Global online travel sales are estimated to reach £612 billion by 2018. Mobile bookings alone will account for 35% of the total volume- that is £214 billion in revenue. The opportunities for the hospitality industry to innovate and capture audience is immense. And understanding how today’s travellers interact and make purchase decisions has never been more important for hotel brands. Monitise Create, a London-based mobile and innovation studio, have put together a report to understand the current mobile offerings from a selection of top hotel brands with presence in the UK and benchmarked them against 100 different criteria. ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEW TRAVEL REALITY? Speak to the experts from Monitise Create and find out how you can give customers the inventive and exciting mobile experience they now demand. Whether it’s revitalising your mobile strategy, analysing your current app performance against your competitors or building a future roadmap, we can move your business ahead of the digital curve. SIGN UP FOR A WORKSHOP: Email: hello@monitisecreate.com Web: www.monitisecreate.com

1. BENCHMARKING HOTEL APPS
Summary report
December 2015

2. CONTENTS
THE MOBILE REALITY
Mobile shouldn’t be thought of as a device, but as a lifestyle.
Mobile is a powerful driver of changes in customer behaviour,
creating constant demand for new solutions.
MAKING THE GRADE
Hotel guests are no longer satisfied with the basic
functionality provided on mobile. How can hotel brands
transform this challenge into an opportunity?
HOTEL APP BENCHMARKING
Which brands are leading the charge in digital innovation, and
which are lagging behind? What does it take to deliver an
outstanding hotel app?
ABOUT MONITISE CREATE
Monitise Create are mobile leaders who specialise in helping
brands face the challenges of digital disruption. We support
the hotel industry to meet the raised demands of today’s
mobile travellers.

3. Understanding consumer behaviour has never been more important for
hotel brands. Today’s travellers interact and make purchase decisions
across multiple touch points, both offline and online, and their
expectations have never been higher.
Global online travel sales are estimated to reach £612 billion by 2018*,
with mobile bookings expected to account for 35%. That means £214
billion in mobile revenue is up for grabs.
Meanwhile, we’re seeing immense potential within the hotel industry to
capitalise on emerging consumer trends, with a lot of this potential not
being realised. This is the starting point of our benchmarking report.
This report examines the current mobile offerings of a selection of top
hotel brands with a presence in the UK. Our special interest is in the
state of functionality offered, the overall user experience, and
identifying opportunities for growth and innovation.
Brands who pursue seamless digital experience will be best placed to
succeed in today’s mobile-first marketplace. We aim to help arm hotel
brands with the tools to attract, engage and retain customers through
the most effective and personal device we have ever owned.
We invite you to be part of this journey.
HOTEL NEWS NOW
MOBILE IS NOT A
TREND,
BUT A REALITY.
““
””
INTRODUCTION
*Source: Euromonitor

4. The mobile reality
With more than 7 billion mobile subscriptions on the planet, the opportunities for the hotel
industry to innovate and capture audiences is immense. When it comes to making travel
purchases, more than two-thirds of US and UK travel audiences use their mobile devices to
make hotel reservations, while nearly half of them make flight reservations on the go.
Statistic source: comScore; Expedia Media Solution Report 2015

5. of millennials have booked trips
using their smartphones
one out of every 4 dollars
generated in the online travel
industry originates from a
mobile device
$$$$
From research, to booking, to travel, today’s travellers rely
heavily on their mobile devices to organise almost every aspect
of their trip. They will use it to find local restaurants, for advice
on sights and activities, to navigate, to review and to converse.
Travellers are always connected and constantly looking for the
services that will simplify and enhance their experience.
Consumption of travel content
continues to rise
When accessing travel content, today’s audiences expect a
seamless integration across different mobile devices from
smartphones and tablets to wearables.
Currently, there is an active travel audience of 29 million in the
UK who use mobile devices to access content every month. 70%
accessed content via smartphone only and 14% via both
smartphone and tablet.
Mobile booking is a basic customer
expectation
Mobile booking now represents nearly 25% of online travel
bookings. This means one out of every 4 dollars generated in the
online travel industry originates from a mobile device.
A poor mobile booking experience forces travellers to go
elsewhere, and results in the loss of commission-free, direct
revenue for your business.
29 MILLION
UK audience, which looks for travel
content on mobile each month. Of
those:
access travel content only
via their smartphones70%
Statistic source: comScore; Expedia Media Solution Report 2015
50%
THE IMPORTANCE OF MOBILE
CONTENT AND MOBILE BOOKING

