Getting more bookings is a constant challenge for online travel companies. They’re continually looking for what works, aiming to convert more visitors into customers. And they’re going about it in two ways: guesswork or research. These three companies found out what works using conversion optimization methods.
Expedia.com – $12 Million Extra Profit
Conversion Optimization method: Analytics
The first part of conversion optimization is discovering what the real barriers to conversion are. Once you’ve found them you can fix them, bringing down the barriers and clearing the path to conversions.
Expedia found such a barrier. They could see from their analytics software that many customers choosing a hotel and clicking the booking button weren’t completing the transaction. Why?
After analysing what all the lost bookings had in common, they found the answer. It was an optional field on the booking form called ‘Company’. People were confused by it, thinking it wanted their bank name – rather than the company they worked for.
Having entered their bank name, they then entered the address of their bank – not home – in the address field. And this caused the credit card transaction to fail: address entered was not cardholder address.
The Expedia team simply deleted the optional company field and saw a $12 million yearly profit boost overnight!
Sunshine.co.uk – £14 Million Extra Revenue
Conversion Optimization methods: Surveys, usability testing, A/B testing
Like Expedia, Sunshine.co.uk started by finding out – not guessing – the barriers to conversion – i.e. why visitors weren’t booking.
Their agency, Conversion Rate Experts, ran a survey and remote usability tests to get the insights. What they discovered was:
- Sunshine’s USP wasn’t clear. It wasn’t obvious why visitors should book with Sunshine rather than one of its competitors.
- Customers were confused by the prices; they didn’t know whether prices were per person or per night – and whether flights were included.
- Not displaying a booking phone number frustrated people.
Here’s how the team tackled these problems:
They used interviews and survey results to clarify Sunshine’s USP. They talked to the company’s founders. And they used a survey question on what customers liked about Sunshine.co.uk to come up with clear benefits. These went into a distinct list in the sidebar of the website, under the title ‘Why use Sunshine?’
They then cleared up confusion with the pricing. They added a line under every price saying ‘per person including flights’.
Finally, they explained why no phone number was available. In the spot where visitors expect to see the number, the team added a popup explaining how no phone number was good for customers. It meant no expensive call centres, which meant passing on savings to customers in low-priced holidays.
Whenever the team made a change they A/B tested it to measure success. Apparently they doubled Sunshine’s annual revenue after just six split tests!
VisitNorway.com – 39% Click-through Improvement
Conversion Optimization method: A/B testing
While not as sensational as the last two case studies, VisitNorwway got 39% more visitors clicking through to the holiday booking section of their website. Which we have to assume led to a boost in bookings. Either way, more click-throughs to the booking section is a win.
They did it by A/B testing different labels for the booking section in the top menu. And found that ‘Booking’ beat the original ‘Book Online’ by 39% in terms of click-throughs to the section. ‘Online booking’ led to a 14% improvement over the original.
Conversion Optimization Works for Travel Websites
You’ve seen how 3 travel websites used conversion optimization methods – such as surveys, usability studies and A/B testing – to boost bookings. In the first two cases, the financial lift was massive! But whatever the results, conversion optimization helps online travel companies discover what really works, test changes and optimize bookings.
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