Tips Do guests like to book everything at once? Or one piece at a time? Here’s the data.

Last week I shared some data around where guests prefer to book – phone, online, or both – and talked about how the goal shouldn’t be to go all in on the biggest slice of the pie, but make sure your booking engine can account for all the slices.

This week I want to share one more data point from that survey that follows a very similar idea. Instead of where they prefer to book, we asked when. The question we posed to these 250+ travelers was simply:

If you needed to book a vacation that required both lodging and some sort of day-long activity (skiing, theme park, golf, etc.) how would you prefer to book this trip?

Asynchronous vs One Cart

What we’re getting at is this idea of one-cart booking versus what some call asynchronous booking or the idea that some travelers want to lock down their hotel first and then worry about activities later (or vice versa).

So, what did these travelers say?

About 60% said they’d wanted to book everything all at once with 40% looking to book one thing now and the other later. The largest chunk – 36% – said they’d prefer to book everything all at once in some sort of pre-determined package. Another 24% said all at once but build their own itinerary. About 21% said they’d want to book lodging first and 19% said activities first.

Once again, we’re seeing a variety of preferences instead of a clear consensus.

Let the Guest Choose

In the cases where there is no overwhelming preference, the answer isn’t to choose the biggest slice of the pie and force everyone else to book in that way. The answer is to let your guests choose by using a booking engine that allows them to book in the way they want as easily as possible, no matter what that preference might be.

Your guests are willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to experience what you have to offer, the least we can do is let them spend that money in a way they feel comfortable with.

That’s what Inntopia Commerce does. Whether guests want to book everything at once or whether they want to book one piece at a time, whether they want to book lodging first or build their own, custom itinerary, Inntopia Commerce lets them do all of that and more in the same booking engine.