6. Today’s travellers are savvier than ever with how they use smartphones and
tablets for travel content and booking. Mobile sites and apps are heavily
relied upon to complete travel tasks; from planning, comparing prices and
booking to confirming details.
As the first touch points for quick searches and price comparison, mobile
sites are critical to a comprehensive digital strategy. However, mobile apps
are proven to drive higher engagement and repeat custom. On average,
travellers will spend nearly 4 times more time in a travel app than on a
mobile travel site.
For brands that want to increase customer loyalty, mobile apps could be
the ‘key’ branded asset. Given the real-time, location-based data and user
behavioural insights available, mobile apps represent the ideal platform for
brands to foster valuable long-term relationships with their customers.
Source: comScores Travel Decision report; Mobile Consumer Behaviours Report 2015
of leisure travellers have
downloaded and used a travel-
related smartphone app
of leisure travellers have
encountered a travel site that
was not mobile friendly,
resulting in a negative
perception of the brand
of US and UK smartphone users
who booked via mobile app
would do so again
1 IN 2
UK travellers booked
air/hotel travel via a mobile
app in 2014
App
Browser
30.1
8.6
21.3
13.1
Minutes Per Visitor
78%
75%
83%
MOBILE APPS DRIVE LOYALTY

7. Making the grade
Mobile is now being used by almost every hotel guest throughout their travel journey.
Use of different mobile devices across all travel stages is rapidly becoming the norm.
Whether on smartphone, tablet or wearable, today’s mobile travellers expect not just
a mobile-basic, but a mobile-optimised, personalised and seamless experience. How
are hotel brands meeting these expectations?

8. Out of 100 travel apps topping the App Store
charts, only 4 are brand-specific hotel apps. The
highest ranking, Hilton, is listed in 63rd place.
Airline apps are faring significantly better in this
space; Easyjet, British Airways and Ryanair are all
ranked in the Top 12, demonstrating that
consumers are valuing the two industries very
differently for their mobile offerings.
In recent years airlines and hotels have faced
similar pressures from online travel agents (OTAs),
with both seeing their margins and their control
over customer experience compromised.
Predictably OTAs dominate this list, totalling 19
out of the 100 and including giants like
Tripadvisor, Expedia and Booking.com.
As digitally led enterprises, OTAs tend to offer
richer feature sets and faster innovation than their
more traditional counterparts. But airlines have
claimed a powerful stake in this space despite
facing similar disruptive challenges to hotels.
TOP 100 TRAVEL APPS IN THE APP STORE
#63
#68
#81
#93
4 apps
HOTELSRankings as of 7 December 2015
#38
#67
#74
#98
#99
#11
#10
#7
#45
AIRLINES
9 apps
#3
#6
#14
#15
#16
#20
#29
#35
#41
#46
# +60
19 apps
OTAs

9. A CUSTOMER’S BEST
EXPERIENCE WITHIN ONE
INDUSTRY HAS BECOME
THEIR MINIMUM EXPECTATION
WITHIN ANOTHER
Digital brands are raising consumer expectations across the board,
meaning brands have to work harder than ever to achieve customer
satisfaction. Airline brands have responded to new competition by
introducing added value features for their customers. User-friendly
innovations include boarding pass scanning, mobile check-in, digital
loyalty schemes and flight reminders being sent to smartwatches.
The hotel industry already has an engaged audience; 83% of
travellers use their smartphones to access hotel content. However,
more than 50% of consumers reported frustration, after
downloading a hotel app that offered no functional advantages over
the business’ mobile website. Hotels need to consider what value
their mobile applications can offer above and beyond their digital
competitors.

