Increase Booking Rates and Ancillary Revenue

Launch Personalized Guest Experiences That Drive Bookings

Uncover 5 best practices that engage prospects and customers during all stages of the purchase process.

#1: Personalize the experience for each segment

If you haven’t done so already, creating narrative personas of each of your main traveler segments will help you determine what’s important to them and deliver it.

For instance, try developing personas around ‘business,’ ‘leisure,’ and ‘loyal travelers’ to help uncover and respond to their needs throughout the booking experience.

What does each type of traveler expect during the purchase process? What devices are they using to book their trips? Which promotions resonate with them?

Then, combine those personas with the targeting capabilities of your personalization platform to deliver a unique, tailored experience with relevant features, offers, and messages for each customer segment.

#2: Develop an experience map

Lay out a map of the typical customer journey, from research and booking, to travel and post-trip.

Consider ways a customer might interact with you during each stage and figure out how to enhance that experience. It might be something as simple as mobile alerts when a flight is delayed, or an automatic rebook if a flight gets cancelled.

Don’t be afraid to take things offline. For example, one successful travel supplier has a call center staffed with reps who contact travelers to offer tickets for local attractions before their trips, and then place follow-up calls once customers get home.

#3: Create a communication plan

Ask yourself what customers might need two days before their trip or two hours before their flight, as well as two hours after their flight, and two days after their trip. If you know someone’s departure is in two days, what can you offer to make the experience better? What do they need to know and when?

Develop a communication plan based on timing in relation to the trip and anticipate and respond to traveler needs before they pick up the phone or send an email asking you questions.

By anticipating travelers’ needs, you help create a seamless experience that makes the process of travel smooth and easy.

#4: Respond to needs and actions

Once you have your travel personas down, it’s easier to begin catering to customers and providing personalized content.

While business travelers might be more likely to rent a car during their trips, vacation-goers could be more interested in local attractions. Creating and delivering specific offers and information for those segments can increase customer loyalty.

6 Ways to Drive Revenue and Improve CX in Travel

Find out how a personalization platform can help enhance the guest experience.

Download eBook

#5: Focus on context

Consider the purchase history, current location, destination, and other information a customer has shared with you over time to help deliver more relevant messaging. Take your efforts a step further by using in-session data to create the ultimate booking experience.

For example, if a customer who’s usually a business traveler decides to book a trip for himself and his three children, he should receive different offers and messaging around that purchase compared to someone who books a romantic vacation for two.

Bottom line: Don’t just tailor your offers to what you know about the person taking the trip. Make sure you also factor in the context of the current purchase.

2-Minute Read: Elevate the Guest Experience

Discover how to drive repeat bookings with personalization suggestions and upsells.

Read Blog

Create relevant customer touchpoints

To keep the customer experience running smoothly, it’s critical to review the ways travelers want to communicate with you before, during, and post travel.

Here are some tactical ways to make sure each interaction a traveler has with you keeps them engaged.

Stand out from the competition

One key to winning over visitors is to show how you’re different from other companies.

So, try to use each aspect of the user experience to promote your unique offerings, like pricing guarantees or the ability to call a service representative any time of the day.

What makes your brand special? Highlight these attributes to stand out.

Playing up your specific service offerings can make it easier for a traveler to choose you when it’s time to book.

Put a fresh twist on merchandising

Instead of offering the old standards of rental cars and hotels, one travel supplier uses personalization for more targeted “up-shops” (upsells).

Rather than offering hotel options during booking, the company sends travelers an email full of relevant information about a specific hotel in the area post purchase. While this strategy might not work for everyone, it’s a great example of using personalization to make a tried-and-true travel strategy more impactful.

Build excitement and engagement

Travel is an emotional experience, and one of the best ways to improve the purchasing process is to leverage the emotion around the purchase.

After customers book through one travel supplier, the company sends an email with specific information about the destination.

Meanwhile, another supplier’s website offers cruise-goers the chance to take a 360-degree tour of their cabin before the trip. Both are great ways to add excitement to the purchase and increase customer engagement.