Understanding the various stages in the customer journey of a travel booker and how you can tap into it via creative marketing and innovative product ideas

1. Customer Journey of Travel bookers
Feeding Impulse in Hotel booking

2. Agenda
• What is a customer Journey map?
• Stages in Travel
• Who are the Spontaneous Travelers?
• Micromoments
• Enabling Spontaneous Travel
• Q & A

3. My Travel Experience
7 Continents
185 Countries
475 Cities
252 Airports

4. What is a Customer Journey Map?
• Framework that helps you best understand how customers are interacting with you now and
helps you identify areas for improvement moving forward.
• Rooted in data-driven research and based on a variety of dimensions such as sentiment, goals,
touch points, and more
• Enables you to improve your Customer’s experience
• Better Understanding of it  More Conversions  $$$

5. Stages in traditional travel
Dreaming Booking Experiencing SharingPlanning
Modifying
Magazines, Online
Articles, Movies/TV,
Social Media shares,
Billboards, Ads
Research about
Destination, Assess
cost, Read Reviews
Metasearch, Airline
search, Hotel
Search, OTA
Cancel Flight/Hotel,
Change dates,
Upgrade category
In-Hotel Experience
In-Flight Experience
Research data: American travelers visited travel sites 38 times in the 45-day period leading up to booking

6. Stages in spontaneous travel
Experiencing SharingInspiration + Booking
EDM, Blogs, Videos,
Social Media shares;
Embedded Booking
- In-Hotel Experience
- Destination Discovery
They just know, they need to getaway, but
don’t know where
‘Weekend Getaways”
from Bangkok
The idea might not be entirely new, but saved via previous Triggers & Micro-Moments

7. Who are the Spontaneous Travelers?
Opportunistic deal seekers
● “the person who just wants a bed” is a big
portions of this segment
● Dont care about securing the exact type of room
they want with all the extras (breakfast, view, wifi
etc).
● Excited by the Risk involved to snatch the deals
Millennial ‘Wanderlust’ travelers
● Like getting lost, doing something on a whim and
experiencing something new.
● The ultimate way to plan on the fly is via
Smartphone. Rely a lot on "near me" or "explore
nearby" options
● Crowdsource planning via Social media questions
Typical Traits
• Travel is not viewed as Luxury but more as Necessity
• Booking a flight with just a few days out
• Reserving a hotel only after arriving at a destination
• Vacation planning is not an enjoyable experience but causes more headaches than tans.
• They think that something is lost when you can anticipate - almost script -- nearly every
component of the travel experience
"Looking for a
restaurant in Paris?
Put it on Facebook
and you may hear
back in minutes"
Thrive on ‘Last Minute’

8. Sample options for Spontaneous travelers
But are
they doing
it right?

9. Micro-Moments
 Occur when someone wants to find something out
 Happens throughout the customer journey
 Start when people begin dreaming of a trip.
 Happen across planning, booking, and even during the actual traveling
 When these moments happen, user reach for the device nearest for answers
If your brand isn't there for the
moments that mattered in this
journey, you missed out on Amy
For travelers, these moments fall
into four categories:
i. I-want-to-get-away
ii. I-want-this-trip-to-be-perfect
iii. I-want-to-book-it
iv. I-want-to-make-the-most-of-it
Map closely to the typical stages in
travel: dreaming, planning,
booking, and experiencing.

10. Micro-Moments – in Travel planning
I want to get away moments: Dreaming Moments
• moments when people start thinking about the next vacation
• Search for things like: "What to do in [destination]?" and "Where is [destination]?“
• Checking places out on YouTube etc
I want this trip to be perfect moments: Planning Moments
• moments when people narrow down exactly where to go and when
• figuring out all the logistical details.
• get to know how long it takes to get there, how much it could cost, best travel times etc
I want to Book it moments: Booking Moments
• Critical moments: when people put their dollars behind their decisions.
• Need to remove every unnecessary step in the purchasing process from micro-moments
• Example: A search on google -> book on google; TripAdvisor ‘Instant’ bookings
I want to make the most of it moments: Experiencing Moments
• moments when people are at their destinations.
• consumer's behavior is about overcoming unfamiliarity with their current surroundings.
• Mobile queries per user from hotel are on the rise with many including the phrase "near me.“
• looking either for a place to stay ("hotels near me") or something to eat or drink ("food near
me," "breakfast near me," "restaurants near me," "bars near me")
Be a Source of
Inspiration
Be a Travel guide
Be a Booking
Engine
Be a Mobile
Concierge

11. Enabling Spontaneous Travel
Experiencing SharingInspiration + Booking
-Deep Personalization
-Intelligent Searches
-Social Proof
-Recommendation Service
-Ratings + Reviews
-Ease of Payment
--Seamless Check Ins & Keyless Stay
-In-App communication with Staff
-On Site special promos via App notificaitons
-Connected Food+Transprt booking
-Social network share
OTA’s must evolve:
cannot be just transactional
Mobile Travel Assistant

