Hotels4U.com Sees 5.52% Increase in Online Hotel Bookings With Webtrends

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May 28, 2013, 06:07 ET

LONDON, May 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Webtrends Optimize helps Hotels4U drive visitor conversions and increase searches on mobile devices

Webtrends, the global leader in digital marketing optimisation and relevance through real-time, unified analytics and customer intelligence, today announced that Hotels4U.com has implemented Webtrends Optimize resulting in a 5.52% increase in online hotel bookings and a 61% increase in searches on mobile devices.

While overall holiday bookings have continued to see flat growth, online bookings have grown rapidly, making it an increasingly popular way for holidaymakers, business travellers and travel agents to purchase hotel reservations. However, in a highly competitive marketplace Hotels4U needed to ensure it stood out from the crowd by improving and simplifying the search-to-book process to increase conversions from website visits and capitalise on the mobile opportunity presented by the rise of smartphones.

Hotels4U selected Webtrends due to its ability to deliver a complete selection of test and target types, including A/B, multivariate tests, advanced segmentation and behavioural targeting. Using Optimize, the team were able to deliver an exclusive testing package capable of detailed analysis and recommendations for website amendments. The team built multivariate test plans that could be rolled out and updated over a period of time to continually improve the customer experience.

Since first implementing Webtrends Optimize, Hotels4U has experienced a 5.52% lift in online bookings following a number of tests to the latter pages of the buying cycle. On its mobile site, Hotels4U experienced a 61% increase in searches on mobile devices, with a 22% lift in visitors viewing hotel pages on the mobile channel.

In addition to this, Webtrends helped maximise conversions from aggregator websites by providing real-time options and alternatives for bookings if preferences were unavailable. This had a direct impact on improvements to the customer experience and increased the retention rate from these sites by 18.29%.

Steven Moore, Head of eCommerce, Hotels4U: "Through mobile site optimisation with Webtrends, we have been able to solve part of the puzzle that plagues every marketer today - the multi-channel problem. We felt we were missing a clear opportunity with visitors who browse on their smartphones on the go. Webtrends was able to develop a solution without placing additional burden on internal resources. Their recommended designs have driven a 61% increase in search and 22% lift in visitors seeing our hotel pages through our mobile channel, effectively making it easier for our customers to find what they are looking for and facilitating the multi-channel journey."

Geoff Pennells, Regional Director, Travel, Webtrends: "The travel industry is very, very competitive as online has now become the preferred way for consumers to book their holidays. Hotels4U understands the importance of optimising its website to be as competitive as possible, and has been working alongside Webtrends to create and run detailed testing campaigns."

"To see a 5.52% increase in conversions is a fantastic result for a company that processes as many bookings as Hotels4U does. Hotesl4U is wise to the opportunities presented by the boom in smartphones and has moved early to optimise its mobile platform and become a true multi-channel player. We look forward to continuing the optimisation journey with Hotels4U across multiple channels."

About Hotels4U.com

Hotels4U.com offers an extensive array of top quality accommodation worldwide. Hotels4U.com is an independent website that takes away the headache of booking hotels, apartments, villas and transfers for independently minded customers. Featuring over 90,000 properties worldwide, including core product in Spain, the Balearics, Canaries, Algarve, Madeira, Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, French Riviera, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, the Caribbean and a wide range of City Break and ski hotels worldwide.

Part of the Thomas Cook Group, Hotels4u.com offers customers a wide choice of product in beach and city destinations, fast becoming the market leader in the wholesale travel trade market through the Medhotels brand, acquired in 2009. Participating hotels gain access to the UK Thomas Cook stores, the European Thomas Cook Group companies and over 6000 trade agents worldwide.

About Webtrends, Inc.

Webtrends power digital marketing success and are at the forefront of digital marketing relevance and customer experience management through unified customer intelligence. Our industry-leading analytics and optimisation solutions, delivered across mobile, social and web enable marketers to optimise campaigns, maximise customer lifetime value and deliver highly relevant digital brand experiences..

Webtrends dramatically improve digital marketing results for more than 3,500 global brands including, BMW, Alitalia, Lloyds Banking Group, Lastminute.com, Barclays, HSBC, ASOS, Orange, Everything Everywhere, Microsoft, Toyota, Play.com, AllSaints, The Telegraph, and many more.

Web: http://www.webtrends.com

Twitter: @webtrends

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LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/webtrends-emea

SOURCE Webtrends