UK hoteliers miss chance to fuel guests holiday excitement, says TripAdvisor
UK hoteliers are missing the chance to “build holidaymakers’ sense of excitement at the time of booking”, according to new research.
Online review website TripAdvisor’s TripBarometer surveyed more than 53,000 travellers and hoteliers around the world (including 3,448 in the UK) to find out the psychology of travel. It found that nearly two thirds of UK hoteliers (62%) said that their main priority is to ensure a smooth and efficient process at booking.
The fourth edition of the biannual study ‘Psychology of Travel’, conducted on behalf of TripAdvisor by Ipsos, examines which emotions travellers’ were most likely to feel at the five stages of travel: booking, arrival, during the stay, departure and back at home.
As part of the study, hoteliers were also asked what actions they took throughout the “traveller journey” to relate to their guests.
Only one in eight (12%) of UK hoteliers say their priority is to provide guests with local information about their destination at the time of booking, while a further 12% say their priority is to “make guests feel as though the holiday has already begun”.
TripAdvisor found that the main emotion felt at the booking stage is one of excitement (54%), suggesting there is more UK hoteliers could be doing to take advantage travellers’ feelings of excitement from the start.
