BELLEVUE, WA—Last-minute bookings have always been a stock-in-trade for Expedia and other online travel agencies, given the immediacy of the Internet as a booking technology. “They’re part of the flexibility we can offer consumers and our hotel partners,” explained Melissa Maher, vp of global strategic accounts and industry relations for Expedia Inc.
Given the continuing uncertainty in the economy, last-minute bookings have grown in popularity as consumers, wary of making an even intermediate term commitment, delay making travel decisions. Many such decisions are, in effect, impulse buys. A bad spate of winter weather, for example, can drive consumers to book a tropical island weekend getaway.
Trying to maximize the number of last-minute bookings it attracts, Expedia.com last month introduced what it described as hotel flash sales. It called the specific promotion “ASAP,” an acronym for “A Sudden Amazing Price.” Each day for 15 days, consumers had access to one exclusive hotel deal. Savings of up to 50% off Expedia’s everyday rates were possible. To create a further sense of urgency among consumers who might be wavering, the daily ASAP deal could only be booked for a 12-hour period, beginning at 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Sample deals include 50% off a resort and spa in Orlando, FL, two miles from Disney World and 50% off an all-inclusive resort and spa in Cancun, Mexico.
In Internet marketing, both for OTAs as well as the hotel brands themselves, innovative—or at least novel—promotions have become more of a necessity, considering the amount of competing offers available to consumers on the Web. Increasingly, only the most outsize offers can cut through the clutter and gain traction.
“We pride ourselves on our site being the best place to book travel and handpicked the properties from Expedia travelers’ most popular destinations for these ASAP sales,” explained Tim McDonald, senior vp and general manager of Expedia.com.
As if the price discount wasn’t seductive enough, McDonald and his team made the ASAP deals more appealing by doing away with minimum or maximum length of stay requirements. Length of stay requirements often are in place, but not advertised up-front, in travel promotions, and can throw a wrench in consumers’ budgets and schedules.
While consumers had only 12 hours to decide whether or not to opt for an ASAP deal—and had no knowledge of what the following day’s offer would be—they were given up to 90 days from the day of the offer to actually stay at the hotel. “Given the 90-day travel window, consumers could book a Valentine’s Day getaway or a trip to see a pro or college sports game as late as mid-March,” noted Jon Guljord, Expedia.com senior director of product marketing. —Bruce Serlen