Background and challenge

Picture this: a guest has visited your website, chosen an accommodation, selected a holiday period, and even made it through the booking funnel. And then… nothing. The booking is not completed. This is a situation we recognise across many of our clients in the travel and leisure industry. International research by SaleCycle shows that on average, over 80% of visitors leave the booking funnel without converting. These are potential guests who already showed concrete interest, but drop off for a variety of reasons. Maybe they were still hesitating, wanted to check with their partner first, or simply got distracted. The question is: how do you convince this potential guest to still complete their booking?

The solution: an automated abandoned booking campaign

The abandoned booking campaign is an automated email campaign that is triggered the moment someone leaves the booking funnel without completing a reservation. The website sends the data from the abandoned reservation through to the email software. Through the integration with the reservation system via Wander Connect, the system knows exactly who has already booked and who has not.

The result: a personal, relevant reminder that lands in the inbox at exactly the right moment.

The success factors of this campaign:

  • Make it personal: The strength of this campaign lies in relevance. The email can refer specifically to the accommodation the guest viewed: the name, the atmosphere, or the location. This feels completely different from a generic reminder. Through Wander Connect, booking data can be linked directly to the email flow, so the mail is dynamically populated with exactly what the guest tried to book.
  • Take your audience into account: Look at your own booking data to see what type of guests you have and when they book. Families typically plan earlier than couples, since they are often dependent on school holidays. Play into urgency and scarcity in the email where applicable, such as limited availability during school holidays. Seniors research online but still regularly call to make a reservation. Include a clear phone number in the email for this reason. Segment where possible and tailor the tone accordingly.
  • Timing and send moment: allow room for the the decision-making process: This is perhaps the most underestimated factor of all. An abandoned booking email for a holiday is fundamentally different from an abandoned shopping cart for a pair of trainers. A holiday involves hundreds to thousands of euros, valuable free time, multiple decision-makers, and sometimes days of deliberation.


    Think about when your target audience has the time and space to discuss a holiday and make a decision. In general, we see higher conversion when sending in the evening rather than during the day, since for many people this is the moment when decisions are made together. This can, however, vary per audience and is excellent for A/B testing. In an A/B test, you compare two send moments and use the results to determine which variant works best for your target audience.

  • Prevent unnecessary questions to customer service: Make sure no email is sent to guests who already have an upcoming or recent booking. Someone who booked for the summer three weeks ago does not need a reminder for the accommodation they briefly viewed yesterday. This not only prevents irritation, but also unnecessary confusion and questions to customer service or reception.

The results: why you want this campaign live as soon as possible

If you do not yet have an abandoned booking campaign running, you are seriously leaving money on the table. An abandoned booking funnel email reaches someone who was already actively booking, and that context makes all the difference. We see conversion rates of up to 55%. That means that out of 1,000 emails sent, as many as 550 result in a completed booking. The click-through rate (CTR), the number of people who click through after opening the email (CTO), and the conversion rate are structurally higher than with regular email campaigns.

Important to know: seasonality plays a major role in the travel and leisure industry. Results therefore vary considerably depending on the time of year. January is the strongest month: it is the traditional early-booking period, when guests already have holiday intent and are already well into their decision-making process.

What also stands out is that the German-speaking audience generally performs slightly better than the Dutch-speaking audience, with the exception of January, when the Dutch-speaking audience performs stronger instead. This shows that language and nationality influence the timing of bookings.

For an accurate picture of your campaign performance, compare the same month across multiple years.

With that context in mind, the results:

Increase

Click through rate
11-48%

Conversion rate
17 – 55%

In January, the early-booking period, conversion rates of 40% to 55% are within reach. In other months, the average is somewhat lower.

What does this mean in practice?

Say you have 80 unique visitors who do not complete the booking funnel in the month of January, with an average booking value of €500.

(80 × 40%) × €500 = €16,000 in additional revenue in January alone

On an annual basis (80 visitors × 12 months), at a conservative conversion rate of 20%:

(960 × 20%) × €500 = €96.000 additional revenue per year

Deep-dive case: what does extra personalisation yield?

Landgoed Ruwinkel takes the abandoned booking campaign one step further. The guest receives a personalised email in which the header image is dynamically filled with the specific accommodation they considered up to the point of booking. The email itself also shows the chosen arrival and departure dates, including the name of the accommodation.

The result: 44% more clicks and 50% more bookings compared to abandoned booking funnel emails without personalisation. Just small technical additions, with a significant impact on the result.

How do you set this up?

To set up this campaign, there are many factors to take into account. Which reservation system do you use? How is your data structured? What suits your target audience? We are happy to explore this together with you. Get in touch with us and we will look at the possibilities for your organisation.

Conclusion

The abandoned booking campaign is an effective way to remind potential guests of your organisation at the moment they already showed concrete interest. The results are strongly influenced by season and target audience, but the principle works: a personal, well-timed reminder gets people moving. Once set up, the campaign runs on its own. What you get back are guests you already knew, who had simply lost their way for a moment.

Want to know how an abandoned booking funnel campaign could work for your organisation? Get in touch with us!