A recent report released by Skift, a global leader in travel analytics, titled State of Travel, revealed 5 things travellers consider before making a booking with a hotel. Take a look and see if your property is safe and if it is not, work towards improving the situation to remain relevant.

1. Price

For most travellers, the price will always be a major determinant of whether they make a booking with you or not. In its report, Skift indicates that 95% of global travellers make decisions based on price yet only half of the hoteliers in the world think price affects their bookings.

2. Special Offers

Whether you are a frugal or luxury traveller, it has now been shown that when it comes down to it, everyone could do with a bit of saving. Before now, it was always thought that only the frugal traveller, who in most cases travels on a shoestring budget, cherished the idea of coupons.

New evidence shows that even the rich would not mind a discount or special offer once in a while. Skift says that 44% of global travellers actually would strongly consider booking with a facility if a special offer was thrown into the deal. It is however surprising that only 4% of hotels in the world consider special offers part of their marketing strategy.

3. Amenities

Wikipedia defines a hotel amenity as something of a premium nature provided in addition to the room and its basics when renting a room at a hotel, motel, or other places of lodging.

About.com defines it as an extra service or product given to guests by the hotel, typically at no extra charge. This term is broadly used to describe the shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, soaps and other products left in the room’s bathroom for your use. Amenities, it says, can also refer to a service like a station to print your boarding pass in the lobby, or free parking.

Worldwide, 77% of travellers say they would book a hotel based on the amenities the hotel was offering them. The better the amenity package, the higher the chances they would confirm a booking. Again here the Skift report discloses that only 55% of the world’s hotels regard their amenities package as important to their customers.

4. Previous Experience

They say experience is the best teacher and in the business of hotel bookings, this ancient rule is no exception. There is a high chance a traveller who had a good experience in a hotel would book again without hesitation. The opposite would be true as well.

According to Skift, 86% of travellers place a premium value on past experience to determine future booking patterns. But strangely, only 33% of hotels worldwide think the experience their customers had in the past would determine their future booking trends.

5. Online Travel Reviews

The emergence of online travel review platforms such as TripAdvisor, Jumia Travel and SafariQuest by Kenya Geographic has been a game changer for the tourism industry. Online peer reviews now seem to influence and shape the behaviour of other travellers in a very powerful way. Negative online reviews translate to lower booking rates and vice versa.

Skift indicates that 89% of global travellers highly consider such reviews before they secure a booking. At least, in this case, 64% of hotels globally are increasingly realising the power of such reviews in shaping their booking trends and they are doing something about it.

They, for instance, use the feedback from such sites to improve services. The well-rated use it to amplify their marketing.

Any hotel that desires to remain in business should be sensitive to these kinds of insights and try as much as possible to incorporate elements of this feedback into their sales and marketing strategies.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.