Analysis of searches in the hotel vertical for November has found no clear dominant advertiser on Google for paid, natural and integrated search.
Laterooms, booking.com and Lastminute star in Greenlight hotel search study
Analysis of searches in the hotel vertical for November has found no clear dominant advertiser on Google for paid, natural and integrated search.
Search specialist Greenlight estimates the month saw 1.5 million generic term searches relating to hotels with UK domestic searches the largest single category accounting for 36%.
Since July 2012 search volumes have evened off for the top four most searched terms (hotels, hotels in London, Paris hotels and New York hotels) having hit a low in March and a high last December.
The Greenlight analysis found for natural search listings Tui Travel-owned Laterooms was the most visible with 69% share of voice, while in paid search booking.com took top spot with 89%.
When paid and organic search data was combined Lastminute, which was second for natural search and third in paid came out on top.
In November the generic keyword ‘hotels’ was searched for 165,000 times, or 30% of the total. Laterooms achieved greatest reach for generic terms ranking in position one or 20 keywords.
The top three in generic term chart were intermediaries, Lastminute in second and hotels.com in third, while travelodge.com and premierinn.com took fourth and fifth positions.
Of the 568,000 domestic searches the terms ‘hotels in London’ and London hotels were the two most prevalent with 13% and 11% of search volume.
Laterooms and lastminute again took the two top slots reaching 88% and 79% of potential audience volume.
For searches based on destination the picture was different, with Expedia and TripAdvisor taking the top two positions for both long-haul and short-haul.
Greenlight’s analysis of paid search saw booking.com dominate, ranking at number one in all search categories.
The Priceline website achieved an 89% share of voice by bidding in 113 keywords at an average position of one on Google.
Behind it was Trivago which bid on just one less keyword but had an average position of 4 and a 78% share of voice.
Trivago trailed booking.com expect for in the short-haul destinations category where Google itself ranked second through bidding on 29 keywords with an average position of three.
An examination of the week starting Monday November 15 found a similar day to day bidding strategy from the leading websites in the hotel accommodation market.
Greenlight said “the majority of advertisers appeared to underestimate search behaviour on Monday and Tuesday.
Crowne Plaza, however, was seen to seriously overestimate search behaviour on the Tuesday.
In the integrated search table Laterooms, booking.com, Expedia and Trivago occupied the top five slots behind leader Lastminute, Trivago having achieved this almost purely through paid search.
Greenlight also analyses brand social media standing, Hilton coming out on top thanks to its 877,000 YouTube subscribers, 413,000 Facebook fans and 65,000 Twitter followers.
Trivago had by far the largest number of Facebook fans (1,2 million), while hotels.com had the most followers on Google+ (497,000).
After GoogleTripAdvisor had the most YouTube views (2.8 million) ahead of Expedia (1.24 million) and hotels.com (927,000).
To download Greenlight’s free reports go to www.gossip.greenlightdigital.com
