2019 Travel Ecommerce Remarketing Report

In our latest Travel Remarketing Report infographic, we look at the online travel market, with some fascinating insights into global abandonment rates and sales trends.

Some highlights from the report, which looks at five different types of travel websites:

• The overall average abandonment rate for online travel sites is 90.74%.
• Online travel agents (OTAs) have the highest travel abandonment rates, at 93.96%.
• Hotel websites enjoy the lowest abandonment rates in travel, at 84.63%.
• Asia has the lowest global travel abandonment rates, at 85.46%.

Travel Abandonment Rates

Using client data, we have broken down abandonment stats into five travel sectors so we can see how they vary between different types of travel website.

The highest booking abandonment rates are seen on airline and OTA websites.

These are generally the most complex travel purchases, particularly in the case of OTA sites, where travellers may be booking a range of travel products, often hotels and transport combined, along with extras like tours and car rental.

Data on customer travel research suggests that 80% of travel purchases take longer than four weeks to complete, during which time customers may visit and abandon the booking process on multiple sites.

Generally, the more complex the booking process, and the more options for shoppers, the longer the research process will take.

By comparison, hotel and car rental sites are relatively simple, and therefore have lower booking abandonment rates, at 84.63% and 86.34% respectively.

On car rental sites for example, the booking process is relatively simple, certainly no more complex than the average retail purchase.

From selecting dates and pick up and drop off locations, it’s a three or four step process on most car rental sites.

In addition, many people will be booking car rental having already booked travel and accommodation, meaning they already know the dates and pick up locations they’ll need.

For hotels, it’s can be a similar story. It’s a purchase that is more likely to be booked close to the date, for quick weekend trips or business for example.

The reduced research time means visitors are less likely to abandon, while the booking process is relatively simple. Payment is not always necessary on booking, thus reducing the complexity.

Abandonment Trends

From the trends chart we can see a dip in abandonment rates for most sectors around January, perhaps as people begin to book holidays for the summer.

For airlines and travel especially, we see a further dip in abandonment rates around May, which could be a result of people booking last minute holidays for the summer months.

For more stats and insight into the online travel market, see our Understanding Airline and Travel Trends Report, containing data from more than 280 online travel bookings.