Webtrends, the global leader in digital marketing optimisation and relevance through real-time, unified analytics and customer intelligence, today announced that Hotels4U.com has implemented Webtrends Optimize resulting in a 5.52% increase in online hotel bookings and a 61% increase in searches on mobile devices.

While overall holiday bookings have continued to see flat growth, online bookings have grown rapidly, making it an increasingly popular way for holidaymakers, business travellers and travel agents to purchase hotel reservations. However, in a highly competitive marketplace Hotels4U needed to ensure it stood out from the crowd by improving and simplifying the search-to-book process to increase conversions from website visits and capitalise on the mobile opportunity presented by the rise of smartphones.

Hotels4U selected Webtrends due to its ability to deliver a complete selection of test and target types, including A/B, multivariate tests, advanced segmentation and behavioural targeting. Using Optimize, the team were able to deliver an exclusive testing package capable of detailed analysis and recommendations for website amendments. The team built multivariate test plans that could be rolled out and updated over a period of time to continually improve the customer experience.

Since first implementing Webtrends Optimize, Hotels4U has experienced a 5.52% lift in online bookings following a number of tests to the latter pages of the buying cycle. On its mobile site, Hotels4U experienced a 61% increase in searches on mobile devices, with a 22% lift in visitors viewing hotel pages on the mobile channel.

In addition to this, Webtrends helped maximise conversions from aggregator websites by providing real-time options and alternatives for bookings if preferences were unavailable. This had a direct impact on improvements to the customer experience and increased the retention rate from these sites by 18.29%.

Steven Moore, Head of eCommerce, Hotels4U: “Through mobile site optimisation with Webtrends, we have been able to solve part of the puzzle that plagues every marketer today – the multi-channel problem. We felt we were missing a clear opportunity with visitors who browse on their smartphones on the go. Webtrends was able to develop a solution without placing additional burden on internal resources. Their recommended designs have driven a 61% increase in search and 22% lift in visitors seeing our hotel pages through our mobile channel, effectively making it easier for our customers to find what they are looking for and facilitating the multi-channel journey.”

Geoff Pennells, Regional Director, Travel, Webtrends: “The travel industry is very, very competitive as online has now become the preferred way for consumers to book their holidays. Hotels4U understands the importance of optimising its website to be as competitive as possible, and has been working alongside Webtrends to create and run detailed testing campaigns.”

“To see a 5.52% increase in conversions is a fantastic result for a company that processes as many bookings as Hotels4U does. Hotesl4U is wise to the opportunities presented by the boom in smartphones and has moved early to optimise its mobile platform and become a true multi-channel player. We look forward to continuing the optimisation journey with Hotels4U across multiple channels.”