How travel brands are prioritizing mobile app engagement

While mobile browser traffic still has value for travel companies, they are increasingly working to steer customers to their brands' mobile apps. The explanation is simple - apps give brands access to data and opportunities for personalization, for example through relevant alerts or customer service chats.

The app “allows you to have a more direct and longer lasting relationship with a customer,” says Jon Gieselman, president of Expedia Brands at Expedia Group.

And travelers are responding - all the brands interviewed for this article say they have seen considerable growth in app engagement in recent years.

In the third quarter of 2022, Expedia hit an “all-time high” of quarterly active app users, with a 40% increase from 2019. The Vrbo mobile app was the most downloaded iOS travel app in the United States, according to Apptopia.

Getting consumers to download the app “is just the start,” Gieselman says.

“You must provide compelling reasons for customers to keep coming back and product features they can’t live without,” such as “app-exclusive tools,” he explains.

Expedia recently launched a new Price Tracking and Predictions feature in the mobile app that uses machine learning to notify travelers about flight price changes and predicts the best time to buy. Expedia members also earn twice the points when booking their trip on the app and can take advantage of app-exclusive promotions and sales several times a year, Gieselman says.

Next year, Expedia will launch One Key, a unified loyalty program that spans Expedia brands, including Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo. Members will get “exclusive incentives for using the app,” Gieselman says.

Also in 2023, Expedia plans to roll out additional tools in its app, including Trip Boards, which allow travelers to collaborate on trips and Price Drop Protection, an optional add-on that automatically provides a refund if a customer’s ticket price drops before their travel date.

Apps linked to loyalty

Tripadvisor rebuilt its mobile app “from the ground up” in 2020, and it is a “vital part” of customer acquisition and increased member engagement, according to Tripadvisor CMO John Boris.

App use provides Tripadvisor with access to anonymized first-party user data, enabling the company to better serve travelers, including in-destination, “where we can put our location data to work to deliver a better Tripadvisor user experience,” Boris says.

App use also drives long-term loyalty, Boris adds: “We know that our most loyal and valuable users are our app users. They review more often, are a more active part of our community and ultimately monetize better on a per-user basis.”

Corporate travel brands are also prioritizing app engagement. Travel management company CWT announced a $100 million investment into its digital platforms, including its app, in November 2021.

CWT has delivered more than 30 product enhancements over the past year, including enabling people to share their trips and connect with colleagues and adding carbon emissions information and eco-friendly hotel labels to allow “travelers to make really informed decisions about the impact of the choices that are making,” says Erica Antony, CWT’s chief product officer.

CWT’s mobile app usage has climbed 90% year over year, which includes a spike in communication with CWT’s counselors.

“You might start [in the app] with helping yourself or trying to get simple tasks done. But when it becomes more complex or it becomes more urgent or sensitive, ultimately I want to reach a person,” Antony says.

The app also gives CWT a way to assess customer behavior, she adds: “We can start to see what types of activities are they performing at different times of the day, different times of the week, what types of tasks are they trying to complete?”

App recognizing users

At American Express Global Business Travel, the mobile app has seen an uptick in on-trip use in particular, which includes alerts about flight delays, flight changes and gate changes, according to the travel management company’s vice president of global product strategy and user experience, Mark McSpadden.

The app “provides offline content really well,” McSpadden says.

“We know that during the travel journey, there are times when you don’t have connectivity. And so to be able to have the information about your flight, about your hotel, about your ground transportation there in a platform that is available even without connectivity is really important.”

Because that authentication is already in place, we know who you are and can immediately get to servicing you in your current context

Mark McSpadden - Amex GBT

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Authentication mechanisms such as biometrics, face ID and fingerprint create trust and give the company useful information that helps them better serve the customer.

“Because that authentication is already in place, we know who you are and can immediately get to servicing you in your current context,” McSpadden says. “We can start inferring what you might need.”

Amex GBT’s app connects the traveler to the traveler manager through messaging. The company also added a feature that allows users to share their flight status with colleagues, friends or family through a unique URL for their flight.

The company is in the process of adding sustainability metrics to the mobile app that will let travelers see the carbon impact not only at the time of purchase, but of their overall travel, according to McSpadden, with completion expected by the end of the year.

Competing with 79 other apps

At Booking.com, “an app-first approach is crucial to success in our now mobile-dominated world,” says Arjan Dijk, senior vice president and CMO.

The Booking.com app was among the most-installed travel apps in both the United States and the United Kingdom in 2021, according to the company. In the third quarter of this year, about 45% of Booking’s room nights were booked through its apps, an increase of more than 10% compared to 2019.

Reservations made in the app represent the majority of Booking’s overall mobile bookings, Dijk says. Over the course of the year Booking.com has also seen the app repeatedly set new records for monthly active users.

The Booking mobile app gets “the strongest direct repeat customer behavior” when compared to our other platforms like desktop or mobile web, and the majority of bookings on the mobile app are made by members of Booking’s loyalty program, Genius,” he says.

But Dijk says a single app is competing with, on average, 79 other apps on a consumer’s mobile device, so simply existing there is not enough. Companies need to keep reminding consumers why they should use the app, he says, and Booking is exploring new marketing channels such as paid Facebook and YouTube ads.

Hugh Aitken, vice president of flights at Skyscanner, says app users are a “self-selecting group.”

“People choose to download our app, and importantly, keep it on the mobile device,” Aitken says. “We do see good retention on app, people coming in and downloading it, but also engaging with it and carrying on engaging with it.”

The Skyscanner app shows not only flights to Miami, for example, but also hotels and cars “so people can start to see the complete trip,” rather than having to switch between apps or tabs. And the app gives travelers ideas, inspiration and advice that they want from Skyscanner, he adds.