An analysis of mobile travel bookings has underlined the rapid growth of business being done via mobile devices. Mobile accounts for most of the overall growth in travel bookings since 2014, as the share of mobile bookings has almost doubled, increasing from 12 percent to 23 percent between Q2 2014 and Q2 2015 worldwide and mobile adoption appears to benefit all travel sub-categories.
According to the Criteo’s Travel Flash Report, published in September 2015, mobile apps are generating 49% of mobile bookings for advertisers who invest in in-app tracking and advertising (worldwide, air and hotel categories), up from just 12% a year ago.
The booking device of choice changes depending on many factors: time of day, day of the week, duration of stay, type of travel booking, etc. Smartphones account for a remarkable 47% of same-day hotel bookings (58% if tablets are included)
21 percent of online bookings aren’t correctly measured by advertisers, because the final transaction occurs on another device than the one where the click was made. It is even higher at 26% when the click is made on a mobile device.
Hotel OTAs generate a higher share of bookings on smartphones compared to suppliers (21% vs. 7%), and the difference increases as the season progresses.
Japan and the US tops the table with 30% mobile bookings, with Sweden, Canada and Denmark making up the top five on 28%, 26% and 25% respectively. Turkey ranks sixth followed by Australia.
Mobile users appear to prefer certain devices for certain bookings. For example, tablets generate more bookings than smartphones for the air and packages categories, but the opposite is true for hotels.
The average booking value is, in most markets, lower on smartphones, notably because these devices are used more often for shorter stays. Interestingly, tablets reach desktop levels in most countries. Among major markets, Japan remains the only country where average booking values are equal across all devices.
