February 14, 2017 · Meisha Bochicchio

Does Your Hotel Rate Really Matter?

Many hotels and hoteliers automatically assume that price is the most important factor when it comes to choosing a hotel.
But how important is price actually?
In our 2017 Website Behavior Study, we asked more than 2,000 leisure travelers to rank six factors from most important to least important when it comes to choosing and booking a hotel.



As it turns out, price is the most important factor when choosing a hotel. This result was further validated when we asked the respondents, “when visiting a hotel’s website, which of the following pages do you visit first?”. Respondents indicated that pages associated with rates and availability were the first pages visited, followed by pages associated with amenities and room information.
The most influential factors for deciding on a hotel were as follows:

  1. Price
  2. Location
  3. Room size & layout
  4. Special offers
  5. Amenities
  6. Reviews & testimonials

What does this mean for your hotel?
Well, of course price is an important decision making factor and proper rate management is essential for success. However, there are several other important factors that guests take into consideration when choosing a hotel and optimizing your hotel marketing to highlight these factors is key.
Focus on the experience – With price being a top decision making factor, hotel room buying has become commodity driven. It is important for hotels to differentiate themselves by focusing on the guest experience.
Remember what price really means – Price can actually mean two things: narrowing down a selection between multiple hotels OR staying within a traveler’s budget. This also re-emphasizes the importance of rate parity between all of your hotel’s distribution channels.


There’s More In the 2017 Travel Website Behavior Study

This is just a small portion of the research that was conducted by TravelBoom and Fip.to. We asked over 2,000 leisure travelers what pushes their buttons and converts them from site visitors to hotel guests.
Get your free copy of the 2017 website behavior study!

Categories:
Share via
Copy link