Priceline Reports High Percentage of Same-day Mobile Bookings
The company analyzed trends among its Android, iPhone and iPad users.
Priceline.com reported on April 23 that 41% of rental car bookings made by its app users were same-day reservations. In Priceline’s findings of the Hotel Negotiator app for Android and Hotel & Rental Car Negotiator app for iPhone since introduced in 2009, of those same-day mobile bookings, 48% were made within two hours of pick-up.
Based on the report, the top five vehicle choices in order are Economy, Intermediate, Full-Size, Compact and Standard.
Lastly, the report analyzed Hotel star level preferences based on the device being used. Android users are more likely to choose 3-star and above hotels 54% of the time. iPhone users choose luxury hotels 63% of the time. Meanwhile, iPad users are still the pickiest, choosing 3-star and above hotels 69% of the time.
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