13 October 2009

Travel reviews? Forget it, say more consumers

The number of travelers using review sites is declining, according to a new PhoCusWright Online Traffic and Conversion Report.
 

The study carried out in conjunction with Compete showed a drop in the number of people looking at reviews from 55 percent in October 2007 to 46 percent in October 2009.
 

In the study, TripAdvisor was the leader with 12.3 million monthly unique visitors, a figure that has doubled in the past 18 months. Its nearest rival: IgoUgo with 1.7 million visitors every month.
 

Only nine percent of visitors in a recent month using TripAdvisor made a hotel booking search as opposed to entering a hotel name.
 

Could these numbers go up? With new features constantly being added, review sites say the answer may be yes.
 

By David Wilkening
 

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• Better Deals at the Front Desk
  
  

  Apart from the fact many hotel res web sites cannot be relied upon for accurate property descriptions, hotels are offering bigger discounts to walk-in guests. It is not unusual to see newspaper advertisements offering promotions, as they call them, of up to 40% discount, even for 5* hotels, here in Indochina. Tour operator discounts are currently topping out at 75% discount.

  By J Hewson, Thursday, October 15, 2009