Pitchup.com reports surge in on-the-go reservations

Impulse holiday bookings via smartphone are driving a post-EU Referendum staycation boom, as UK bookings on mobile phones surge this summer, according to outdoor accommodation specialist Pitchup.com.

In the last seven days, Pitchup.com registered a 145% annual rise in smartphone bookings, which accounted for more than 36% of overall bookings.

Pitchup.com founder Dan Yates said: "Over the last three months, 31% of our bookings were made on a smartphone, and we now receive 38% more bookings via smartphone than tablet.

"While bookings via smartphones and tablets overtook desktop bookings nearly two years ago, now smartphones are increasingly the norm rather than the exception, as they were when we launched our mobile site in 2013.

"The ubiquity of smartphones and improvements in technology, such as larger screens and mobile-friendly sites, mean that fewer people ‘device switch’ like in the old days when they would fire up the tablet or desktop computer when they got home, having spotted something on their phone in a lunch break.

"As such the main casualty appears to have been the tablet, rather than the desktop computer. Over the last three months, smartphones accounted for 44% of visits to our site.

"This in turn leads to more impulse purchases; as people are on their mobiles 24/7, their booking habits are more closely linked to external ’emotional’ factors such as the news, weather or even their mood."

He added: "It’s perhaps therefore no coincidence that this uptick in mobile bookings coincides with news predicting a heat wave for the latter part of August."

This trend is consistent with figures recently released by the IMRG showing that just under half (49.6%) of all online retail sales in the first quarter of 2016 were completed via smartphones or tablets, compared to just 1% back in 2010.

A recent survey released by Hitwise also revealed that 60% of all travel site searches originate from a mobile device.

In 2014, Pitchup.com recorded 12,966 smartphone bookings (16% of all bookings); rising to 24,321 smartphone bookings (23% of all bookings).

So far for 2016, 38,776 bookings have been made by smartphones, a 102% increase on same period last year, equating to 30% of all bookings.