Attributing bookings

[kendalcottages]

If you have someone who enquires via two different sources, and who subsequently goes on to book, how do you attribute this booking in your stats?

Do you attribute it to both, to the one that was first, the one that was last... or something else?

Thanks.

[e-richard]

Funny you should ask that question. I've just had two such scenarios in the past 12 hours, but I took different views.

Scenario 1: Repeat customer. Stayed with us in 2008. Sent an enquiry via a listing site.
My thinking: They were browsing a listing site for this year's holiday and came across my property. They remembered staying before and sent an enquiry via listing site.
Conclusion: They had "lost" my email or forgotten, but the presence of the listing site triggered the enquiry. Attributed to listing site and not to "repeat booker".

Scenario 2: From inspection of web logs, enquirer found us on a listing site, but clicked thru to my website from where they made an enquiry asking some additional questions.
My thinking: The final "call to action" was triggered on my own website. Without that final call to action, they may well have just moved on to another property on the listing site.
Conclusion: [this one is contentious]. Because the call to action that triggered the enquiry was my own website, I attributed this one to the second source.

So the answer to your question is:

I don't know. I make it up as I go along and I have a wild imagination to conjure up reasons to defend any decision.

Helpful ? Probably not

[Maurmc]

I note it as Enquiry site via Original site. I got a booking through our iowners website recently, but they had found us through HL. So I attributed it to iowners via HL.

[greenbarn]

So the answer to your question is:

I don't know. I make it up as I go along and I have a wild imagination to conjure up reasons to defend any decision.

Helpful ? Probably not

Have you ever thought of producing some sort of booking and enquiry management system........?

[Nemo]

If you have someone who enquires via two different sources, and who subsequently goes on to book, how do you attribute this booking in your stats?

Do you attribute it to both, to the one that was first, the one that was last... or something else?

That got me thinking (but its Monday morning so I'm not thinking clearly.... ), how you can create as many permutations as you like within PIMS. So you could have an enquiry from HR for example, then they also found your site, so you create a enquiry source as HR plus website.

Your enquiry source in PIMS would grow and perhaps with the split you would have to do some mental maths (or export files) to work out what percentage were wholly AND partly attributable to one source? All perfectly possible with PIMS though?

[harcourtv57]

I attribute it to the first site - but quite often get repeat guests who have enquired through a listing site (probably where they first found us) so would log that as a repeat guest rather than the site

[Moliere]

Does it matter?

It's a booking - that's great! - you really have to be tending to the nerd in all of us if you want to split hairs that finely!

Mols

[e-richard]

It could matter.
It all depends on why you are doing the attribution.

I'm assuming we're not just being nerdy, but we're doing it so that we can make a calculated judgement later on where to advertise.

In Harcourt's case with the repeat booker (and I had an identical scenario), one has to ask whether that repeat booker would have come back had they not found you on the listing site.

If you are 100% sure that having not found you at the listing site, that they would have emailed you or visited your website eventually then, yes, attribute to "repeat". If you're not 100% sure, then your advert on that listing site has triggered some action and needs to be considered.

[Moliere]

It could matter.
It all depends on why you are doing the attribution.

I'm assuming we're not just being nerdy, but we're doing it so that we can make a calculated judgement later on where to advertise.

Yes I had figured that out, Richard, but I still think it's tending towards the nerdy.

It's only one booking which could have come purely from previous experience or partly from history and partly from listing site used as a reminder.

I really cannot see any reason to attach any importance to the difference as it's completely immaterial in the great scheme of things, we all know instinctively what's working for us and what isn't without analysing to the nth degree.

If you insist I vote, it's a repeat booking - the guests used the listing site as an aide-memoire - but I still think it's edging towards the futile end of the spectrum.

Mols

[e-richard]

Yes, Mols, I like your approach to the statistical significance of any ONE enquiry. You're spot on

Somehow, the nerd in me still likes to extrapolate in case there are MANY such enquiries

[Moliere]

Somehow, the nerd in me still likes to extrapolate in case there are MANY such enquiries

There you are, told you it was nerdy!!!

M

[kendalcottages]

What if that one booking was for a month in high season?

(As it happens, it's not in my case... but that's not the point. )

Is it so nerdy then?

[Moliere]

Yep! It's even more of a one-off event and therefore would be an aberrant factor in your statistics.

Mols

[kendalcottages]

...but, seriously, if it accounts for a significant portion of your revenue, you wouldn't just ignore it altogether, would you?

Going back to e-richard's scenarios, with scenario 1 I'd have actually assigned that as a 'repeat' (and still would, I think) but I can see the logic in attributing it differently.

And with scenario 2, I'd have actually attributed it to the listing site if I'd known of one (otherwise I'd attribute it to his own site). Yes, there's a final call to action there... but that opportunity wouldn't have arisen if it wasn't for the listing site.

The scenario that prompted my post was actually 2 enquiries coming in from two different listing sites (at different times obviously), but from the same person. I wouldn't say this happens a lot, but it does with a reasonable degree of frequency for me to feel it was a valid question!

In the affiliate industry that I work in (the day job, not KC), bookings would always be almost always attributed on a 'last one in' basis. So, if I was on website X and I clicked on a trackable link through to an airline website, say, website X would be credited with a commission. If, though, I was on website X, clicked through, but subsequently visited website Y, and clicked through again, then website Y would get a commission, and X would be left with diddly squat despite making the initial referral.

[Moliere]

TBH, KendalC, I was being serious. The only reason I can think of (correct me by all means) for tracking the origin of enquiries is to determine where you advertise in future years.

As you will have gathered I cannot take that terribly seriously - I always found that I had a running idea in my brain of what was working or not. Additionally, some sources worked well one year and badly the next (and vice-versa). So I would never micro-analyse it.

I stick by my assertion that if a 1 month peak season booking is an aberration from normal patterns then it should not be included in your statistics because it would disrupt normal deviation factors, rendering the whole exercise untrustworthy.

I never experienced your situation of two enquiries from the same person via different media, but I don't think I would worry too much about where it came from - I suppose, if pressed, I would assign it 50-50.

Mols