As economic pressures mount and digital noise increases, travel and hospitality brands, including hotels, airlines, car rentals, and event venues, face a critical moment: evolve your acquisition and engagement strategy or risk losing high-intent traffic to aggregators and competitors.
Consumers are browsing more, price-checking longer, and expecting more personalized interactions across every channel. But here’s the opportunity: with the right data strategy, you can turn this shift into sustained growth by converting anonymous browsers into loyal travelers through relevance, trust, and first-party data.
A Consumer Wake-Up Call: Shoppers Are Rethinking How They Buy
The Wunderkind – US Tariffs – Consumer Impact Survey – May 2025 reveals how rising prices and shifting values are affecting purchasing decisions across all industries:
- 73% of respondents report that recent price increases have influenced how they shop and what they consider before buying.
- 51% say they’re more likely to seek deals and compare options than they were six months ago.
- 44% are paying closer attention to the values and transparency of brands before completing a purchase.
🔍 Travel Application Example:
A shopper visits a hotel’s direct site, compares room rates, then leaves without booking. They’re not necessarily lost, they’re in a research phase, sensitive to pricing and value. With the right triggers in place, you could reach them with a follow-up message offering a limited-time rate hold, a reminder of free cancellation, or a small upgrade incentive.
Step 1: Rethink Acquisition as a Real-Time Value Exchange
Gone are the days when a static “Sign up for 10% off” pop-up captured meaningful leads. Today’s consumers want relevance and transparency in exchange for their data.
From the same survey:
- 59% of consumers said they’re more likely to engage with brands that offer personalized experiences, not just generic discounts.
🔍 Travel Application Example:
Instead of a blanket email form, a car rental site could show a dynamically triggered opt-in offering “Early access to upcoming holiday weekend rates” when someone views multiple car classes for a specific weekend. That’s relevant, time-sensitive, and speaks directly to the user’s behavior.
Wunderkind helps travel brands use behavioral and contextual signals like scroll depth, device, cart value, or time on site to present offers at the right moment, boosting opt-in and trust simultaneously.
Step 2: Turn Anonymous Traffic Into Known Travelers
In the travel category, up to 90% of site visitors are anonymous. They compare flights, browse rooms, or check pickup locations, but don’t book. Without identity resolution, those sessions are lost.
But with it, you can:
- Recognize returning visitors across devices and visits
- Trigger browse abandonment flows based on interest (room types, routes, car classes)
- Suppress redundant signup prompts for known guests
🔍 Travel Application Example:
A traveler browses a resort’s ocean-view rooms for July 4th weekend, then bounces. Wunderkind identifies the user later that day when they return on mobile, and triggers a timely email: “Your room is still available—and now includes complimentary breakfast if booked by midnight.”
Step 3: Personalize Experiences With Behavioral Triggers
Consumers leave a trail of intent—what they click, view, compare, or abandon. Most brands still treat this data as passive. But with the right strategy, you can turn those signals into timely, high-converting messages across email and SMS.
🔍 Travel Application Examples:
- Flight abandonment: Someone selects seats and add-ons, then drops off. A 1-hour follow-up reminder with flexible cancellation terms might nudge them to complete.
- Hotel browse behavior: A visitor comparing suites for a business conference could get a personalized email showcasing that suite + a note about nearby meeting spaces or parking.
- Car rental triggers: If someone filters by “SUV” and browses for more than 90 seconds, but doesn’t select a car, a triggered SMS could offer a “Free GPS upgrade on all SUV bookings this week.”
Consumers say that proactive communication around pricing, perks, or availability builds trust—and brands that act on this build long-term loyalty.
Step 4: Test Quickly, Iterate Faster
This is not the time for perfection—it’s time to act. Brands seeing the biggest lift in engagement and revenue are:
- Launching multiple real-time opt-ins with different incentives
- Testing which behavioral triggers work best across flight, hotel, and car booking flows
- Personalizing creative based on cart value, session behavior, or visit frequency
🔍 Travel Application Example:
Test urgency messaging like “Only 3 king suites left for your dates” or “10 travelers booked this route today” to activate scarcity bias. Then optimize based on which audience segments respond best.
Final Thought: Travel Brands Who Control the Experience Will Win
Your competitors are fighting for visibility on OTAs and search ads. But you own the experience once the consumer lands on your site. And consumers are asking to be understood—not just marketed to.
Those who double down on identity, behavioral relevance, and first-party data will:
- Convert more anonymous browsers into bookings
- Decrease reliance on aggregators
- Build a more resilient, high-margin direct channel
With the right strategy and Wunderkind’s performance-driven tools, this isn’t just possible — it’s inevitable.