10. To wrestle control from OTAs,
hotels need to create a compelling
digital customer experience that
cannot be replicated.

11. Hotel app benchmarking
Our hotel application benchmarking exercise was created to test the extent to which
hotels are creating a unique and compelling experience on mobile.
Although mobile sites and brand apps have become commonplace in consumer-
facing industries, parts of the hotel industry are lagging behind. Within the top 70
hotel brands in the US and Europe, only half have their own branded mobile app and
less than a quarter have an optimised mobile site.

12. THE HOTELS BENCHMARKED
To interrogate the extent to which hotels are creating
compelling user experiences on mobile, we selected twelve
hotel brands to examine in detail across over 100 data
points to formulate the comparative score. The selection
was identified using the following criteria:
Scale
Brands with a high enough profile that a consumer
expectation for mobile products would exist. An active
presence in the UK with at least 40 hotels globally or in the
UK, and good unprompted awareness.
Mobile Presence
Brands with a currently available mobile application on at
least one platform.
Demographic range
Brands which represent a broad range of consumer
segments, for the selection to show a reliable cross section
of the industry.

13. THE KEY CRITERIA
Discoverability
Discoverability is a measure of how
accessible an application is through
search engine optimisation, smart app
banners, website promotion and most
importantly platform support across iOS,
Android, Windows Phone and wearables.
Consistency
Consistency of branding across channels
creates familiarity and a more seamless
experience, which directly contributes to
increased user engagement. Consistency
was measured by comparing the
branding across different channels.
Brand Emotion
Every brand carries associations and
expectations for a consumer, and
matching these to the brand experience
is important to avoid losing brand equity.
Brand emotion was analysed
by assessing how well the application
delivers on the brand’s promise
and essence.

14. Functionality
Compelling functionality drives users to download and use
applications, so has an important role to play. In this context
we’ve defined ‘compelling functionality’ as features which create
experiences and answer use cases that OTAs cannot. We
conducted interviews with hotel app users from various
backgrounds, and used these to identify 50 use cases. The
ability of each application to complete these use cases was then
analysed, with scoring adjusted to reflect the value of the
functionality to users.
THE KEY CRITERIA
Usability
Functionality is of little value to a user if they cannot complete
tasks with ease. Inadequate usability causes frustration and is a
primary cause of users abandoning tasks and uninstalling
applications. Usability was scored against a number of factors
which influence the ability to complete a user journey. These
included the number of steps required, clarity of information
architecture, conformation with mobile design guidelines and
the clarity of in-app instructions.

15. THE KEY CRITERIA
Security
Any application that handles sensitive customer data or
payment information has a responsibility to protect its
customers through use of industry standard security practices.
Applications were assessed on how well they were protected
against malicious users intercepting sensitive data whilst being
transmitted, protection against extracting sensitive data held on
a customer’s mobile device, and protection from being
installed / modified on jailbroken devices.
Quality
Quality is the ability for an application to perform reliably and
consistently. A poorly engineered application will result in
a user experiencing defects, preventing them from completing
tasks or in some cases being able to open an application. As
with usability, a poorly constructed application will cause user
frustration and discourage users from returning to it. Quality was
measured by the number and severity of defects that our quality
analysts were able to produce through rigorous testing.

16. Discoverability
20%
How easy is it for users to find and
download the application?
Functionality
How well does the functionality answer
identified customer needs?
Usability
How fast and easy is the app is to
understand and use?
Consistency
Does the app deliver a consistent
brand experience across platforms?
Security
How safely does the app run
on a jailbroken device or when
encountering malware?
Quality
How reliable and stable is the
application’s performance?
Brand Emotion
Does the application delight it’s users?
20%20%
15%
15%
5%
5%
THE KEY CRITERIA

17. 79
1 HILTON Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
Hilton HHonors' application is the clear industry leader,
outperforming all other products reviewed. Features like
digital room keys and the ability to choose a room from
the hotel floor plan make Hilton a leader in innovation.
Despite the quality of the application, there is
opportunity for Hilton to promote it more widely,
through simple wins like smart app banners.
Security

18. 77
2 MARRIOTT Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
Marriott’s digital concierge offerings placed it second in
our report, with features facilitating pre-stay requests
and conversation with hotel staff during a stay. They also
stood out for their creative use of push notifications. In
the scope of its functionality Marriott could offer
customers more control, some of its main competitors
score higher for ease of use.

19. Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
72
3 IHG
IHG delivers excellent consumer-focused loyalty
functionality, even allowing users to spend their loyalty
points on merchandise. The app would benefit from
some of the more forward thinking functionality offered
by other brands, features like digital room keys,
integration into hotel facilities and refined search.

20. Functionality
Consistency
DiscoverabilitySecurity
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
70
4 ACCOR GROUP
Account management, booking management and
advanced search functionality are Accor’s areas of
strength. The app scored respectably in most other
areas, but would benefit from some experience or
functional innovation. Accor’s score was the weakest of
the larger brands on security.

21. Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
68
5 STARWOOD
A visually attractive and informative application, with
some stand out functionality including digital keys and
Uber integration. The unusual design presented some
navigational challenges. Amendments to the interface
could yield big returns for user experience.

22. 60
6 MELIA
Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
Melia scored highly on brand emotion, with excellent use
of imagery and visual effects. It had the weakest
discoverability level overall, due to limited promotion
and channel support. The functionality score reflects a
lack of features tailored towards users during their stay.
The introduction of these would be a valuable addition.

23. 55
7 W HOTELS Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
W Hotels is the most unique of all the applications
examined for this report. Targeted at a youth audience, it
offers novel functionality such as music streaming. Room
booking is the only typical hotel app functionality on
offer. It doesn’t address the more basic user needs
however, and inclusion of standard features would be
useful to its customer base.

24. 53
8 MOTEL ONE
Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
Motel One is a well thought-out application, which
scored highly on usability. The primary detractor was
the scope of functionality, Harnessing the native
capabilities of the mobile device would greatly benefit
user experience.

25. 52
9 RADISSON GRP
Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
Radisson's application, Radisson Blu, boasts some
advanced functionality, however, there is low hanging
fruit around streamlining design and execution. The
opportunity for Blu is to present greater consistency
across iOS and Android, especially the latter.

26. 51
10 JURYS INN Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
Jurys Inn’s app has not taken advantage of the modern
design principles applied by other brands in this report.
As a result, a contemporary app risks looking slightly
dated. The functionality is basic, especially compared
with competing OTA products. Jurys Inn should
consider how it can add value and differentiate itself
over these competitors.

27. 50
11 BEST WESTERN
Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
The quality and usability of this app are limited by
the fact it operates in many places within a browser
frame. This does have benefits for its security score
however. The app also offers unique functionality in
the form of showing flight departures and arrivals
for the local airport.

28. 48
12 TRAVELODGE
Functionality
Consistency
Discoverability
Security
UsabilityQuality
Brand emotion
When downloading an app from a chain of Travelodge's
size consumers expectations are already raised.
Travelodge’s app operates largely within a mobile site,
which means it cannot deliver the level of sophistication
its customers are accustomed to from their experience
interacting with other high profile brands on mobile.

29. CREATE THE FUTURE
“TRAVELLERS ARE NOW EXPECTING MORE VALUE AND
ENRICHED EXPERIENCE FROM THEIR TRAVEL JOURNEYS”
- FUTURE OF WORK
The spectrum of approaches to mobile across our selection of top hotel brands is
wide. Whilst leaders in the industry are playing to their strengths in booking,
loyalty, in-room and concierge services, it’s clear that a number of players aren’t
delivering applications worthy of their brands.
But looking within the industry is no longer enough. A typical iPhone user has 26.8
apps, and their experience expectations are high. Hotels are not just competing
against each other and OTAs, they’re competing against every brand and startup in
the app store.
With such a relentless pace of change in the world of mobile technology,
companies are made and unmade at an alarming rate. But rather than see this as a
threat, established brands should see this as an opportunity.
“DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CHANGE
ALL ASPECTS OF THE TRAVELLER’S JOURNEY”
- PWC
Digital disruption means that there are many uncertainties ahead for every
established industry. The one thing we can be sure of, however, is that brands who
focus on innovative mobile offerings and seamless digital experiences will be best
placed to succeed in today’s mobile-first marketplace. After all, the best way to
predict the future is to create it.
Average61
79
77
727068
6055
5352
515048

