As mobile usage continues to accelerate, brands with a deep understanding of the specifics of mobile traffic will be the winners

If there is just one thing that can be said about Google today it is this: if you aren’t mobile friendly, then the search giant is no friend of yours.

In yet another march to ‘improve the search experience’, from the beginning of April Google says it will rank app results and mobile friendly sites higher in search.

Google isn’t doing this for nothing. User behaviour is changing faster than technology can keep up and mobile is at the very heart of this shift.  Speak to any executive in any online travel organisation anywhere in the world, and they will tell you that mobile usage is soaring.

The problem, however, is that many mobile experiences today are mere adaptations of the desktop.

“Rarely do mobile experiences make clever use of the specificities of mobile devices, so those willing to invest in mobile-only user interfaces will see significant results in the coming year,” says Dana Dunne, Chief Executive, ODIGEO Group.

This is backed up by EyeforTravel’srecent Smart Analytics Report 2015 which finds that poor digital experiences are a real turn off.

Matteo Cellini, head of search at the Rome-based OTA Venere is one of those. “If a mobile website doesn’t load for me in a few seconds, then that brand is lost to me,” he says.  

It’s a stark warning, and any firm that wants to maintain industry leadership must see mobility as key to the future. Recognising this opportunity, innovative metasearch player Skyscanner has moved to introduce ‘faciliated booking’.

“Right now we are experiencing a massive shift from desktop to mobile,” says Nikhil Gupta, Skyscanner’s director of hotels. “By offering partners, which don’t yet have a mobile optimised experience, the option of ‘facilitated booking’, not only does the user have a better experience but the chance of conversion increases.”

What Gupta is clear about, however, is that Skyscanner is not moving closer to the transaction.

“The end supplier never loses its identity. Rather we work with a number of partners in our markets to ensure that the conversion experience for our users is optimised,” Gupta says.

While ‘facilitated’ booking has been an opportunity for metasearch, Dunne argues that OTAs stand to benefit from the travel industry’s lack of understanding of multi-device behaviour.

“Travel companies are still mainly unsophisticated as regards multi-device routes – by this I mean customers using multiple devices before buying. This area is ripe for OTAs to bring in a killer feature that facilitates these complex user interactions,” he says.

Cellini agrees: “What we need is a solution for fragmented multi-channel, multi device world where attribution is getting tougher and tougher. That is one of the biggest problems facing online businesses right now.”

What is clear is that the shift to mobile will continue to accelerate and those brands that are able to understand the specifics of mobile traffic, and how to create unique mobile experiences, will be the winners.

This could explain why all major acquisitions since 2014 – and more are expected - point to a drive to build more inventory that can be sold via mobile: Priceline’s acquisition of OpenTable, TripAdvisor’s of Viator, United Airlines’ link up with Uber and Airbnb’s partnerships with a number tours and activities players, and the list goes on.

Indeed, the push to become a sort of end-to-end concierge offering everything from flights to hotels, ground transportation, packages and even tours and activities is the corner the big boys will be fighting in in the coming months and years.

Join us at TDS Europe (May 6-7) where the big names in travel will be sharing their insights