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Orbitz on the natural pairing of last-minute and mobile

June 22, 2012 | Online Travel

Mobile counted for 9 percent of Orbitz's total hotel bookings in the first quarter 2012. Between 60 and 65 percent of those mobile hotel bookings were for the same day. For desktop browser same-day bookings, the number falls to 12 to 16 percent.

Orbitz is charting a new path for its mobile travel booking product. This week its first truly native iOS app went live in Apple’s App Store. The free app aims to make it much easier for leisure travelers to do trip research and book hotel, airfare and rental cars all within one app and without going to a mobile website.

It’s obvious why the company is focusing on its app: mobile is absolutely huge for travel now. Traditionally a product at home in the desktop browser, Orbitz has looked at the data - which it relies heavily on for decisions like these - and has been very encouraged by how its current customers have been moving toward mobile bookings.

Orbitz has seen dramatic growth with bookings via its mobile product: they’ve more than doubled, according to VP of Product Strategy Chris Brown. The company’s overall share of mobile is still quite low; just 9 percent of its hotel bookings, for example, were through its mobile channel in the first quarter of 2012. So there’s clearly a broad opportunity and the company has decided to more seriously pursue the mobile app angle.

Get the full story at GigaOM

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