Online travel agents might be spending billions on marketing yet very few make the cut when it comes to sites used to choose a hotel.
Research from hotel digital marketing and software specialist Fuel reveals that while sites such as Booking.com, Expedia and Hotels.com were used by about a fifth of consumers to book a hotel, almost double that used none of the obvious brands.
Booking.com was top of the sites used by consumers when they last chose a hotel for a leisure vacation (24%), followed by Expedia (22%) and Hotels.com by 20%.
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The list also included brands such as Airbnb, which was used by just over 10% of consumers, according to the research, and VRBO (formerly HomeAway), used by just under 10%.
Respondents were also asked how they use these sites, with 27% saying they use them for price comparison and 32% saying they use them to book just the hotel element of their vacation.
About a fifth said they did not use these third party sites.
The Fuel 2019 Leisure Travel Trends study, which had more than 3,000 respondents, also reveals search engines such as Google as the main place to begin planning a holiday for 44%, followed by online travel agencies for 18% and a hotel’s own website for 10%.
Google, OTAs and hotel websites were also cited as most influential when it comes to planning a vacation.
Reviews sites such as TripAdvisor were also said to be influential in the planning process for 10% of consumers.
Looking around
The research also looks at the number of sites consulted when booking a leisure vacation.
Contrary to the Google research which concludes that more than 20 sites are consulted, the Fuel study shows that more than 90% of consumers visit 10 sites or fewer.
Further insight from the study reveals “two months” out as the most popular booking window although a month out is catching up.
The study shows more than two thirds of consumers, 70%, are booking within three months of a stay.
On average, consumers spend 26 days planning a leisure vacation and are inspired to begin planning by discussions with family and friends, 50%, or just needing a vacation, 29%.
Travel dates are most affected by price according to 38%, followed by work schedules for 26% and special offers for 11%.
Respondents were also quizzed on device usage to plan and book their vacations with desktop still the most popular device for research according to 41%, followed by tablets at 40%.
Desktops were also cited as the most popular device for booking by 31% followed by smartphone according to 29%.
The study also reveals that the majority of bookings are made online, 73% and the remainder mostly made by phone.
* The full report can be downloaded here.