Lobby, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform that automates complex booking operations across suppliers of travel, hospitality and experiences, has carried out several analysis of reservation workflows that reveal a consistent pattern and challenge some common assumptions within hospitality.
For years, hotels have focused on reducing reservation response times and on increasing conversion rates, as well as operational efficiency. According to Lobby’s analysis, the actual weaknesses in this part of the process are related to information, guest intent and the commercial opportunities lost between request and booking.
The most relevant findings of Lobby’s study are:
Response time is not the best performance metric: Many booking requests were answered quickly, but customer petitions were not fully resolved. Only 44% of the multi-question enquiries made by guests were fully answered. This explains that nearly 12% of inbound e-mails came from a customer asking again for something they had already requested.Guest preferences in the booking are frequently not considered even if the reservation was completed successfully.
Reservations are often treated as an administrative task rather than a commercial opportunity.
Unavailable requests might be turned into alternative selling depending on the booking agent’s answer. In 42% of the cases, the conversation with guests ended after a refused request without any alternative booking proposal.
Clearly defined standards when answering booking requests make a difference in the booking processes.
“One of the most important lessons we have learned from the analysis of reservation workflows is that the response time is not the best performance metric. What matters more is whether the guest’s inquiry is completely resolved and whether the hotel is capturing the commercial opportunity from the booking request” – explains Romy Abbrederis, Co-Founder and CEO of Lobby. “It seems like hotel reservations are solving transactions but not maximizing value.”
As discussions around AI, distribution strategies, and guest experience continue to shape the hospitality industry, Lobby’s findings reveal why a clear understanding of the journey from booking request to confirmed reservation is critical for hotels.
“We encourage hotel staff, from team leaders to commercial teams, revenue executives and technology decisionmakers, to look beyond traditional KPIs and check the quality of their reservation journeys” – says Romy Abbrederis. “As our industry gets ready for an increasingly data-driven future, the industry’s next competitive advantage will not be only a matter of responding faster, but also of understanding what opportunities were missed along the way”.
Lobby is announcing these findings ahead of the Web in Travel (WiT) conference which will bring together travel technology leaders, builders and thinkers in Singapore from September 30th to October 2nd.
After winning the Startup competition at PhocusWright Europe in Barcelona in June, Lobby will compete for the People’s Choice Award in the Seedup level at the WiT on September 30th.
