EasyJethotels mounts online hotel challenge

Travelodge UK, InterContinental Hotels Group and Premier Travel Inn are the most visited hotel websites for the past 18 months

Internet visits to these three hotel sites seems to be consolidating with the three most visited sites, the online competitive intelligence company says.

“Compared with August 2004, Travelodge, InterContinental and Premier Travel Inn are attracting a larger share of visits to hotel websites” said Hitwise UK.

Research director Heather Hopkins said: “Share of visits to these websites increased by 4% year on year in August 2005 and these three websites now account for more than half of visits to the top 20 hotel websites.”

While the three hotel websites gained market share, many others lost to the new entrant easyJethotels, according to Hitwise.

Newcomer EasyJethotels enjoyed a strong entry into the market, supported by the brand of its parent company easyGroup and quickly jumped to the Number 6 position among the 19 hotels in the Hotels custom category. The site moved up to the 4th place in August.

Hitwise said: “Interestingly, this website for the bargain hotel appeals to some of the wealthiest segments of the UK population. The Mosaic Groups Symbols of Success, Happy Families and Suburban Comfort are among the most likely to visit the easyJethotels website in the four weeks ending September 17.”

EasyJethotels receives 92% of its traffic from easyJet, underscoring the importance of the parent company to the site’s immediate success.

“Visitors spend an average 9 minutes and 27 seconds on the site, nearly three minutes longer than the average session time for the top 10 hotel websites. This extra time may be spent gawking at pictures of the windowless orange rooms available at bargain prices,” the Hitwise report said.

Hotels are extremely reliant on searches for their own brand for visits so that the most searched for hotels also have the most visited websites, Hitwise added

“The most visited hotel website also enjoys the strongest online brand presence. In the four weeks ending September 3, the most searched for hotel brand was Travelodge UK,” the report said. “The search terms ‘travelodge’ and ‘travel lodge’ held the top two spots for the most searched for hotel brand names. This indicates that Travelodge UK has the strongest online brand presence.”

The next most searched for hotel brands were also the next ranked hotel websites. Searches for ‘holiday inn’, a brand that is part of the InterContinental Hotels Group, and ‘travel inn’ were the third and fourth most searched for hotel brands, reinforcing the link between brand strength and share of website visits.

Hitwise added that searches for locations offer a “ripe opportunity” to hotel marketers to break out of the dependence on brand searches.

Report by Phil Davies