According to the company, mobile is becoming increasingly important for hospitality businesses as a growing number of travelers use mobile devices to plan and book their trips. More consumers are turning to their smartphones to plan and book trips, therefore it is necessary to have a mobile presences to further build that consumer relationship.

“The fact that 84 percent of U.S. accommodations believe it is important to offer a program that allows travelers to book their properties using mobile devices is not surprising when you consider that 60 percent of travelers say they have downloaded travel apps on their mobile devices, and 38 percent have used mobile devices to plan a trip,” said Kevin Carter, spokesman for TripAdvisor.

“Another key finding according to lodging owner survey respondents is that TripAdvisor is the most effective social media site for marketing their properties, followed by Facebook and Twitter,” he said. “

TripAdvisor is a travel site, enabling travelers to plan and have the perfect trip.

Mobile survey
TripAdvisor’s Accommodation Owners Survey surveyed U.S. hoteliers, B&B owners and innkeepers.

Owners cited online marketing (63 percent), social media (39 percent), mobile (27 percent) and email marketing (22 percent) and paid listings (17 percent) as the top areas in which they would prefer to increase spending.

In addition to the 84 percent of respondents who said that it is important to offer a program that lets travelers book via the mobile devices, the results varied by property type.

Ninety-two percent of hotel owners, 77 percent of B&B owners and 77 percent of innkeepers said a mobile marketing program is important.

“It is encouraging to see that, despite the current economic climate, the majority of survey respondents indicated that their marketing budgets are stable or growing,” Mr. Carter said.

Mobile travels
It is not surprising that consumers are booking their travels via their mobile devices.

Hotels and other accommodation companies are looking to make bookings easier and efficient and are rolling out mobile sites and applications to provide convenience to on-the-go travelers.

“The growth of mobile is impressive,” Mr. Carter said. “At the moment, we are seeing early adopters use mobile devices for travel planning, and we are expecting to see broader adoption of mobile devices for this purpose over time.

“We are also seeing rapid tablet usage and expect this to continue,” he said.