Here's a heads up on a new study from iPerceptions/HSMAI

An impressive 44% of business travelers visiting hotel brand websites are "bookers" and actually make or change a reservation, according to a new joint study from HSMAI and iPerceptions that measured business travelers in the mid-scale hotel segment.

Furthermore, 4 in 10 of website visitors are first timers, and only 22.1% mid-scale business travelers abandon their plan to make an online transaction versus 31% in leisure travelers.

Those are just a few highlights from the first-ever edition of a unique, quarterly web metrics report of experience and satisfaction benchmarks, "The Voice of the Hotel Customer," which focused specifically on the business traveler in the mid-scale hotel sector. The report was written by Industry thought leader Cindy Estis Green, CEO of the Estis Group.

"This first quarterly report represents a significant advancement in measuring and benchmarking the impact of customer word of mouth and feedback in the hospitality sector," said Daniel Taras, our Vice President, Business Development . "Capturing the voice of your customer is critically important for companies that want to build their businesses in the always-on and always-connected online environment".

The iPerceptions research is based on data from 29 major hotel brands; 17 of which fall into this report's realm of mid-scale hotels. Other critical data generated from the study include:

56% of mid-scale business travelers have membership in rewards programs versus 52% industry-wide among business travelers;

Four in ten (41%) mid-scale business travelers are first timers to a hotel website versus 44 percent industry-wide; and only 25 percent are frequent users versus 35% frequent users industry-wide;

When analyzing the difference between bookers who "abandoned" their plans and successful bookers, the biggest differences were in the way a website's design was rated in terms of whether it enabled them to find what they are looking for and if the information covered the range they needed;

Site visitors who changed/booked a reservation rated the mid-scale hotel websites highest of any other customer group, scoring a rating 7.17 (out of 10) versus the overall business traveler group which was 6.95. Frequent site visitors (6+ visits in last six months) rated the websites overall at a high 7.75.

When comparing individuals' attributes against the overall mid-scale business traveler benchmarks, there are significant differences between website usage levels. First timers are considerably more likely than more frequent users to say that mid-scale hotel websites are not the place they would likely start their trip planning or that mid-scale websites encourage them to return. They are much less likely than frequent users to think that the website can enable them to find what they are looking for.

The more committed and engaged in using the site, the more likely a business traveler said the site was their primary trip planner and that it saved money in hotel rates;

While first timers in every category gave all aspects of the website the lowest ratings, their best scores were for navigation and content related attributes.

If you'd like a copy of this report, just drop a note to marketing@iperceptions.com. The next report is expected to be published in early April.