By Shantanu Jain

CONFIDENCE IN consumers to go for online hotel bookings is on the rise in India according to a report titled Understanding The Indian Hotel Buyer, compiled by Google India at The Oberoi, New Delhi. An estimated 84 lakh Indians are likely to book hotels on online by 2016. The report was based on face-to-face research by TNS after interviewing 3716 travelers who were active internet users and were aged between 18 and 54 years. The sample group came from Metros, Tier one and Tier two cities, and had booked hotel rooms in the last one year online.

The findings of the report projected the online hotel booking industry to be worth $1.8 Billion by 2016 from the current $0.8 Billion. While today, only 29 per cent of users book hotels online, the total number of users who research for hotels online but book offline remained high. Interestingly 83 per cent of people who research for hotels online perform an online transaction at least once a month that symbolises the growing trust factor among people to book monetary transactions online, according to the report.

In terms of consumer behavior, the report revealed that 57 per cent of users who research for hotels online but book offline, prefer relaxation trips and 36 per cent of users who research online and book hotels online prefer luxury leisure trips. Another key finding of the report suggested that more number of women (50 per cent) research and book hotels online compared to men (41 per cent).

Speaking on the report, Vikas Agnihotri, Industry Director, Google India said, ’The research findings reveal the high growth potential for online hotel bookings in India. While the overall user base of people looking for information on hotels online was very high, the conversion is still happening online.’

The report also highlighted the growing use of mobile phones as the preferred choice for accessing the internet in India. On Google, hotel searches from mobile saw 30 times growth from 2011-2014, The figures were validated in offline research as 27 per cent respondents agreed to be using mobile phones to search and book for hotels and over 56 per cent of the total users who book hotels online have a travel app installed.

The report also found a rise in short duration trips in India as 64 per cent of respondents preferring short trips of less than 5 days. Budget accommodation came across as the most popular choice for travelers with 49 per cent users booking budget hotels, 32 per cent economy hotels and 19 per cent users opting for luxury hotels.

Two-thirds of the travelers prefer paying offline or directly at hotels rather than making an online transaction. In terms of the barriers for booking hotels online, lack of safety and trust were the top deterrents and respondents cited low trust in online portals for monetary transactions. Complicated terms and conditions, availability of better discounts offline were a few other reasons given by respondents.

Shantanu Jain is Junior Correspondent, BW Hotelier.