by Max
Starkov
May 7, 2013
Background
Last year, HeBS Digital proclaimed that 2013 would be the
Year
of the Three Screens in Hospitality – desktop, mobile and tablet –
and
advised hoteliers to get ready for the “three screen explosion” and
work hard
to deliver a customized and user-friendly experience across these three
screens.
The explosion of
the mobile and social media channels and the emergence of the new
tablet
channel have created not only new user behavior but also new
information needs in
each device category, requiring hoteliers to create and manage digital
content
across three distinct distribution and marketing channels (desktop,
mobile,
tablet).
Internet users exhibit different behavioral patterns when using
the desktop, mobile and tablet devices; each device category address
different
needs at different times of the day and week. What works for a user
researching
and booking on a desktop website does not work for a smartphone user
who is
reading content on-the-go and needs a mobile enabled booking engine.
Similarly,
a tablet user expects a highly visual experience and a website built to
accommodate touchscreen navigation and browsing via swiping.
At the same time, there is a noticeable shift from the
“traditional” desktop to the smaller screens. Adoption rate of new and
“cool”
smartphone and tablet devices is skyrocketing. In Q1 2013 worldwide,
there were
fewer shipments of desktops compared to either smartphones or tablets.
Smartphone penetration in the U.S. already exceeds 44%. Tablet
penetration is
above 15% (Google Insights).
For 2013 Google has projected that hotel queries
from tablets will increase this year by more than 180%, while queries
from
mobile devices will jump by 68% and desktop searches will decline for
the first
time on a full-year basis, by 4%.
Additionally, users searching Google utilize:
- Desktop during the day (office)
- Mobile during lunch break + happy hour
- Tablet later in the evening when lounging – the
tablet is a “lounging” device (Google Data)
Industry experts have projected staggering growth
rates in leisure and unmanaged business travel bookings via the mobile
channel:
from $753 million in 2011 to $2,155 million in 2013 (PhoCusWright), and
have advised hoteliers repeatedly to embrace
the mobile channel.
And yet, a careful analysis of industry statistics
and projections as well as HeBS Digital’s concrete booking data, broken
down by
device category, reveals a very interesting picture that not all
hoteliers
fully understand: The majority of “mobile” bookings, room nights and
revenue
are generated by tablet devices such as the iPad, Samsung Galaxy and
Google
Nexus, not by “pure” mobile devices like the iPhone and Android- and
Windows
Mobile-based smartphones.
The Three
Screens in Hospitality in Q1 2013
The results from Q1 2013 are in, and they show a seismic
shift from desktop to mobile and tablet devices. Across HeBS Digital’s
hotel
client portfolio, consisting of thousands of hotel properties, we saw a
major
shift from desktop to tablet and mobile in every data category.
Sources of Traffic
and Revenue by Device Category:
The most notable developments in Q1 2013:
- Website traffic by device category: nearly 40%
of web visitors and 28% of page views were generated from non-desktop
devices
(mobile and tablet)
- Over 10% of bookings, roomnights and revenue
came from tablets and mobile devices
- Tablets generated 281% more roomnights and 505%
more revenue than “pure” mobile devices
- iPad outperformed all other tablet devices and
was responsible for more than 88% of traffic and nearly 90% of tablet
revenue
Mobile devices represent a very interesting phenomenon:
Nearly 24% of website visitors came from mobile devices, but these
mobile
visitors generated only 3.17% of the bookings. Why?
In my view, there are several reasons:
- Many mobile users start their research and
information gathering via their smartphones, and later continue via
their desktops/laptops
at the office or at home. Forrester reports that smartphones are the
most
common starting place for online activities:
- Search for
information: 65% of users
start on a smartphone; 65% of them continue the process on a desktop,
4% on a
tablet
- Browse the
Internet: 63% of users start
on a smartphone; 58% of them continue the process on a desktop, 5% on a
tablet
- Shopping online:
65% of users start on a
smartphone; 61% of them continue the process on a desktop, 4% on a
tablet
- Many hoteliers lack a mobile-friendly website
presence or have an “impossible to use” booking engine
- Most hoteliers do not track voice bookings that came
from the mobile website: an average of 1 in 7 mobile website bookings
comes via
the reservation phone listed on the mobile site
A recent survey by ResearchNow found that the most frequent
causes of an unsatisfactory travel experience with smartphones were:
- 44% - Slow load times
- 36% - Complicated search and selection
- 30% - Poor navigation
- 8% - Not designed or optimized for mobile.
