Mobile App Solutions for Chinese Hotel Users

To improve search and booking results for Chinese customers, hotel marketers should consider hotel mobile apps.

Baidu Data

The importance of having strong mobile user experiences for Chinese consumers in the hotel sector is demonstrated in the following figures:

• In the first nine months of 2014, Baidu travel-related searches through mobile devices grew 37 percent. For PCs it grew just 8 percent.
• July was 2014’s peak month in terms of travel searches, with 8.16 million mobile searches against 8.02 million for PC searches.

Mobile App Versus Tablet App

Apps are easily accessible and downloadable through many different local Chinese app stores and are available for both mobile and tablet devices.

Normally for tablet devices, screen sizes are large enough that most users can browse an online travel website, a hotel booking engine website, or a hotel chain website through the default Web browsers.

Unfortunately, though, for most mobile devices, the experience when browsing online travel websites and hotel booking sites can be a challenging experience. Therefore, a hotel mobile app is a much better experience for users searching for hotels on a mobile device.

Here are some examples:

Hotel Information

A hotel mobile app offers users an easy way to look for hotel information. For example, a hotel app enables users to search for information of a specific hotel. The information can include the hotel’s room availability during specific dates, the room types that are available, the prices of the room types, and the location of the hotel.

Local Search

For users often on the move, a hotel mobile app becomes a quick tool for finding a hotel nearby. While using their mobile phone, the user normally has already made their location information available to the hotel mobile app. With the user’s location, the app can then show all nearby hotels on a map.

Hotel Booking

Once the user decides which hotel is suitable, they progress to the hotel booking process. The entire hotel booking happens, and is completed on the app.

User Review

Happy customers actually help a hotel to build brand and credibility. The better the brand and the higher the credibility, the more users choosing a hotel from that site in the future. A good hotel app should enable users to write reviews after they have completed their hotel stays.

Promotional Messages

An app should be a communication channel between hotels and users. Seasonal and/or occasional promotional offers, including hotel discounts, coupons, and so on can be communicated to the users through this platform.

User Booking Behavior Data

Your hotel mobile app is a great tool for collecting users’ booking behavior data. For example:

• When users are on the move, from which locations are they mostly searching for hotel information?
• When users are on the move, what types of hotel rooms are they booking?
• When users are on the move, what was the average price range of hotels they booked?

By collecting and analyzing users’ booking data through your hotel mobile app, you will get to know more of your users’ behavior. You can then offer hotels that are more suitable to your users’ specific requirements.

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