3. THEY USE DEFAULT SETTINGS
Jakob Nielsen, a Web usability expert, coined the term "the power of defaults" to explain how people are likely to jump to default settings because they are the easiest choices to make, and keeping things easy is a vital feature of any online buying experience.
Just by "defaulting" one small step for your online visitors, including pre-populating number of rooms, number of nights, number of adults, and number of children, can drastically alter a customer's decision, explained writer Dan Ariely, in his Wired article entitle, "How Online Companies Get You To Share More and Spend More." People like to take the path of least resistance and by automatically defaulting to the most common choices in your hotel booking process, you'll be alleviating several of the fields in advance for customers, making it easier for them to complete the booking.
Read: 10 Things Successful Hotel Sales and Marketing Directors Do Everyday
4. THEY MAKE BOOKING SIMPLE AND PREDICTABLE
People want to be in control of the buying process and to be able to foresee how long it will take them. So, the key is to make the booking process easy and more digestible by just requiring a few steps. Also, show them a simple progress bar of the different pages they'll have to complete in order to book the room. This will remove any anxiety over the process while also encouraging them to complete the reservation.
5. Social Proof: 'EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT'
The phenomenon of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is real and more rampant than ever. In some way or another, we all have FOMO. Hoteliers can brilliantly tap into that sentiment and compel people to book by using some smart techniques. These include showing how many people have booked a stay within a recent span of time (5 people have booked a room within the last 12 hours) or by sharing how many of a specific rate or room type is still left in inventory (only 3 more Queen Suites available for these dates). This shows that other travelers have selected to stay at your hotel, validating their own decision to do so as well.