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A new study attempts to pinpoint why and when travelers abandon their bookings online.
In September 2014, SaleCycle began interviewing travelers about their booking habits, whether it's booking through an OTA or an airline, hotel, cruise or car rental brand. Eventually, 1,000 people across 12 countries responded, with 64 percent of respondents coming from the United States, the U.K. and Australia.
Detailed in a handy infographic (see below), SaleCycle notes that 86 percent of travelers typically make their booking online, highlighting the importance of having an online presence these days.
Of course, keeping travelers' eyeballs glued to your site is the challenge.
According to the study, 81 percent of travelers initially abandon their bookings online. This happens for several reasons, including: just looking/want to do more research (39 percent), price too high/want to compare (37 percent), need to get the opinions of other travelers (21 percent), booking process is too long/complicated checkout (13 percent), technical issues/lost connection (9 percent), and payment issue/lack of options (7 percent).
During the booking process, 53 percent of travelers jump ship when they are shown the total price, 26 percent abandon when they are asked for personal details and 21 percent flee when asked for payment details.
It comes as no surprise that cost is a heavy factor in the booking process. It's also worth noting that the No. 1 reason why travelers abandon their bookings is because they are simply in the initial stages and browsing their options. After all, 87 percent of respondents said they would consider returning to their initial booking eventually, including 33 percent during the same day and 43 percent within one week.
On the other hand, it your online travel booking site is being abandoned because they booking process is too complicated, there are technical issues or there's a payment issue, what's the point of even having an online booking site?
It's all fine and dandy to get with the times and throw up (word choice: intentional) a booking site into the webosphere, but if your booking site isn't advanced enough or well-designed, you are doing your travel business a huge disservice.
In short, the infographic courtesy of SaleCycle demonstrates how important it is to a) make the booking process as simple and straightforward as possible, and b) connect with travelers when they do abandon the booking process to ensure they return eventually.
Infographic courtesy of SaleCycle
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