2024 hospitality benchmark report

Web capture – Global

Web capture – Global

In this chapter you will find

In this chapter you will find

Introduction

Introduction

The web capture channel represents how hoteliers collect guest data from across their online footprint — including review sites, OTAs, and their own brand page — and activate this data to drive direct revenue. Revinate collects web capture data in the form of reputation management as well as website and cart abandonment.

A data-driven approach to web capture and reputation management gives hoteliers the power to take control of the guest experience by understanding and applying guest feedback and online behavior at scale. In turn, they drive more revenue: one study found that a 1-star increase in online ratings can lead to a 2.2-3% increase in monthly revenue. And a Cornell study found that hotels that respond to 40-45% of reviews may see their booking revenue increase by 2.2x compared to those who don’t answer their reviews at all.

With reputation management, hoteliers monitor their hotel rating across review sites and respond to reviews. We’ll explore how benchmarks for reputation management vary across region, room count, and hotel class.

Website and cart abandonment refers to guests and potential guests who browse your website, enter the booking engine, but ultimately don’t complete their reservation. The cart abandonment rate for hotels is 80% – meaning one in five guests who start a reservation won’t finish. That’s a lot of revenue slipping through the cracks.

Abandonment can happen for lots of reasons — better rates, a change of plans, or just plain old distraction. Hoteliers can capture these visitors’ email addresses from the booking engine alongside browsing information and use that data to send targeted messages and win back lost revenue. We’ll share benchmarks for open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue per booking from cart abandonment campaigns.

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What does advanced reputation management look like in action? Portland, USA hotelier the Inn @ Northrup Station used Revinate Guest Feedback to capture comments from guests and respond to reviews. Within a year, they rose from the #13 spot on Tripadvisor to #1, securing more bookings than ever before along the way.

The Ovolo Group, based in Hong Kong and Australia, had been losing guests to cart abandonment. But with Revinate, they activated an always-on cart abandonment campaign that highlighted the benefits of booking direct, like free cancellation. It paid for itself with one campaign.

Downloads

Downloads

Global PDF

For a global perspective, not particular to any one region, but with nuanced insights that could be applied to all.

EMEA PDF

Diverse data highly tuned for the incredibly diverse regions throughout Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)

North America PDF

As our most robust data region, North America leads the pack with the broadest selection of hospitality industry benchmarks.

APAC PDF

From North to South, our APAC data set covers the most poignant regional Asian hospitality benchmarks to make sure you get ahead.

Global web capture benchmarks

The purpose of these benchmarks is to help hoteliers evaluate their own performance, identify areas for improvement, and set realistic goals. Within the web capture category, we’ll share global benchmarks for reputation management and cart abandonment campaigns.

Reputation management: Benchmarks for review volume, top review sites, average ratings, and more

Reputation management: Benchmarks for review volume, top review sites, average ratings, and more

The difference between a #1 spot on Tripadvisor and  #10 spot can be the difference between a thriving property and a floundering one.  That’s no surprise, since location, price, and reviews are the top three factors in booking decisions. As such, hoteliers that actively manage their reputation across review sites with data have an advantage.

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Hotel review volume

At the global level, the average number of reviews a hotel receives each month increased by 12.8%, from 56 to 64. APAC saw the most dramatic gains with a 45.3% increase, while EMEA and North America review volume rose by 4.4% and 4.1% respectively. This tracks with global trends in occupancy rates.

Hotel review volume by hotel class

Increases in review volume were not distributed evenly across hotel classes. Luxury, Upper Upscale, and Upscale hotels all had more reviews per month on average and even greater increases in 2023 compared to Upper Midscale, Midscale, and Economy properties.

Remember, more — and better — reviews don’t just happen on their own. You need to ask for them. Try checking in mid-stay (the messaging channel is especially apt for this) to see how a guest’s stay is going. This way, you’ll have time to address and resolve any issues that may have come up. Then, solicit guest reviews after checkout with automated emails, and watch the five-star reviews come rolling in.

Top review sites

Hoteliers also need to prioritize the review sites with the most visibility in order to use staff time efficiently. Around the world, Booking.com takes the prize for the largest share of reviews. The other top players include Google, Tripadvisor, and Expedia. We’ll explore regional differences in the Asia-Pacific, EMEA, and North America sections of this report.