How did the “three screens” results from Q1 2013 compare to
the results from Q1 2012? We see a significant – even dramatic – shift
from the
desktop to the tablet and mobile channels within one short year:
Q1 2013 vs. Q1 2012
Percentage Increase/Decrease by Device Category:
The most notable year-over-year developments in Q1
2013 were:
- Website visitors to desktop websites declined by
more than a quarter, while more than doubling via mobile and tablet
devices.
- Desktop pageviews declined by nearly 15% while
increasing by nearly 74% via tablet and 84% via mobile devices.
- Bookings and roomnights from tablets exhibited
the biggest growth and more than doubled; revenue increased by nearly
95%.
- Revenue from mobile devices also exhibited
steady growth of nearly 58% as travel consumers are becoming more
comfortable
transacting via their smartphones and as smartphone penetration reaches
an
all-time high of 44% in the U.S.
- Revenue from desktop devices is on the decline,
year-over-year, by more than 5%.
Tablets were the biggest winner over the past year. Tablet
penetration already exceeds 15% in the U.S. In Q1 2013 tablet shipments
worldwide soared 142% year-over-year to 49.2 million. The latest data
from NPD
DisplaySearch calls for the tablet market to surpass PC notebooks in
2013.
Tablets are expected to reach shipments of 240 million units this year,
while
207 million PC notebooks will be shipped.
SEM (Paid Search)
How
do the three screens affect paid search? The lack of understanding
among
advertisers of the fundamental shift from desktop to tablet and mobile
(smartphone)
devices is the reason why the allocation
of paid search ad spending across devices is not keeping up with which
devices
actually generate clicks. Kenshoo found that in Q1 2013, the tablet and
smartphone
accounted for nearly 20% of paid search clicks, but these devices only
garnered
about 14% of search spending:
We believe the trend of shifting
SEM clicks from desktop to tablet and mobile devices will only
accelerate in
the upcoming months as the proliferation of smartphone and tablet
devices
continues worldwide.
What Should
Hoteliers Do About the Three Screens?
Begin by
treating the desktop, mobile and tablet as three separate channels.
Internet
users exhibit different behavioral patterns when browsing the Internet
and the
desktop website, mobile and tablet devices, as they address different
needs at
different times of the day and week. It is obvious why specialized
content is
needed for each device:
- Desktop users
need as much information as
possible, including a minimum of 25-50 content pages per property and
another
50-100 specialized marketing and landing pages featuring special
packages,
promotions, and events. Desktop users also place high value on visual
galleries
with photos and videos.
- Mobile
(smartphone) users require a 10-15
page mobile-enabled website with slimmed-down content with an emphasis
on maps
and directions, an easy-to-use mobile booking engine, and a
click-to-call
property reservation number. As mentioned, more than half of the U.S.
population is still using feature phones, which are not sophisticated
enough to
display full desktop websites. The vast majority of people of age 65+
do not
use smartphones today, and these are exactly the baby boomers you would
want as
your property guests.
- Tablet users
require deep, visually
enhanced content about the property and its destination. A
well-structured,
highly visual hotel tablet-optimized website can generate conversion
rates
several times higher than those of mobile devices.
Second, all three device web presences could
operate within the framework of Responsive Design on Server Side (RESS)
and be
managed via a single dashboard in the property content management
system. For
example, HeBS Digital’s CMS Premium is a fully RESS enabled content
management
system.
Third, all three channels must be integrated within
the hotel’s multi-channel marketing strategy, including SEM (paid
search). Use
analytics such as Adobe Omniture SiteCatalyst and Google Analytics to
determine
contributions from and the dynamics of each of the three channels.
Partner with a digital technology and marketing firm
that knows the ins and outs of marketing and distribution via the three
screens
and responsive design on the server side. A firm that goes above and
beyond to
deliver incremental revenues from all three screens – desktop, tablet
and
mobile – while achieving high ROI in each channel, and helps hoteliers
transform their Internet presence in each of the three screens.
About the
Author
Max
Starkov is President & CEO of HeBS Digital, the hospitality
industry’s
leading full-service digital marketing and direct online channel
strategy firm
based in New York City (
www.HeBSdigital.com).