The new research from Hotels.com reveals that North American millennial travellers are experiencing what it describes as "net lag, a.k.a. scroll fatigue" from never-ending research when booking a holidays. Businesses across the travel, aviation and tourism sectors are working to adapt to the needs of the powerful millennial market and the findings suggest the industry still has a long way to go to please this demanding sector.
The struggle to book the perfect trip is real for millennials, according to the company and is having a big impact on both working and home life. Travellers are being less productive at work while researching holidays and more than one in eight travellers are spending 15+ hours researching before they book. Interestingly, it claims that one in three (33%) travellers has even booked the wrong holiday or dates because the research became just too much.
According to Hotels.com's research, all it takes is 40 minutes for the scroll fatigue to set in. The man hours required have resulted in more than half (51%) travelling somewhere they've been to before to avoid the research. Two in every five travellers (40%) believe they pay more than they need in order to avoid the research, and over a third (38%) would even consider passing the task on to a friend, with the average person happy to pay USD134 to remove the pressure of the task.
Back to the impact millennial travel booking is having on work life, more than four in ten (46%) admit to secretly scrolling in the office, with almost a third (30%) saying they get less work done during the hunt for a holiday. This isn't very surprising when the data highlights that around one in five (22%) millennials study more than eleven travel options before making a decision.
With Hotels.com using these insights to promote hotel awards that are based on guest reviews, it is no surprise to learn it says that over nine in every ten millennial travellers (91%) rely on reviews to help the decision-making process and vote it the most important tool to transition from looking to booking.
Hotels.com's 2019 Loved by Guests awards recognises 59,000 properties globally and more than 22,000 winners in North America across 12 categories. The properties are ranked across a range of categories, comprising… most wanted, family, business, luxury, boutique, beach, pet-friendly, spa, homes and apartments, ski, LGBT, all-inclusive and sustainable.
Across North America, Houston is home to the most award winning hotels (13), ahead of New York, Chicago, Quebec City and Savannah, which are also home to more than ten hotels ranked in the awards.