There’s nothing that today’s traveler appreciates more than flexibility. Now more than ever, travelers are choosing to wait until the last minute to book their tours and activities. And they’re doing it on their mobile phones, sometimes before they board their flights or once they’ve arrived in their destination.
Reducing cutoff time led to 32% increase in last-minute bookings
So, how can you make this last-minute booking trend work for you? By lowering your booking cutoff time — the amount of time a traveler can book before an experience actually begins. Consider taking bookings right up until the start time of your experience.
You may have heard that we recently adjusted the default booking cutoff time for all experiences on Bókun to four hours. Why did we make this change? We analyzed buying trends and saw the demand for last-minute tours and activities was only increasing. We then looked at what was most realistic for our partners and determined that four hours was the booking cutoff time with the best increase in conversion rate with the least impact on suppliers’ business operations.
Within two weeks of making this change, we saw a 32% increase in last-minute bookings and a 6% increase in overall bookings for tours and activities that reduced their booking cutoff time to less than four hours.
A cutoff time of four hours or less gives you the ability to attract travelers who are shopping for last-minute activities. The shorter cutoff time you require, the more nimble your business becomes. Whether it’s peak season and you’re at your busiest, or it’s a time of uncertainty and bookings are in flux like today, a lower cutoff time gives you more potential for bookings.
To adjust booking cutoff time, log in to your Bókun account, select the Experience you want to change , then select Availability > Booking cutoff in the left-hand navigation. Need help adjusting multiple products? Contact us at support@bokun.io , and we can help.