Survey highlights consumer-owned devices replacing in-room hotel entertainment; reveals opportunity for hotels to engage guests, increase Pay-Per-View purchasing
New York City – 12 July 2013 – According to a nationwide survey, 81 percent of travelers desire access to mobile video content at hotels, and 55 percent indicate the availability of mobile content influences their hotel or resort selection process. Additionally, over half of consumers bring tablets with them while traveling, up 18 percent from the same survey conducted last year. The new survey results underscore the need for the hospitality industry to advance guest engagement via consumers’ own mobile devices, and increase revenue by offering them on-demand entertainment access.
“The Bring-Your-Own-Device trend isn’t just impacting the workplace, it’s increasingly replacing in-room entertainment and seriously impacting the hospitality industry’s bottom line,” said Jim Mains, Senior Vice President of Products and Programs, Smith Micro. “Our survey revealed 38 percent of travelers use their own devices to stream entertainment in place of Pay-Per-View, an increase of 13 percent in just a year. The good news is that the hospitality market is in the perfect position to recoup some of those losses by implementing technology, such as captive portals and video optimization, to meet consumer demand for mobile video.”
The research, conducted by uSamp and Smith Micro Software, Inc. , polled smartphone and tablet users across the US about their current travel and video consumption habits and preferences. Over two-thirds of travelers (67 percent) never purchase Pay-Per-View entertainment when staying in a hotel, versus 50 percent of guests who said the same in 2012. While travelers are increasingly sensitive to the price of in-room entertainment, 41 percent noted they were very likely to purchase Pay-Per-View content if they could access it on their mobile devices. Additionally, two-thirds of travelers noted they were very likely to access mobile content if it was bundled with hotel Wi-Fi, an increase of five percent year-over-year. The survey results underscore a growing opportunity for hotels to achieve increased revenue by offering bundled of video content and hotel Wi-Fi to guests.
2nd Annual Survey Results: Hospitality Industry and Mobile Video Services
According to a nationwide survey, 81 percent of travelers desire access to mobile video content at hotels, and 55 percent indicate the availability of mobile content influences their hotel or resort selection process. Additionally, over half of consumers bring tablets with them while traveling.
New survey results from 2013: http://connect.smithmicro.com/hospitality-survey-2013
Survey results from 2012: http://info.smithmicro.com/hospitality-survey/