SINGAPORE, 2014-9-5 — /Travel PR News/ — Agoda.com, one of Asia’s leading hotel booking sites and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), has released the results of its latest Travel Smarts survey, which reveals that when it comes to choosing accommodation, business travelers spend the least amount of time comparing hotels before making their booking.
The survey, carried out in March 2014, asked 65,000 Agoda.com customers how important hotel reviews are to them, how many hotel reviews they generally read before they book, and if they would book at a hotel that had no reviews.
“Choosing a hotel is influenced heavily by word of mouth, so it’s not surprising that reviews from fellow travelers play a huge role in the decision process,” says Timothy Hughes, Agoda.com’s VP Marketing. “With over 7 million verified customer reviews to rely on, Agoda.com customers can get a great idea of what people just like them – or unlike them – think of the hotel they’re looking at.”
When it came to researching hotels, the majority of travelers,* over 63%, looked at ten or fewer properties before making their choice. Twenty-six percent looked at between 11 and 25, and just over 10% looked at 25 or more.
However, when it came to business travelers, 74% looked at 10 or fewer hotels before booking, a full 10% more than the average. Unsurprisingly, business travelers also placed the least importance on hotel reviews, with 43% saying that they did not play a significant part in determining their hotel choice, versus 38% for all other traveler types.
Japanese business travelers were the least likely to rely on reviews: a whopping 59% said reviews didn’t matter. This was followed by Australian (53%), French (51%), UK (46%), and American (39%) business travelers. The same demographic from the Philippines were on the opposite end of the spectrum – 80% said that reviews were important.
What was clear from the results is that customer reviews play a large part in helping most travelers determine which hotel they will be staying at. Though business travelers were the exception, the vast majority of non-business travelers – 77% – said that they would not book a hotel that did not have any reviews.
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