According to a recent TravelClick survey, the majority of hotels will integrate booking engines into their mobile websites and social media channels in 2013.
Of the approximately 400 global hotels surveyed, 48 percent have a booking engine on Facebook or another social media channel. Approximately half of those who do not have a booking channel on social media plan to integrate one in 2013.
“With so many users relying on Facebook for research and information, it is critical that hotels make it easy for consumers to use Facebook to initiate a booking,” says Jason Ewell, executive vice president of media, web solutions, and business intelligence. “With smart phone and tablet traffic expanding rapidly, we recommend that all properties have a mobile-optimized site to ensure that their property is visible on all types of devices.”
Also gaining popularity among hoteliers are mobile-enabled websites and applications. Half of those surveyed indicated that they have an application allowing users to book rooms on a smart phone or tablet. Of the remaining half, 23 percent plan to add booking functionality to their mobile site in the coming year.
However, 53 percent of hoteliers agree that their property’s website will see the most booking growth when looking at “brand.com” channels. Following with 20 percent are search engines and social media.
