Mr. Tarasofsky

Reservations / Online Pricing / Booking Engines

Reducing Online Reservation Abandonment - Key Fctors to Consider

By Jerry Tarasofsky, CEO, iPerceptions Inc.

Since there is not that great a difference between making an online purchase and making an online reservation - both requiring the use of a credit card, it is probably a fair guess that the Boston Consulting Group estimate for shopping cart abandonment is not far off the mark for the hospitality sector.

In fact, feedback from 34,000 visitors to hospitality web sites captured in The Rush Report on User Satisfaction & Hotel Web Site Performance published by Hospitality e-Business Strategies confirms that the overall "look to book" ratio in the sector is approximately 65/35 - For every ten people who visit your site only three actually make a reservation. Imagine how the numbers might look if you could move that look to book ratio to fifty/fifty. Do the math and I'm sure you will agree reservation abandonment is one of the most important issue facing hospitality web sites today.

To put this all in perspective, what if six out of every ten people standing in line waiting to check in to your hotel suddenly change their minds and high tailed it out to stay somewhere else.

My guess is if this situation took place in a traditional bricks and mortar location, you would quickly take the appropriate actions to find out what the problem was and without any hesitation you would implement a program to insure that once people entered your hotel, they opted to stay.

Your web site for all intents and purposes is your online property and should be treated in much the same manner as your traditional bricks and mortar location. With six out of ten prospective customers abandoning the reservation process, you have a problem.

If I continue to use this same analogy, in the traditional world, you would stop the people leaving your hotel and ask them why they are leaving. You might also watch from a distance and try and understand more about their entire experience with your hotel. This could include observing how long they had to wait to be served, how well your staff responded to their queries, even possibly observing whether they arrived by cab, limo, or subway.

In the online world, observing is in some ways easier, but obtaining an understanding of your customers overall experience at your site is far more difficult. Behavioral metrics such as your server log and click-stream data will help you understand where people went in your site, what pages were viewed most, how much time was spent at your site, where people came from and from which page they exited your site. Behavioral metrics tell you what is happening at your site and are extremely valuable in helping you determine that there is a reservation abandonment problem.

In the context of understanding reservation abandonment, knowing you have a problem is important but understanding why visitors are leaving your site prior to completing the reservation process and rectifying the situation is the real challenge. Attitudinal metrics tell you why something is happening and are exactly what is required to increase your site's "look to book" ratio and decrease reservation abandonment.

Based on analysis of feedback from over 70,000 visitors to some of North America and Europe's most well know hospitality web sites we know for instance, that unless you are able to convince your web site visitors that the rate they are getting at your site will not be undercut by an intermediary, you will have great difficulty converting them to bookers. They will continue to abandon your reservation engine unless some mechanism is in place to lessen this concern. That is why we have seen the rise of the "Lowest Price Guarantee" on most hospitality sites. It reassures users that the price they are getting is the best available.

We also know that visitors to hospitality web sites are still somewhat concerned about inputting credit card information over the Internet. You might want to think about giving visitors the option of providing their credit information over a secure encrypted link - and make sure they know the link was created to provide them with additional security and safety.

You should also review your privacy policies and make sure your visitors know that the data they provide you when registering is not going to be resold or rented to a third party. Privacy is an extremely important issue with most web site visitors. Many visitors will not complete a reservation up to the request for a credit card - even if the card is only for late check-in purposes. Your visitors must believe that the personal information they are providing you will be held in the strictest confidence.

If you want to increase your "look to book" ratio, make the reservation process simple and fast - the fewer clicks the better and remember that people making a room reservation at your site do not want to be inundated with information that is not relevant to their stay. And once a visitor has completed a guest profile, use it whenever they return to make another reservation. There is nothing more frustrating for a user than to be forced re-input data they have previously provided a web site.

Users also should be able to access the reservation engine from any page within your site. They might be simply looking for places of interest near your hotel and decide the location is perfect. They should be able to immediately click on a "make a reservation" button rather than go looking for the specific section of the site where the reservation engine resides.

In summary, if you want to reduce reservation abandonment you must understand what is going on in the hearts and minds of the people visiting your web site and take the necessary steps to reduce or eliminate every single pain-point that contributes to a less than satisfied web site visit. Increase satisfaction and increased reservation conversion will follow.

Jerry Tarasofsky is CEO of iPerceptions Inc. Its webValidator® "captures the voice" of the online customer, helping companies learn more about their customers. Using a comprehensive perceptual framework to evaluate key elements of the visitor experience and, algorithms and modeling to identify attributes that drive satisfaction. The webValidator solution turns data points into easy-to-understand strategic and tactical decision support. iPerceptions’ clients in the hospitality sector include Crowne Plaza, Omni, Savoy, Wellesley, Homestead, Radisson and Holiday Inn. Mr. Tarasofsky can be contacted at jerryt@iperceptions.com Extended Bio...

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