Attracting valuable travellers to drive impactful bookings

Finding the most profitable travellers is complex and competitive. On average, travellers view 141 pages and consume more than five hours of travel content in the 45 days prior to booking a trip.* Among this sea of information in the research and planning process, it can be challenging for travel providers to understand where to find and attract valuable travellers.

So, how can you set up your travel business for success by bringing in the travellers who provide the most value and positively impact your bottom line? Ultimately, to increase your revenue, you need to attract travellers that spend more, stay longer and are open to inspiration.

According to our recent study, not only do our travellers stay longer, they also spend more—with Expedia Group travellers spending 10% more on big trips compared to other travellers.** Read on for insights and strategies to help you target and convert travellers who will generate high-value bookings.

To better understand how traveller behaviours—including trip spend, length of stay and openness to inspiration—vary based on their preferred booking platform, we conducted custom research with Global Web Index (GWI) across eight global markets: Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, the UK and US. The online survey included more than 8,000 respondents aged 16 to 64 who had purchased a holiday in the last three to six months, spanning various audience groups.

There are many elements of a valuable traveller; however, one essential piece that will always impact the bottom line is how long they stay. You want travellers to come for an extended stay, helping fill rooms during the week and resulting in more time for activities, shopping, dining and in-market spending. And our travellers stay longer, nearly one additional day in hotels compared to other travellers. Looking at Vrbo travellers specifically, they stay 14% longer—more than one day longer—in holiday rentals compared to other OTA travellers.

Evaluate your hotel advertising and marketing strategies to make sure you are reaching and converting these valuable travellers who stay longer on trips. Using tools like Accelerator and TravelAds Sponsored Listings can increase your position in search results, making you more visible to these travellers taking longer trips and helping to generate more revenue per guest. 

Another opportunity to boost visibility on our sites is through our exclusive partner programmes—VIP Access for hotels and Vrbo’s Premier Host. These programmes recognise and reward properties that deliver exceptional guest experiences through benefits like increased visibility in search results, badging, dedicated support and more. Increased visibility means increased opportunities to reach our top-tier travellers who are looking for trusted and elevated experiences.

Aside from spending more on big trips than other travellers, Expedia Group travellers are more likely to book premium accommodation, spending 18% more per night on hotel bookings and 22% more per night on holiday rental bookings than other travellers.

Our travellers also have more impact once they are on site at hotels, taking advantage of on-property services and amenities which results in powerful incremental revenue opportunities. 

Reaching travellers who spend more on property provides another layer of value for our partners. Effectively market to and engage our travellers through your listing by showcasing the amenities and activities offered on property, your food and beverage options and any shopping opportunities. Further incentivise on property spending with special promotions and discounts for guests—such as a free appetiser with a main dish purchase or resort credits for bookings with a longer length of stay. And, if you’re a member of our VIP Access programme, you can entice our rewards members to book your property with perks like free parking, free breakfast or spa credits.

Another great way to connect with our reward members is to offer a Members-Only Deal with offers tailored by reward tier. This can be a great way to attract valuable travellers who will take advantage of on-property offers during their stay.

In addition to spending more on property, our travellers spend more while at their destination—which means they are also supporting local businesses and driving economic impact for the destination.

While in a destination, our travellers spend 37% more on activities and nearly 10% more on meals than other travellers.

Help travellers visualise and plan their ideal trip with content that spotlights a variety of offerings in your destination—from activities and experiences to premiere dining and can’t-miss shopping.

Destination marketing organisations can also incentivise travellers and drive more bookings to your destination by funding bonus OneKeyCash™ on eligible hotel bookings, which travellers can spend on future trips. These incentives can drive value for you and other travel businesses in your destination, while also building awareness.

The ability to connect with travellers who are open to ideas and influenced by advertising is especially important for travel suppliers. Our travellers want to be inspired—they are 22% more likely than other travellers to be undecided on a destination before booking a trip. They are also more likely to be influenced by advertising.

Advertising is an effective way to reach our travellers that seek travel inspiration while browsing, shopping and planning on our sites.

Native advertising placements on our brand sites and apps can help you stand out to travellers in a non-intrusive way as they research their next destination, how to get there and where to stay. This can help with increasing your visibility and building brand affinity. You can inspire the right travellers at the right time with our unmatched combination of global reach, deep traveller insights, creative capabilities and media buying power. 

We understand the importance of reaching valuable travellers who bring you the bookings you want. That’s why we’ve invested in attracting valuable travellers through One Key™, our comprehensive travel rewards programme. By increasing One Key membership and bookings through our well-loved travel brands, we’re creating more demand for you.

To connect with the valuable travellers searching and booking travel on Expedia Group sites—and One Key members—visibility is key. Whether through an Accelerator campaign, advertising campaign or Members-Only Deal, we have a variety of tactics to help you show up on our sites and capture demand.  

For additional traveller insights and strategies for connecting with valuable travellers, download the full report.