INTERNATIONAL REPORT—The number of hotel transactions conducted on mobile devices might be a small portion of industry-wide transactions, but that hasn’t stopped hotel companies and online intermediaries from working diligently to develop a slew of new smartphone applications.
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Such apps will allow customers to book via their mobile devices as well as view rates in real-time and modify or cancel reservations from anywhere.
In addition to selling rooms, mobile devices create an opportunity for businesses to upsell, improve check-in services and sell post-purchase ancillary add-ons. Overall, the potential of mobile usage—both for planning as well as discovery purposes after travellers have reached their destinations—is significant.
The mobile space also is attractive in terms of enhancing the user experience, especially given the exponential growth of smartphones. These devices feature easy-to-use touch screens that are larger, high-resolution and backlit, allowing hoteliers to present their properties in more dynamic and attractive ways.
Potential
Nowhere is there a greater potential for mobile growth than in the Asia/Pacific. The region has the highest number of mobile phone subscriptions in the world. According to Euromonitor International, the Asia/Pacific in 2009 had 2.1 billion mobile phone subscriptions, or 46% of the world’s total subscriptions. China had the largest number of mobile phone subscriptions in the Asia/Pacific, and indeed the world, with 707 million subscribers (33.6% of mobile subscriptions in the region). It was followed by India (21.4% of subscriptions in the Asia/Pacific), Indonesia (8.6%), Japan (5.4%) and Pakistan (5.2%). The overwhelming majority (91.1% in 2009) of mobile phone subscriptions in the region were in emerging and developing economies.
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Christoph Oberli |
Christoph Oberli, VP of e-commerce at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, said that whilst mobile penetration is very high in Asia, usage of devices is somewhat different.
“Asia is not yet using mobile for Internet browsing—and as such for travel research and planning—as much as we see this in Europe or the U.S. More specifically to travel and hotels, Asia is only just beginning to use mobile … I think we will start to see more usage in Asia once on-property services are offered via mobile,” he said.
Mandarin Oriental recently enhanced its mobile communication to luxury travellers around the world with the launch of “MO Hotels,” a new travel application available in the Apple iTunes App Store. The app offers real-time reservations, detailed property information, destination guides and more, all of which Oberli said was underscored by the following principles:
- ease of use;
- luxurious feel, true to the brand;
- functionality that is different from website (destination, geo-location info); and
- booking capability.
Among others, India’s Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces currently has two mobile websites for its Taj and Vivanta by Taj brands.
Both sites allow visitors to find hotels and make reservations through their mobile devices. The Hotel Finder feature provides an overview, information on room types, restaurants, amenities and services, etc. There also is an image gallery that allows would-be visitors to view pictures of individual properties.
“Visitors and guests can also share their feedback and keep posted regarding the latest news, events, etc by following us on Facebook and Twitter through the mobile,” said Mumbai-based Namrita Sehgal, director of internet marketing, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces.
But Mandarin Oriental and Taj aren’t the only players in this space. Earlier this year, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts made news for being the industry’s first multilingual user-friendly mobile website. The luxury hotel group chose to introduce its mobile website in English, Chinese and Japanese and designed it specifically for established smartphones such as Apple iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Nokia Nseries smartphone screens.
And Langham Hotels International developed its Langham Touch application, which boasts the following features:
- vital hotel information and pictures;
- room reservation through worldwide toll-free numbers and a mobile booking engine;
- hotel restaurant bookings and room services;
- local city guide introducing the must-sees around the hotel and other local attractions;
- “voice-enabled” travel dialogue to put guests at ease in non-English-speaking countries;
- directions to the hotel, from any point in the city;
- access to 1865 membership account and personal info updating function ; and
- instant details about Langham's Frequent Flyer Programme partnerships.
The OTA perspective
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Matthew Varley |
Online travel agency Wotif.com’s executive GM–Asia, Matthew Varley, said mobile phone usage in Asia is high and travellers are becoming increasingly tech-savvy.
“We’re seeing very positive numbers in terms of visitors to our mobile site from Asia (outperforming growth of other global regions), where in markets such as India, internet access via mobile greatly outstrips online usage through laptops and PCs,” he said. “As the adoption of smartphones increases and Wi-Fi coverage improves within countries, we expect our number of users to grow as well.”
Wotif.com chose to develop a mobile site that built on the same features of the original site. As such, users of mobile.wotif.com are able to view rates for the next three months in real time and confirm bookings instantly. The company also has Secure Socket Layer certification by VeriSign, indicating its website and mobile version adhere to industry standards.
“We have to take a local approach to each market, as the handset/platform market share is so different market by market,” Varley said. “… The main challenge for now is to be able to develop a single application or mobile site that can be used across all mobile platforms. The mobile phone industry is very fragmented, with different competing operating systems. So a single application or mobile site needs to be coded differently for each system. As such, it is a difficult and time-consuming task to ensure one’s mobile phone initiatives to reach a broad audience worldwide. That is what we are working on at the moment.”
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Wotif.com has seen five-fold traffic growth to its mobile site during the past 12 months, albeit on a low base compared to traffic coming to the main site. This growth comes despite minimal marketing activities, Varley said. The majority of visits and bookings were made in Australia and New Zealand.
The online travel agency was one of the first to develop a mobile site, though other OTAs have since joined the fray. Varley is confident there is plenty of room for growth for all.
“Whilst the mobile usage numbers in (the Asia/Pacific) are impressive, the most popular services on a mobile are still social media, e-mail and games” he said. “We are in the early stages of mobile technology, and as travel applications improve, I am confident people will start to use their mobile phones more often to research, plan and book their travel.”
Maturity level
Sean Seah, director of e-commerce at Langham Hotels International, said the needs of the traveller at this stage of mobile development are quite universal.
“We currently run a global mobile strategy with the same services available globally,” he said.
But while needs by region might be similar, the behaviors of different business segments vary, Seah said. “Business travellers tend to want efficiency in their mobile experience with fast access to key information and services. Leisure travellers tend to want a content rich experience on their mobile, with a lot of value-added services such as video, images, travel guides and voice services.”
Overall, customers use the mobile Web for the following key functions, according to Seah:
- research: guests know the hotel or have chosen the property and want to see photos and videos;
- booking;
- confirmation: guests can get mobile confirmations of their bookings with all the check-in details;
- stay: offerings allow guests to book a spa treatment or a dinner at the hotel restaurant; and
- travel advice: destination information as well as short local phrases to help bridge language barriers.
Experience
The mobile channel should be viewed as an integrated component of the overall hotel experience—not a separate entity, according to Seah. The key is making your content available to the customer on whatever platform they want to use to access information about your product.
“They may also be in a café and talking to friend about the hotel and want to get information on their mobile right there and then. As long as it is available on the right platforms, the customer will choose which channel they use to connect with the hotel,” Seah said.
Varley said Wotif.com has seen a significant shift from offline to online purchases.
“In some scenarios, mobile Internet access is again more convenient than desktop access, and as mobile technology improves, we will naturally see increased bookings made via mobile phones,” he said.
- Read Part 2, "Standardization next mobile phase in Asia."