Trend toward mobile bookings remains unbroken

More and more bookings at ebookers.ch are being made via smartphone or tablet.2015 seems to be a year of mobile bookers. In particular, more and more hotel bookings are being made via smartphone or tablet less than 48 hours before check-in. Four-star hotels are the most popular booking destinations for the Swiss via mobile devices and mobile bookings are most common on Sundays in Switzerland. The travel industry is also feeling this very strongly, with customers using their mobile companions more intensively than ever before for search queries and bookings. ebookers.ch recognized this trend early on and launched its first travel app back in 2010. Today, one in five travel bookings is made via the ebookers.ch app. And this year, bookings have even increased significantly again. "In the last twelve months, we have seen a strong shift from desktop to mobile bookings. Compared to the first quarter of 2014, these increased by 45 percent from January to March 2015," says Matthias Thürer Director, Group Loyalty & Marketing Austria, Germany, Switzerland.Spontaneous Swiss hotel guests with mobile bookingsSwiss ebookers.ch customers are particularly keen to travel in the summer months. While an average of around 20 percent of hotel bookings were made on mobile devices throughout last year, this figure rose to as much as 31 percent in December. "In summer 2015, we expect this trend to be confirmed in Switzerland and that we will achieve a similarly high percentage of mobile bookings as at the end of 2014," explains Matthias Thürer, adding that it is striking that almost half (47%) of mobile bookings are only made for one hotel night, probably because many business and leisure travelers still need a room at short notice. This is also reflected in the short-term nature of the bookings: 59% of mobile bookings are made less than 48 hours before hotel check-in. However, this spontaneity is apparently mainly reserved for couples. Of mobile hotel bookings, 65% are made for just two people, while only around 18% of mobile bookings are made for three or more people, i.e. mainly families. For trips with children that are planned longer in advance, bookings are still more frequently made by PC. The preferred hotel category for mobile bookers is four-star hotels (43% IOS and Android users on average).

Europe prefers mobileThe top 10 flight destinations most frequently booked via mobile devices paint a clear picture: firstly, vacations in Europe are still very much in vogue, and secondly, European destinations are most frequently booked via mobile devices. A comparison with other continents such as North America shows that flights (76%), rental cars (61%) and hotels (55%) are most frequently booked via mobile devices in Europe. When it comes to European trips, the Swiss prefer to book spontaneously while on the move - conveniently via an app or mobile website, with the most popular mobile hotel booking being the classic city trip London, ahead of Bangkok and the European destinations Paris and Zurich. The Swiss tend to book exotic, more distant destinations via desktop on ebookers.ch. This is because those planning a big trip take the time to look at pictures of dream beaches and compare hotels on the larger screen - for even more anticipation of their summer vacation.

Sunday is Mobile DayIn general, most mobile bookings are made on Sundays, as it is well known that people prefer to think about their next vacation before the start of the working week. The time spent on apps by smartphone and tablet users also increases steadily towards the end of the week. Today, just under a third of all Swiss users spend between 10 and 30 minutes on the search and booking process. Just under half spend between 10 minutes and an hour. Flights (48 percent), followed by hotels (46 percent) and rental cars (6 percent) are booked most frequently via the ebookers.ch app.En vogue: last-minute car rental bookingsCar rental providers are also benefiting from the latest mobile trend from ebookers.ch. Around 24 percent of mobile car rental bookings are last-minute bookings, i.e. they are booked within two days before pick-up. While rental cars are booked on average 44 days in advance via desktop, mobile bookers are more spontaneous and decide shortly before the rental. The last-minute rate for desktop bookings is less than three percent.