Early in the week, we noticed an unusual spike in traffic in certain geographies in the southeast United States. Upon digging in, we found that the uptick in traffic was coming primarily from States in the path of Hurricane Matthew. We found that many users were searching for hotels further inland in their respective states.

While the spike did impact properties of all types in one way or another, we found that lower ADR hotels saw a 341% increase in click volume for hotels in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, while only seeing a 14% increase in all other US states.

Hoteliers often only focus on accommodating two user segments, Business and Travel. However, large-scale weather events like a Hurricane Matthew create a third: the displaced traveler. There are special considerations you can take as a supplier or OTA to decrease the friction in the booking process for an already stressful time for many users, while potentially increasing conversion rate:

• Utilize landing page to relay key information – whether there are booking restrictions, better cancellation options, or specific benefits to booking at the property, using real estate on the landing page to communicate this may help improve conversion rate

• Offer alternate ways to book or answer questions – users that are experiencing stress around inclement weather may not be able to efficiently find the information they need on their mobile device and may not have access to a desktop, so providing a support line may give them additional value

• Pay close attention to occupancy and booking metrics – hotels that are in an area affected by extreme weather may have spikes in walk-in business or bookings from other channels. Advertisers may want to confirm that their rate cache with various partners is proactively refreshed to ensure that users don’t land on invalid rates or error pages

• Prominently message booking restrictions such as maximum room occupancy, pet policy, number of rooms a single user can book, etc. Many users affected by the storm may be attempting to make accommodations for larger groups of friends, families, and pets

Advertisers right now also have to make a choice in their strategy: with this increased volume comes increased risks to performance. In the case of these lower ADR properties, we have tracked a substantial increase in booking volume which has come at the expense of lower conversion rates. At the very least, it’s a great time to dig into the performance for your properties in the path of the hurricane and adjust accordingly.