12. Inspiration Stage: Enticing Marketing
Engaging Content
- ‘Triggers’: External
& Internal
Create your own “Festivals” or “Special Days”
● “Singles Day” by Alibaba - $5 billion in the first 90 minutes of the sale! $14.3 billion in just 24 hours
● “Cyber Monday” by Amazon
● “Be Spontaneous Day”

13. Inspiration Stage: Tempt to travel spontaneously
• Digital Video viewing is growing quickly. Integrate Social and Video strategies
• Video storytelling on Facebook is a powerful way to inspire

14. Inspiration Stage: Inducing Spontaneity
Intelligent Value-Pricing: User Location based deals that Induce Spontaneous Experiences
• Temptation Rates: Tempt user for a quick getaway to nearby cities extra price cuts [BKK -> Resorts in Hua Hin]
• Impulse Rates: Dynamic price cuts to users with close proximity to specific hotels - ‘Escape Rates’
Make spontaneity convenient and enticing
• Weekly Special ‘Featured Deals” sent to top users - (like Tuesday only web-fares sent by airlines)
• Tempt them to ‘Make a little splurge’ or a ‘little treat for themselves’
• Instead of ”Giving hotels in places where people wanna go” - “Give them places where they we can go!”
Quick Romantic Getaway
● Roundtrip flight -> $160 / person
● Romantic Hotels -> $130 / night
● Total cost of trip -> $500
● Phuquoc – Special region – no VISA reqd!
• Most users don't even know about this!
• Flight deals only for Thursday departure
• Phuquoc - Special region, No VISA Required!

15. Planning Stage: Thinking out of the ‘Box’
Intelligent Searches
• “Show me weekend getaways for two for less than $500”
• “Places to escape from the haze in Singapore!”
• “Heritage towns near Manila”
Tailored Results
• Reduce the number of choice proposed to customers + Increase their Relevancy.
• Use Past Behaviour Data for personalized results - Tie expression of interest in past to future planning
• Recommendation services : Build a Entity graph for Hotels/Flights (like Google knowledge graph)
Personalized Communications
• Highly personalized Emails, Social Media, Customer Service
• Suggest personalized ‘Trip ideas’ for Spontaneous Escapes [not just hotels]
Contextual lens
• Consider Situational Factors like Time of Day, Weather, Location etc.,
Virtual Reality is the new Instagarm
• “Try before you Fly” campaigns
• Learn about a Destination when planning (‘Virtual honemoon experience’)
• Feel how the resort/hotel looks and laid out(Facilities, fittings etc)
• Carnival Is Trying Virtual Reality to get new Cruisers on board
Final goal: Help the user find what he is looking for as well as what he doesn't know he’d like easily & quickly

16. Planning Stage: Thinking out of the ‘Box’
Inspiring the user to think big!
Persuasive pictures
Open Calendar options
Map opens up wide world!

17. Planning Stage: Thinking out of the ‘Box’
Booking.com recommends
hotels by passion: like
gambling or stargazing
wants to sell you a hotel
room based on what you
like to do — not just where
you want to go.

18. Booking Stage: Innovative Booking Flows
Unconventional Booking channels
• Using Twitter to book via a tweet!
• Hilton – Booking via Instagram
Messaging is the next big platform!
• Correyvuela is a global flight search engine through WhatsApp
• KLM - Use WhatsApp to rebook your cancelled flight
Bidding Based Booking
• On-demand bidding based User/supplier matching
• Model similar to GrabTaxi, Instacart etc.,
• Lets the user pick the best from a real-time competitive pricing
Value Demand Proposition
User Proposes Option and Demands Value
User: “I am willing to check in after 10:00 PM , what can you give me”
Supplier: “ If you check in after 10:00 i can give you 20% extra discount or higher floor room with good view for the same
price”
Gimme Gimme Goodies: 69% of Millennials see freebies (such as snacks/sandwiches/to-go breakfast) as more
important than opportunities for increased loyalty or reward points [Article Source]

19. Experience Stage: Become a Travel Buddy
• Messaging is the new gateway to support the customer During as well as Before the stay
• The “Last mile”: the time between the guest arrival at a property through the guest’s departure.
Before Arriving During Stay
• Send Text style messages to Front desk
• Request a car service from the airport
• Ordering an in-room amenity for arrival
• Asking for an early check-in.”
• Anything else you want!!
• Mobile express check in - Bypass registration and walk directly
to their room
• Keyless door entry – just app it!
• In-Room food ordering
• Any other Guest Service requests.
• Mobile Request Platform – Communication with staff via App
• Notify guest about Room readiness • Mobile Concierge
• Activities information & Destination tips
• Dinner Reservations
• Transportation help etc.,
Customers prefer 2 way communication via mobile
devices over other types of communication
Improved guest satisfaction: 20% boost in its Net
Promoter Score after adopting seamless text-style messaging

20. Experience Stage: Messaging Nirvana!
Seamless
texting tech
Texting is increasingly the preferred mode of
communication among the younger generation