Korea's small hotels often misjudge mobile strategy: underestimating its economic impact, betting everything on a standalone app, or ignoring how travelers actually book. Expedia Group breaks down what works.
5 Common Mobile Strategy Mistakes to Avoid
Writer: Expedia Group
Editor: ONDA Manager Somora
By now, you know phones are embedded in every part of daily life. That fundamentally changes how businesses reach customers. Getting the right product or service in front of the right audience at the right time has never been more important — or more complicated.
Don't believe it? One study found the average person touches their phone 2,617 times a day. Another says people check their phones 110 times a day on average, while heavy users check 900 times. Apple recently revealed iPhone users unlock their devices 80 times daily.
In this phone-dominated environment, how can small hospitality businesses effectively reach the customers they want? Expedia Group — a global tech leader — has identified the most common mobile strategy mistakes businesses make, with a focus on the Korean hospitality industry, to help local SMBs make the most of the mobile era.
Mistake #1: Underestimating mobile's importance
Mobile plays a major role in the global economy and is expected to account for 5% of worldwide GDP (US$4.6 trillion) by 2022. That's up from 2017, when mobile technology and services generated economic value worth 4.5% of global GDP (US$3.6 trillion). If your property isn't leveraging mobile technology yet, you're missing out on a fast-growing customer segment.
Take travel: mobile accounts for 26% of travel searches in the US, a much higher 47% in Europe, 40% in Asia, 38% in the Middle East and Africa, and 34% in Latin America. Expedia Group data shows one in three bookings happens on a phone, and over 50% of traffic comes from mobile. This phone penetration into daily life is a global phenomenon, visible in countries around the world.
Mistake #2: The "just build an app" strategy
Thinking that small businesses can build an app and customers will automatically download it is far too simplistic. We're drowning in apps. Google Play offers 3.6 million apps for download, while the Apple Store has 2.1 million. But people actually use an average of 27 apps per month — and 49% of smartphone users download zero new apps each month. Getting your app into that precious set of 27 installed apps is really hard, and there's a high chance customers will delete it. In travel specifically, nearly two-thirds of users uninstall apps within 30 days of downloading.
So how do you get people to download your app? And how do you keep them from deleting it?
The answer: apps need to be fast, useful, and packed with features that give people reasons to keep coming back. Smartphone users want apps that deliver practical information — like airline check-in and mobile boarding passes in travel. Meaning: quick, convenient access to the info they need, anywhere. Features like Hotels.com's low-bandwidth mode help apps respond faster.
If the experience isn't satisfying, you can't expect much brand loyalty. While some people use apps more because of hotel chain or airline loyalty programs, usage tends to drop off when available services are limited. So beyond basic functions like hotel search and booking, you need to think about what other useful features you can offer. For example, the Expedia app includes directions to your hotel, flight status alerts, checkout times, and trip details you can access offline — all useful mid-trip features.
Experts recommend that SMBs without the budget to invest in a dedicated app should focus on building a responsive mobile website and leveraging third-party apps. For instance, Expedia Group recorded over 250 million cumulative app downloads by the end of 2017, up 40% year-over-year. That's far more than a typical hotel brand with around 150 million downloads. While apps are widely used, you need to be strategic about investing in them if you want to spend your marketing budget wisely.
Mistake #3: Misunderstanding mobile usage patterns
One of the most common mistakes businesses make is about consumer mobile usage patterns. Everyone knows about mobile's screen size constraints, but it's still hard to decide what content to prioritize — to distinguish what users want from what they don't. For hotel bookings, for example, customers typically view 30–35 photos before booking, and photo browsing accounts for more than half of site usage. Next comes checking availability (18%), using maps (12%), and reading reviews (7%).
In today's mobile-dominated environment, businesses should design for smaller screens first. If you can arrange all your information properly on a small screen, expanding it to desktop will likely meet most customers' needs. Expedia Group research shows that using easy-to-understand icons instead of long text descriptions saves space, delivers more information, and helps customers find what they need more easily.
More smartphone users are also adopting mobile payments. Beyond traditional credit cards and direct debit, more people are using digital wallets like Apple Pay and PayPal. To target these mobile customers, localization and variety are key. If you're a domestic business selling to global customers, leveraging a global company's tech investment in e-commerce platforms is a smart move. Look for apps offering multiple digital wallet payment options like Naver Pay, LINE Pay, Ali Pay, plus installment payments, loyalty point redemption, and more.
Mistake #4: Thinking search and purchase are separate
A common business misconception is that customers only search on apps without actually booking. But today, mobile transactions account for more than half of online transactions in most countries worldwide, with app-based sales dominating. In the Asia-Pacific region, advertisers with shopping apps generate a whopping 75% of all transactions through apps or mobile web. So the mobile sector represents a huge opportunity for SMBs looking to grow mobile revenue.
Phocuswright research shows nine out of ten Korean travelers own smartphones, and nearly half booked flights or hotels on mobile in the past 12 months. Roughly two-thirds of Korean leisure travelers book via online travel agencies, and just under 50% use OTAs regularly. Mobile-exclusive benefits — like double Expedia Rewards points for app purchases — continue to be used to drive customer adoption based on their preferences.
Even when mobile isn't the final platform for a specific transaction, seamless compatibility across devices throughout the booking journey is critical. To boost customer platform engagement, platforms must complement each other across multiple browsers, multiple devices, and multiple stages of the booking process. Criteo reports that nearly one-third of multi-device transactions start on smartphones, and customers who purchase using multiple devices are evenly spread across the three main devices: smartphones (28%), tablets (36%), and desktops (31%).
Mistake #5: Great mobile strategies that never get executed
There's no denying the pressures facing SMBs today are real. As technology keeps innovating, consumers feel more convenience — but businesses feel more pressure on resource allocation. That's why businesses often develop excellent mobile strategies but fail to evolve them through testing and learning, eventually abandoning them.
But there's an easier solution to this problem than you might think. Smart hoteliers leverage tech partners' assets to achieve far greater results with minimal investment — a strategy that works in other industries too. For example, Expedia's hotel partners easily manage bookings sold across Expedia Group's travel brands using the Partner Central mobile app, getting support whenever and wherever they need it. They can check important data anytime, anywhere, staying competitive based on real-time market insights, instantly view and respond to customer feedback, and receive alerts for critical information requiring immediate attention. Plus they can satisfy customers who always want more convenience by using innovative tools like mobile check-in and check-out.
Expedia Group, a travel industry tech leader, invests heavily in next-generation innovations like chatbots, natural language processing, and Google Assistant voice booking. Based on this innovation and over US$1.5 billion in annual tech investment, we run thousands of tests yearly to build the world's best mobile experience for both hotel partners and travelers. Technology is completely transforming how customers buy and perceive brands, so staying ahead of these tech changes is critical to growing your business.
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About Expedia Group
Expedia Group (NASDAQ: EXPE) is one of the world's largest travel platforms, breaking down barriers to travel so people worldwide can travel more comfortably, affordably, and easily. Expedia Group's mission is to help customers and partners around the world connect more easily and closely. Expedia Group leverages cutting-edge platforms and technology across its vast business and brands to enable people to move and travel freely and conveniently both domestically and globally.
Expedia Group's travel brands include Brand Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Egencia®, trivago®, HomeAway®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Wotif®, lastminute.com.au®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Hotwire®, Classic Vacations®, Expedia® Group Media Solutions, CarRentals.com™, Expedia Local Expert®, Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, SilverRail Technologies, Inc., ALICE, and Traveldoo®. For more information, visit www.expediagroup.co.kr.