Average hotel rating

In 2023, the global average hotel rating increased from 4.1 to 4.2. This is good news after a difficult 2022, when we reported a slight dip in global average ratings compared to 2021. 2022 was a challenging year for hoteliers, as recovering occupancy and resurgent ADR combined with a staffing shortage contributed to decreased guest satisfaction. While staffing challenges continued into 2023, this rise in average hotel ratings is an encouraging sign that hoteliers are adapting to meet guest expectations.

Average hotel rating by hotel size

When we examine changes in hotel rating by room count, the largest properties were able to increase their average ratings by bigger margins. Managing reputation for large properties in particular requires a data-driven approach with advanced reporting and automation.

Average hotel rating by hotel class

Comparing average hotel ratings by class, we see that Midscale and Economy hotels achieved the largest gains. Still, ratings and class are roughly correlated, with Luxury hotels receiving the highest ratings and Economy hotels the lowest.

Review response rate

One effective strategy to improve your rating is to engage with reviews. A Cornell study has shown that responding to reviews, especially negative ones, can positively impact customers’ perception of a business and result in higher rating scores. In fact, 78% of customers state that seeing management responses to online reviews makes them feel like the business values their opinion.

Revinate recommends that hoteliers respond to 100% of negative reviews, and about half of positive reviews as a best practice. Learn more tips for managing your reputation in our guide, “How to respond to hotel reviews.” Globally, the average review response rate in 2023 was 55.3%, up 4.6% from 2022.

The same Cornell study revealed that hotels that respond to 40-45% of reviews may increase their booking revenue by 2.2x compared to hotels that don’t answer reviews at all. However, responding to more than 40-45% of reviews had diminishing returns. Clearly, hoteliers around the globe are exceeding this threshold and actively engaging with their guests on review sites.

Review response rate by hotel size

When analyzing review response rates by room count, larger hotels (150+ rooms) responded to a higher percentage of their reviews than properties with fewer than 150 rooms by a wide margin. Hotels with 1-50 rooms are the only size who responded to fewer reviews in 2023 than 2022, dropping their response rate -5.4%.

Review response rate by hotel class

Response rates according to hotel class remained fairly consistent compared to 2022, only moving a few percentage points up or down. Luxury and Upper Upscale hotels responded to proportionally more reviews, demonstrating the high-touch service these properties provide.

Use this benchmark data to see how your hotel matches up with your peers. Remember, guests leave reviews when asked to, so make sure you ask often and at the right moment — after they’ve completed an excellent stay. Respond to both positive and negative reviews to show that you take guest feedback seriously. More reviews and higher rankings can lead directly to more bookings.

Cart abandonment: Benchmarks for open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue

Cart abandonment: Benchmarks for open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue

Cart abandonment campaigns are one of hoteliers’ richest opportunities to win incremental direct revenue from the same volume of website traffic. For every 100 people that enter the booking engine, only about 20 will complete their reservations. Instead of letting the other 80 go, a simple follow-up email should secure another 11 bookings, using the global average conversion rate of 14%.

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Average open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates

Engagement benchmarks — open rates and click-through rates — for cart abandonment campaigns are higher than average at 70% and 30% respectively. The global averages for all email campaigns, meanwhile, are a 42.7% open rate and a 4.2% click-through rate. At 14%, cart abandonment conversion rates also significantly outperform the global average conversion rate of 0.8% for campaigns of all types.

Average booking value and room nights booked

So, what does this all mean for your bottom line? Each reservation from a cart abandonment campaign averages three room nights and $890 in booking revenue. Using our example above, that would equate to 33 room nights and $9,790 of incremental direct revenue. Looking for inspiration on how to improve your cart abandonment campaigns? Check out our guide, “Top 10 strategies to recover revenue from website and cart abandonment,” with example campaigns from top properties around the world.

The French Lick Resort, a renowned complex located in Indiana, USA, used cart abandonment campaigns to remind guests about incomplete reservations. They also offered the option to follow up through phone calls. In one year, the French Lick team collected data on more than 3,000 customers who abandoned the booking engine. By working with their reservations team, the resort secured more than 800 of these abandoned reservations.

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