TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
businesswire | May 22, 2023
Glassbox a leading provider of digital experience analytics for web and mobile applications, today announces the release of its report, Beyond the Booking: A Look Inside Digital Experience for Travelers, highlighting consumers’ pain points when digitally booking travel. Aimed at uncovering the interactions or roadblocks that cause travelers to abandon their customer journey, the survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers found that 72% of respondents prioritize easy-to-use search filters when booking travel. These insights underscore consumers’ frustrations and preferences when it comes to travel.
The survey shows that the convenience of on-hand mobile technology has encouraged preferential booking on native mobile apps among Millennials and Gen Z respondents – 49% of Millennials and 44% of Gen Z noted a preference for booking travel via mobile app. Similarly, data from a leading hotel brand uncovered conversion rates from native mobile apps were almost double that of conversions from desktop web.
Additional Glassbox data highlights include:
Easy-to-use search filters (72%), price comparison tools (69%) and flexible booking options (62%) are top features respondents consider essential in a hotel/travel website or mobile app.
Consumers are increasingly likely to try rentals like Airbnb or VRBO if dates or rooms desired are not shown as available when trying to book – roughly 1 in 3 across Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z respondents.
When consumers hit roadblocks with a digital booking, 40% will simply turn to another hotel/travel website, app or booking engine.
Travelers signed into a hotel or booking website are more than 5X as likely to finish a booking as those who do not, according to a leading hotel brand working with Glassbox.
"Our data overall is showing that travelers will abandon bookings due to poor experiences on both website and mobile applications,” says Glassbox CMO Asim Zaheer. “On top of this, they are very specific in what they expect their booking experience to be and what pain points would cause them to turn away pretty immediately. Travel and hospitality brands need to leverage this kind of data to better understand what a seamless user experience looks like for today's travelers, in order to meet their evolving needs and expectations.”
According to a study conducted by Google, as page load time goes from one second to five seconds, the probability of bounce increases by 90%. If a page takes more than 5 seconds to load, there is a high chance visitors will leave the website. Slow load times are the top issue Glassbox’s survey respondents experience (46%) when using a hotel/travel website or mobile app. This is followed by 42% who said difficulty finding relevant information, and 35% who cited confusing navigation as their main pain points.
Consumers’ digital journeys are becoming more and more complex. It’s crucial to optimize website and mobile app speed as well as offer easy search, price comparison and flexible navigation to improve user experience and reduce bounce rates.
About Glassbox
Glassbox reveals the insights that empower organizations to deliver better digital customer experiences. Our Digital Experience Intelligence platform automatically captures, visualizes and analyzes every digital journey in real time across websites and mobile apps. It serves as the unifying platform for product, UX, marketing, IT, analytics teams (and more) to assess performance, prioritize projects and optimize experiences. With unparalleled data privacy and security built in, hundreds of global customers across industries have chosen Glassbox to grow and optimize their digital businesses.
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
businesswire | May 09, 2023
SMARTLINEN, the South Florida tech hospitality company, is on a mission to empower hotels with cutting-edge technology that streamlines linen management, reduces waste, and enhances guest satisfaction. SMARTLINEN has proven that their real-time utilization data can replace traditional PAR level methodology. The company's data analysis is helping hotels maximize efficiency and providing more precise linen replacement trends.
The hospitality industry is known for its attention to detail, and linen management plays a crucial role in guest satisfaction. Balancing cost efficiency and guest comfort presents challenges, with optimizing linen inventory and reducing environmental impact becoming increasingly important. SMARTLINEN's solutions address these challenges effectively.
Over the last two years, SMARTLINEN has collected real-time RFID scan data on linen circulation, wash cycles, and lost inventory from their network of properties. This information has provided detailed metrics that have enabled the company to develop a proprietary calculation called the SMARTLINEN Management Index (SMI).
