Rate Comparison A/B test during COVID-19
Mid-April till Mid-May we ran a new Rate Comparison widget A/B test with one of our partners and its clients.
In the test, we were studying the effect of the rate comparison on the conversion rate for 50 hotels and for 12K user searches. During the test, a rate comparison widget was shown in 50% of sessions and it was hidden in the rest 50%.
We compared how many users from these two groups moved to the next step and finished the booking. The results are astonishing!
A/B test results
It’s all just percentages. What does conversion rate increase mean in real business? It means extra revenue for each hotel. During the test period, about 900 bookings were made. Around 10% were done due to the rate comparison by 123compare.me. More than 10K€ was earned.
Every extra booking impacts hotels’ profitability. It is even more true during the COVID times. The test was held in April-May when the restrictions were still strong. Imagine, how awesome would the results be when the demand increases?
For sure, different hotels have different results. Some got more bookings than others. However, to protect individual hotels’ data, the report will show only group averages.
Disparity kills conversion
With the same test group, we conducted another test during March. The rate comparison widget made 64,958 comparisons of prices between the booking engine and 7 different OTAs. This represents a little over 10,000 searches by potential hotel guests. across all 50 hotels.
In some cases, the widget was not displayed due to disparity – the direct price was higher than OTAS’ prices. For searches where the hotel was not in parity, the final conversion rate in March was 2.3%. Comparing this to the 8.48% conversion rate for searches where the hotel was in parity shows the importance of offering the best price for direct bookers.
Based on the first results of our test you can increase your direct booking conversion by over 350% simply by ensuring that the best rate can always be booked direct. Our OTA control and Disparity alert tool allow each hotel to control its distribution easily!
Do you want to have a similar conversion increase for your hotel or hotel group? Contact us! Let’s earn more bookings together!
