are on the same page.

Since the consumer comes first let’s take a closer look at their priorities and what these might mean for hotels.  

Priority No 1: On an equal footing 

When it comes to the number one priority both hotel executives and the consumer are speaking with the same voice. Hospitality executives have identified the provision of localised information prior to the customer’s journey as a top priority, and that’s what the consumer wants.

• On a global basis, over 50% of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed that they would like to use their devices to find localised information before their journey.
• Travellers most interested in such services were from BRIC nations with 47.8% strongly agreeing they could make use of such services.

By these services we mean maps, activities and transport options that the customer might find useful. While the good news is that many hotel groups say they are building territory specific sites to address the issue there is still room for improvement.  

Priority No 2:  Great content beats deals

Proving that reviews really do matter, travellers are ranking information about where they are headed as more important than hearing about notifications on deals and discounts. Indeed, travellers want to hear reviews and information from fellow travellers, which could explain the success of platforms like TripAdvisor. It also highlights just how important it is for travel brands to get their content strategy in ship shape.  

Priority No. 3: Multi-platform is the name of the game

For consumers the ability to organise trip and manage it across all devices is priority number three (for hotel executives it’s reviews and trip information). Globally, over 57% of respondents said they either strongly or somewhat agreed that it would be helpful to reorganise the trip across all devices. What is more nearly 44% of consumers strongly agree that they use multiple platforms when research travel. Accommodation providers have, however, been slow to provide adaptive mobile because they felt it “added complexity”. Given what consumers are after, perhaps they need to rethink this approach. In fact just a third of hotels are rising to meet the multiplatform need. As an example:

• 42.2% of customers would like mobile hotel check-in but just 8.6% of hotels currently offer it.

Priority No. 4: Yes to deals and discounts

The consumer’s final priority is a desire to receive notifications on deals and discounts. Indeed, over 40% of consumers globally are happy for hotels to proactively notify them about deals and discounts with people from BRIC nations (63%) being particularly responsive. This is particularly good news when you consider that consumers are also keen to book added in-stay services. Over 50% of travellers said they would welcome the opportunity to book spas and activities while 40.6% said they would like room service options via mobile.