30. Our way of working
Monitise Create can help your brand navigate the fast-changing technology landscape. We
create innovative mobile offerings and seamless customer experiences, helping you succeed
in today’s mobile-first marketplace.

31. ABOUT MONITISE CREATE
Monitise Create is a mobile innovation and
engineering studio based in the heart of Soho.
A collaborative team of 160 futurologists, we have extensive
experience of working with the world’s biggest and best brands to
help them re-define the way their customers engage with them.
We balance expertise in strategic thinking and effective design that
drives material business gains, and an almost unparalleled foundation
in building hundreds of consumer-facing, transactional apps for all
platforms since our foundation as a company in 2010.
We have driven more than £40 million in additional annual revenue
for Premier Inn and quadrupled the industry average booking
conversion rate through mobile. We also defined and launched a UK
first digital hotel proposition, hub by Premier Inn, which has been
running at 65% operating cost and 96% occupancy since launch.
Most Made
For Mobile
2015
Most effective
Mobile-first Service
2015
Mobile Utilities
& Services
2015
Our latest awards for Hub by Premier Inn

32. Brand Emotion
Business needs
Customer needs
Experience
Brand values
Products
& Services
Creating an experience that is loyal to
your brand and its values is at the heart
of everything we do at Monitise Create.
We immerse ourselves in every aspect of your
brand - values, experience, products and services -
in order to understand your business needs and the
needs of your customers.
OUR WAY OF WORKING

33. Functionality Usability Discoverability
Business
TechnologyCustomer
Pipe
dream
Gimmick
Irrelevant
We make products that balance business
requirements, customer needs and
feasibility. To ensure this works, every
project is a collaboration between a leading
team of Business Strategists, Experience
Designers and Creative Technologists.
We’re focused on ensuring every
touchpoint we create is as user-friendly
as possible. To do this, we spend time
getting inside the minds of target users
with a variety of research techniques.
Before you are ready to go live, our
strategists will work with you to define a
successful adoption strategy, whether your
ambition is to migrate existing customers
to a new channel or to acquire new ones.
Business Customers
Channels
OUR WAY OF WORKING
Typical activities include:
• Business modelling
• Stakeholder engagement
• Experience mapping
• Trend analysis
• Data analysis
Typical activities include:
• Focus groups
• Audience research
• User testing
Typical activities include:
• SEO
• App store optimisation
• Keyword analysis
• Release scheduling

34. Consistency Security Quality
To ensure consistency throughout our
work, we take care to translate your brand
values and emotion into assets and
principles that benefit an overall customer
journey.
We work with you to create a coherent,
long-term vision for everything we do and
plan releases accordingly. This ensures a
consistent level of quality for every stage
from Minimum Viable Product onwards.
Typical activities include:
• Service blueprint
• Style guidelines
• Experience principles
Typical activities include:
• Mutually Authenticated SSL
• Jailbreak detection library
• OS beta access
Typical activities include:
• Roadmap development
• Quality Assurance (QA) testing
We ensure that your data and source code
remain secure at all times, whilst ensuring
compatibility with the latest releases of
major operating systems.
MVP
Service blueprint
Original connection
Vision
OUR WAY OF WORKING

35. Sign up for a workshop:
Email: hello@monitisecreate.com
www.monitisecreate.com
Speak to the experts from Monitise Create and find out how you can give
customers the inventive and exciting mobile experience they now demand.
Whether it’s revitalising your mobile strategy, analysing your current app
performance against your competitors or building a future roadmap, we
can move your business ahead of the digital curve.
Are you ready for
the new travel reality?