Hotel reviews not price that draws customers to aggregator platforms for online bookings in India

Key Highlights

• 40% online bookings stem from reading reviews on hotel aggregator platforms.
• 3/4th bookings on hotel aggregator platforms come from awareness spread on social media.
• Key influencers for bookings still remain a customer's family and friends.

With the increase of domestic and international tourism in the country Indians are going online to hotel aggregator platforms to find solace in reviewing and reading hotel reviews. And hoteliers have been getting more and more of their customers from rave reviews about their hotels on these sites.

“As increasing number of travelers have adapted to the digital world via affordable devices and data plans, they prefer to go online for all stages of the booking journey,” a report by RedSeer Consulting said on Friday.

“40% of all travelers using these (hotel aggregator) platforms now read online reviews of other travelers before making their hotel booking decision,” it further added.

Hotel aggregator platforms like Trivago, Bookings.com, GoIbibo and even OYO Rooms that squeeze in those ads on social media are finally paying off for the businesses.

“Out of all travelers using online hotel aggregator platforms for their bookings, 3/4th of them report that they had become aware of these online hotels via online and social media channels,” the report added.

Social awareness has been spread about aggregator platforms on social media however key influencers still remain a customer's family and friends.

The report left its research concluded with certain insights for hotels. They were listed as follows:

There is a need to continue to invest in digital and social media marketing to drive customer engagement and influence

Players need to continue to develop more reliable and trustworthy online review platforms on their own sites

Most importantly, it is more crucial than now than ever before for hotel platforms to track and improve their review scores on third party websites- something which can be achieved by delivering a superior customer experience day in day out.