Travel Search: Hotwire Heating Up in Demographic Segment Performance
Written by Jack Drew (contact - e-mail) -- October 7th, 2008 | Share - Save - E-mailThe major online travel agencies are in constant competition to be the top performer in the search game, but not all searches are created equal. Many marketers are only interested in attracting specific desirable customer segments that will be most likely to engage with their product.
One of these segments is high-income women travelers between the ages of 35 and 44, which Hotwire has been increasingly successful in attracting search-driven hotel bookings from. While Expedia and Priceline have remained steady in this segment, Hotels.com has lost some ground. A year ago Hotwire had captured only an average of 10% of the search-driven hotel bookings of this demographic, but the past few months have seen the brand rise to up to a 30% share in May 2008.
Women’s OTA hotel conversions deriving from a search engine as a whole are the result of organic clicks 68% of the time and sponsored clicks for the remaining 32%. The only competitor to rely more heavily upon paid than natural was Hotels.com at 54%.
This specific demographic is just one example of how quickly market share shifts can take place. As online marketers pursue specific consumer segments – either demographic, affinity/lifestyle, or other groups – understanding the search behavior of each can give them a distinct edge. And in such a competitive landscape that relies so heavily on search, a lot can be gained from such an advantage.
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October 7th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Wow..surprised Kayak.com isn’t up there? Do not enough people know about the site or was it not included in the comparison?
October 8th, 2008 at 2:47 am
So what exactly is Hotwire doing that Priceline is not? From the first graph with the squiggly lines, seems like they’re going in opposite directions. I mean, if you look at the stats for May and June, when Priceline goes up, Hotwire goes down, and vice-versa.
October 11th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Nick: Kayak was not included because technically it’s not a booking site. Kayak refers consumers to sites like those listed above to make their bookings. For this analysis we wanted to look at which online travel agencies were capturing those ultimate bookings.
Ling: Hotwire and Priceline often are in a duel back and forth with each other. They have a similar product offering and when market share for one of them goes up, the other’s often goes down.
April 13th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
good job
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