Recently, I was given the opportunity to travel to Sicily—an incredible but relatively small island with an extraordinary amount of things to see, do, and taste. Given that I was only there for 4.5 days, you would think I’d have each hotel and activity lined up well in advance.
Not so. Instead, all I knew was that I was arriving in Palermo on Monday and leaving from Catania on Friday. I booked my rental car and first night’s hotel when I arrived at the airport in Palermo. Then, each day from there, I booked a new room daily using Hotel Tonight or Booking.com as I made my cannonball run across the island. Also daily: searches like “best place to eat in Ragusa” or “best things to see in Syracusa” (answer: EVERYTHING). It made me wonder about last-minute travel marketing:
Turns out, a lot. Whether traveling cross-country or just looking for something local, people rely heavily on their mobile devices for inspiration. According to Google Data, mobile searches for “things to do/activities” plus “near me” grew by 6X over the last two years. When it comes to booking on-the-fly, Travelport found that the average US traveler uses between seven and eight different apps. Similarly, Criteo’s 2018 Summer Travel Report found that hotels received over 70% of their last-minute bookings via mobile devices.
For hotels, the last minute bookings reduce the 5 P’s of marketing to 3: Product, Price, Place. For product, good quality photos are key—even for the budget-conscious. It doesn’t need to be luxurious, but it does need to be crisp and clean. As for place, while you might not be able to control your physical location, you can control your digital one. You must be present on OTA (online travel agent) apps. Lastly, you must be fair with your price. Many travelers are willing to be a bit further away in exchange for a nicer or more authentic experience and/or fairer price.
If your destination brand hosts events or offers experiences, they must be discoverable on mobile—and not just in a guide book. Therefore, search marketing should to be tailored for people actively seeking things out to do. Likewise, any post made on Instagram should include a location—that way users searching places like “Grand Canyon” will have a higher likelihood of finding your tour group or hotel. Another thing to consider: woo a travel blogger to include you on their “top 10 things to do in XXX” blog post.
For last-minute travel marketing, remember, first impressions count and brevity is key. No one wants to dive down an internet black hole and waste precious experience time. They want to get in, get out, and get out there.
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*Source: Think With Google