Holiday web-surfers take flight from desktop to mobile

Workers are spending less time planning holidays on their desktop computers and are increasingly booking breaks on smartphones, according to Google.

David Zammitt, industry manager with Google, said mobile phones and tablets were rapidly replacing desktop computers as the preferred surfing tool, with clients increasingly using features such as Google wallet to store cash and pay for holidays "with one click".

Mr Zammitt said while Google now provides information on a person’s chosen hotel and data on extras such as nearby restaurants, the immediate future will see Google anticipating a person’s holiday and directing them towards destinations tailored to their budget, lifestyle and timeframe.

He said the benefit was that while a search might reveal more than 500 potential hotels in London, tailored information would not show hotels which were full, out of your price range or potentially not to your liking.

He said 71 per cent of surfers use their smartphone spontaneously to search for holidays compared to 27 per cent using desktop computers, while the number of users accessing videos of destinations before booking was rising by 118 per cent year-on-year.

‘Enriched content’

Mr Zammitt claimed typical internet surfers watch 300 videos per month, and said “enriched content” such as videos and reviews was vital for hotels in attracting visitors.

It was also possible he said for hotels to target emails at guests who had clicked on their website.

A useful development was the ability to give booking preference to high value customers such as those who stay two weeks or more, he added.

Mr Zammitt was speaking at the annual conference of the Irish Hotels Federation, whose president Stephen McNally said 90 per cent of Irish hotels now offer free wifi access to guests.

He claimed average guests have two devices, which might include laptops, smartphones tablets or gaming devices.

Typical guests tended to expect video-on-demand services and high-definition flat screen televisions. “Down the road we will increasingly see mobile check-in and mobile apps all playing a part in booking hotels.”