UK - Evaluating 3 budget hotel brands’ journey through the purchase funnel

In the highly competitive hospitality industry, travel brands strive to attract and engage consumers throughout their purchase journey.

Understanding how effectively a brand can move consumers through the different stages of its purchase funnel is crucial to identifying strengths and weaknesses in a market strategy and seeing where a brand stands against other competitors in the sector.

Using data from YouGov BrandIndex — which monitors several key measures of brand health daily —we look at the performance of three prominent budget hotel brands in the UK to better comprehend the consumer journey towards booking accommodations and get the measure of the broader budget hotel landscape.

All three of the hotel brands earn a high rate of Awareness in the UK, but who fares best at scoring actual bookings?

Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn is a well-known hotel brand, with 89% of UK consumers familiar with the budget brand name.

When it comes to the Consideration stage, where consumers contemplate booking with a hotel brand, 21.4% of UK consumers say they would consider staying with Holiday Inn on their next trip. With a conversion of 24% from the Awareness stage, Holiday Inn effectively converts a quarter of its aware consumers into potential guests.

Examining the Purchase Intent stage, Holiday Inn displays a 2% score, indicating the likelihood of a consumer choosing to book with the brand. This shows that Holiday Inn is just 9% effective at progressing consumers who consider the brand to the point of intending to make a booking.

Travelodge

Prominent hotel brand Travelodge boasts a commendable level of brand awareness, with 92% of UK consumers being aware of the brand.

In the first quarter of 2023, 28.6% of UK consumers report they would consider staying with Travelodge on their next stay. That indicates that Travelodge is converting nearly a third (31%) of those who are aware of the budget hotel brand into potential customers.

The brand showcases nearly the same rate of success at moving consumers to the last stage of Purchase Intent. Roughly 8% of all UK adults say they’re likely to book Travelodge, translating to a conversion rate of 31% from Consideration to Purchase Intent and showcasing the brand's ability to solidify consumer interest and encourage bookings.


Premier Inn

Most consumers are familiar with the Premier Inn name, with 93% saying they’re aware of the renowned budget hotel brand.

A notable 46% of UK consumers say they would consider booking with Premier Inn on their next trip, underscoring the brand’s ability to captivate potential customers. This also translates to approximately 49% of consumers who are aware of Premier Inn eventually considering it on their next trip.

Where Premier Inn stands out most from Travelodge and Holiday Inn, is on the last stage of the purchase funnel journey: Purchase Intent. Premier Inn’s conversion rate from Consideration to Purchase Intent (50%) is nearly double that of Travelodge’s and four times that of Holiday Inn’s.

Premier Inn’s performance throughout the purchase funnel journey marks it as the strongest contender of the three brands measured in this analysis.

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