Interestingly, their preference for distribution options ranges from “it doesn’t really matter” to “it really DOES matter”. Without naming names, there seems to be agreement on the advantages to both platforms:

Mobile websites:

• Updates are instantly available to the user (you can’t force updates with apps)
• Cross-platform functionality
• In-house developers can use existing skill sets
• Development time can be faster

Mobile phone apps:

• People don’t usually want to inccur data roaming charges when abroad
• Can be a higher level of functional reliability (no cross-browser issues)

For many hotels – especially independent properties – it’s a resource issue. A simple mobile website can be the most effective option.

Tip: If building an app isn’t a realistic option for you, consider OTAs to be a good partner for you on this.

Mobile marketing is going to be increasingly important for hotels in the months and years ahead, so this is something to plan now – if you haven’t done so already.

What is your mobile strategy?

[Photo credit: The Lightworks]

Thomas O’Neil, Google Travel

Mobile landing pages: designing the user experience

• landing pages are evolving
• 4 great examples
  • Hotels.com/iPhone
    • being first moving has big advantage
    • have 1 million+ app downloads
  • m.toyota.com
  • m.cnn.com
  • iPhone.fandago.com
• key take-away: there needs to be optimized landing pages for the consumer
• not everyone has an smart phone…design for less
• search google webmasters: “mobile seo”
  • search algorithm is different for mobile sites

Mobile search: what consumers are doing

• not usually willing to do more than one search
• probably won’t go beyond top 2-3 search result listings
• they search for roughly the same amount of words…but search less often
• SEO is extremely important. If you’re not in the top 1-3 results, you may as well not even be there.

Advertising on the go: opportunities to reach individuals

• 4 types of Google advertising opportunities
  • WAP search
  • HTML search
  • content network (on other sites)
  • YouTube videos
• understand which apps your audience is using to choose advertising opportunities
• Google provides a high level of reporting options

Krista Pappas, Microsoft Bing Travel

• Mobile is at the center of the digital lifestyle
• The big story is that mobile is huge & growing. It’s critical you begin developing this one-on-one relationship with your customers now.
• Once people start using the mobile web, they don’t go back
• 107% more news & info was consumed through the mobile web in 2008 than 2007
• View mobile as more than just another media buy
• Mobile web is NOT the World wide Web
  • screen size limits text
  • information needs are based on location and situation
  • requires information be filtered so only relevant info is delivered
• Bing is working to give great mobile results
• Search results are optimized for mobile devices
• People may be booking more hotels last minute…as opposed to airline tickets. Tickets require more certainty and search options, hotel booking is seen as a much simpler process.