The SMARTLINEN Management Index offers a valuable factor that helps hotels determine if they have enough inventory to service their guests and confirms the efficiency of their operation. The system specifically advises properties of the exact amount to order if necessary. By implementing the SMI calculation, the average hotel can reduce its overall inventory based on items needed, as opposed to the traditional PAR philosophy. The data reflects $2.00 to $3.50 per occupied room savings.
William Serbin, President and CEO, expressed confidence in SMARTLINEN's data-driven technology, stating, "As we continue to scale, we firmly believe that our innovative solutions will become an industry standard, leading to improved guest satisfaction and more efficient linen management for hotels worldwide."
about SMARTLINEN
SMARTLINEN enables hotels to make their linen SMART, providing automated inventory management, greater efficiencies, and improved guest satisfaction. This comprehensive linen tracking solution saves hotels money by offering real-time tracking and more efficient purchasing. The system is powered by a cloud-based software platform that automatically reports linen inventory data using UHF radio frequency identification technology.
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BUSINESS TRAVEL
Life House | March 20, 2023
Tech-enabled hotel management company, Life House, has announced the addition of two more properties in Mexico to its growing portfolio of 80+ independent hotels.
The two properties are Faisano Nomadas in Aldea Zama and The Carmen in Playa Del Carmen. With these hotels, Life House is now managing five independent hotels in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.
The Carmen is a 37-room hotel in the heart of Playa Del Carmen that is catered to adult vacations and is located directly on the beach. Built in 2017, the hotel features stunning views of the Caribbean from its rooftop bar and lounge, Deck5, and also hosts an Italian restaurant, La Famiglia, on the ground floor. The Owner is a long-time Denver-based developer. Ownership was very excited to have Life House take the reins given their existing presence in the Playa Market.
“We selected Life House for the promise of its advanced tech stack and the opportunity for shared services with their other hotels,” said the Owner of The Carmen. “We expect to see many improvements to The Carmen’s operations and profitability with this new partnership.”
Faisano Nomadas is a 24-room hotel in the heart of Aldea Zama. It was designed not just as a hotel, but as a destination itself, complete with a resort-style pool and a bar offering food and drinks concepted uniquely for the hotel. Francisco Mendoza and Gustavo Acosta, the developers of Faisano Nomadas, are highly experienced hotel owners and strategic growth partners for Life House in Mexico.
Francisco Mendoza shared, “Working with Life House has been really exciting. They have been supporting our project with all their experience and knowledge as we are not Hotel operators - we are just investors trying to develop a profitable business with a great customer experience for our guests. Life House has experienced specialists in all operating areas who are guiding us in this journey and giving us the structure needed in order to achieve our goals.”
Life House, founded in 2017, is uniquely positioned to manage smaller, leisure-oriented hotels and resorts across Mexico. Life House provides institutional-quality hotel management and branding services focused on profitability, ease, and long-term real estate value. They offer best-in-class hotel operations that are powered by their robust operational systems and proprietary technology that consistently drives 2x higher NOI, 40% higher net revenues, and all with a very lean on-site staffing model. Life House is therefore seeing high demand for its management platform throughout Mexico and is targeting the region as a strategic area of growth.
“We are excited to partner with Messrs. Mendoza & Acosta and the owner of The Carmen on their special hotels and forward thinking approach,” said Rami Zeidan, the Founder & CEO of Life House. “Ever since we entered the market in 2020, we have seen how many great independent hotels are underserved and we’re looking forward to helping small & medium indie hotels throughout the country in the near future.”
About Life House
Life House is a vertically integrated hotel management & technology company focused on serving small and medium independent hotels with institutional quality service. Life House uses advanced software & operating systems to increase profitability and reliability for independent hotels throughout North America. Life House was founded in 2017 by real estate, hospitality, and technology veterans and is backed by world renowned private equity and venture investors. The company is ambitiously investing in its operational systems to make hotels fare more profitable, predictable, and seamless for owners. Today the company operates over 80 hotels across North America.
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