According to Statistica, over 35% of Millennial and Gen X travellers (all adults under 48) use ‘meta-search’ when planning travel, allowing them to automatically combine search engine results. It is ten years since the launches of two well-known meta-search sites Kayak and Trivago in 2005. In 2015 meta-search is one technology that is developing fast and impacting on hoteliers. According to Skift, changes to Google’s hotel finder search will make Google a big player in the meta-search arena this year.
With the hospitality booking landscape constantly changing these videos have expert discussion on approaches to distribution:
Meta-search allows the consumer to limit the amount of ‘clicks’ from the beginning of their holiday internet research to their booking. While the actual booking is made with the OTA or the hotel the search site allows the researcher to compare deals on the same trip across different sites. This ease and efficiency has made meta-search popular. With consumers choosing to use this shortcut it is important for hospitality businesses to consider whether or not they are showing up in the search results. To appear in meta-search results hoteliers can list themselves on the website (an option on sites such as TripAdvisor or Kayak), or on an OTA (Trivago only lists OTA inventory), which tend to be more prominent in results.
Trivago is the world’s largest online hotel search with 100% growth every year since 2008. It shows results from 266 booking sites (which encompasses 726,065 hotels).
Kayak receives over one billion queries each year. It also has a mobile app which has been downloaded 40 million times.
Metasearch is also frequently used for booking flights on sites such as Monomondo, Skyscanner, and Travel Supermarket. There is even an apartment specific meta-search site Apartum for consumers preferring alternative accommodation to hotels.
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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.
