Near the end of December 2006, Lonely Planet launched ‘Haystack’, an online booking engine featuring exclusive author-approved accomodations. . Unlike many travel accommodation engines, 50% of the featured properties on ‘Haystack’ were not previously bookable online. Each property is visited and reviewed by a Lonely Planet author. These reviews include additions from independent travellers and are recommended to Lonely Planet travel prospects.

In January, Haystack’s first full month of operation, less than 30K U.S. consumers used the site, accounting for approximately 4.5% of Lonely Planet’s U.S. audience.

Not only did the site attract a small portion of Lonely Planet’s audience, but visitors to Haystack were also less engaged with the site’s offerings. Only 11% of Haystack’s audience (3K) viewed information pages for various accommodations. Subsequent property searches and bookings declined significantly.

Compete’s demographic data analysis shows that a quarter of Lonely Planet’s U.S. audience is between the ages of 35 and 44 years old, whereas nearly the same percentage of Haystack’s U.S. audience is between the ages of 18 and 24. Overall, both audiences show a similar distribution across age, though younger travel enthusiasts interacted with the engine in January.

Though Lonely Planet attracts more than 630K visitors to its site, very few visitors are engaging with the booking engine. As Haystack becomes more widely used by Lonely Planet visitors, accommodation bookings will inevitably improve. Since less than 5% of Lonely Planet’s U.S. audience engaged with the booking engine in January, an increase in visitors will most likely increase the effectiveness of Haystack’s function as travel accommodation professionals. The lack of searches conducted on Haystack suggests that funneling more of Lonely Planet’s audience may not be enough to add substantial growth toward bookings. Many more properties ought to be added so that travel prospects can engage with a larger set of offerings.

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