Lastminute revs up to win in the race for late bookings

Travel firms that fail to embrace the increasing spontaneity of the customer will stuggle, according to lastminute.com.

Travel firms that fail to embrace the increasing spontaneity of the customer will stuggle, according to lastminute.com.

Mark Maddock, the online travel agency’s managing director, said late bookings made on the spur of the moment is a growing trend in the sector.

He was speaking to Travolution as lastminute.com unveiled its latest cross-channel advertising campaign which debuted last night on ITV2, straplined ‘Love Living Lastminute’.

It stresses the increasing ‘lastminuteness’ of today’s travel market and, the firm believes, ensures it will benefit from this trend due to its widely recognised brand positioning.

Maddock said: “We believe it’s the perfect place to be. Everyone has to try to be in this space, that’s the way consumer behaviour is leading us.

“We have the advantage because the brand itself speaks to that lastminuteness and we have strong customer relationships, but it’s also key to have good quality offers.

Maddock accepted that traditionally travel firms prefer to see the booking window expanded, but that more cautious consumers were holding off committing. 

“Most businesses would say they would take a booking when it’s appropriate and to take it as soon as that person wants to make it.

“The days when the majority of people go down to their local travel agent in January to book their summer holiday or wait for second edition brochures is turning on its head.
 
“People can see the value of waiting. Because of the economy people are holding back their spending, they do not want to commit too early.”

Maddock said it was vital to make sure that firms in this late booking market had technology that made it as easy as possible for customers to book quickly and efficiently.

This is particularly true on mobile, a key area of focus for lastminute.com which has been working on improving its technology in this area.

Maddock said the firm has seen a 400% year-on-year growth in mobile activity on its website and 50% of hotel bookings are now for the same day.

Underlining this trend, lastminute.com cited research which showed that customers planning a getaway at Easter were 54% more likely to book travel for the next day.

Although now 15 years old and in a highly competitive market, Maddock claimed surveys have found brand awareness of lastminute.com remains high at 94%.

The same independent survey in December last year also found that 62% of respondents said they would go to lastminute.com first for a late or spontaneous purchase.

“We are working hard both on our mobile platform and main site to make sure that speed of booking is the essence.

“We have been minimising the clicks, we are making sure we have reduced the search phase.

“We have done a lot of work on our servers and our infrastructure to de-clutter a lot of messaging to make sure the focus is on the last minute window.

“People know what fast is. Any site that cannot accommodate that kind of speed is not going to be winning in this game.”

The new campaign is fully integrated with a social media element to engage customers directly and on and offline activity.

It will feature lastminute.com’s sub-brand Top Secret Hotels, offering opaque late offers and also focus on city breaks.

There is also a price match guarantee under which lasminute.com will refund the difference if a customer finds a hotel cheaper on any other UK site within 24 hours.   

The campaign builds on recent moves by lastminute.com to get back to the essence of what the brand was originally about.

Sarah Bartlett, chief marketing officer, who joined lastminute.com in June last year, said: “I wanted to stay true to the core of the lastminute.com brand with this campaign.

“We’ve focused on the brand’s strong last minute identity and listened to what our customers want, simply delivering on a promise of great quality and great value products at the last minute.

“At a time when spontaneous travel is more relevant than ever, it is a clear opportunity to affirm our position as the leader of the last minute space and our customer insight and marketing strategy has been the catalyst for a single-minded refocus of the brand.”