The rate at which visitors to a website complete the predefined goal. It is calculated by dividing the number of goal achievements by the total number of visitors. For example, if 100 people visit a website and 10 of them complete the conversion goal (like filling out a contact form) then the conversion rate is 10%.
CONVERSION RATE FOR HOTELS
Probably the most asked question in website reporting and analytics is, “What is your conversion rate?”
There are several ways to look at conversion, the most common of which are search conversion, booking engine conversion, and website conversion. Each one tells you something different.
Search Conversion
This metric tells how effective your site is at driving people to the booking engine. How many visitors (sessions, users, unique visitors) who came to your website resulted in a booking engine search?
- To calculate, divide the number of booking engine searches by sessions (30,000 searches /100,000 sessions = 30% search conversion rate). Booking Engine Conversion
This metric tells you how effective the booking engine is at converting. How many of those who searched on the booking engine actually booked?
- To calculate, divide the number of bookings by searches in the booking engine (1,500 bookings/30,000 searches = 5% booking engine conversion rate). Website Conversion
This gives you a big picture of how well your website converts visitors to bookers. How many website visitors (visits, sessions, users, unique visitors) booked?
- To calculate, divide the number of bookings by sessions (1,500 bookings/100,000 sessions = 1.5% website conversion rate).
When comparing conversion rates with other people, companies, or sites, be sure the conversion is calculated the same. For example, make sure you aren’t comparing Booking Engine Conversion to Website Conversion. Or, make sure both calculations use the same divisor (like sessions, not visits). Otherwise, the comparison will not be apples-to-apples.
A best practice is to set your own benchmark and work to improve upon it, as opposed to trying to compare to another’s. If you are part of a group or a brand with consistent and accurate benchmarks, you should be able to compare against your sister properties and the overall brand conversion numbers.
Source: HSMAI CHDM Study Guide
