One area where mobile specialist travel intermediaries have excelled is making the most of data that is being generated on their platforms. Mobile travel technology company WorldMate, which was recently acquired by Carlson Wagonlit Travel, has focused on ascertaining the real-time context of travellers and serving up the right room at the right moment.

Today, WorldMate’s mobile app, which allows users to organise their itineraries, provides local information and also facilitates booking of travel products, is used by over 10 million travellers. Usage figures published by reveal that users flew nearly 12 billion miles in 2011, 52% booked hotels within a day of check-in, there two million car rentals and 42% of people hiring a car were booked within a day of check in.

WorldMate isn’t making figures public for 2012, but according to Ian Berman, VP of business development, all major stats are up, except for the percentage of bookings within a day of check-in.

The reason for this, he says, is because users find the in-app hotel booking experience so compelling. “They aren’t waiting until the last second to book with us. I believe that other mobile booking apps will experience the same phenomenon eventually,” says Berman.

At the time of its recent acquisition by CWT, it emerged that WorldMate’s plan is to broaden offerings for business travellers and corporate customers. Services like airport parking, restaurant bookings, hotel reservations, ground transportation, and airline offers such as in-flight Internet are in the pipeline.

Here EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta talks to Berman about the role of data analytics and making a mobile app smarter.

EFT: How have mobile apps shaped up in the online travel space?

IB: There is clearly a migration from web to mobile as most US online travel agents or suppliers are reporting, 10% of bookings are from mobile, up from the low single digits two years ago. As the OTAs, suppliers and mobile travel specialists improve their offerings, that number will skyrocket because the user experience on a native app is better than on the web.

EFT: As WorldMate manages more itineraries, how has the app become smarter?

IB: We are at the forefront with respect to ‘big data’ analysis of tens of millions of itineraries. A large number of our customers have numerous past trips stored in WorldMate. We use that to ascertain things like their brand loyalties or booking preferences and then deduce which hotels are best suited for upcoming trips. For example, we recently launched a counter-offer service that will either save our traveller s money on their existing hotel stay, or recommend another one which better suits their preferences.

Photo: WorldMate

EFT: How is mobile travel technology improving itinerary management systems and on-the-road services for travellers?

IB: By definition, you need to service the on-the-road customer through mobile. The itinerary is the lifeblood of the system because it provides the context of the traveller at any point in time. Studying the history of those itineraries also helps build traveller profiles that are key to offering pro-active services. This keep companies like WorldMate one step ahead of our customers when it comes time to predicting their needs. Another impact of mobile technologies is the rise of tablet computing. Not only are they supplanting PCs, they also are used differently to smartphones. Savvy mobile developers will begin to understand the unique use cases of each type of device and build new services accordingly.

EFT: How do you ensure that interest is sustained in your apps?

IB: Most importantly, we strive to delight the user— focus on what's core to their needs and deliver a world-class user experience. Of course, we also keep the product fresh by keeping a drumbeat of new services and making sure we support the ever-changing mobile platforms.

EFT: Does behaviour vary between Android and iOS apps? And do you make of overall app retention rates and user metrics for iPhone apps veruss other apps?

IB: We don’t see much difference in user patterns between the two platforms. In fact active rates for apps have remained fairly consistent— typically 20-40% of registered users have been active within the last 30 days. This is not a WorldMate figure, rather what we've seen from our colleagues from the days of Palm OS & Pocket PC to the present. I don’t think those rates very much from platform to platform.

EFT: What are your expectations from mobile apps in 2013?

IB: Travel sellers will see that their customers will make advanced (more than 1-day) bookings at ever increasing rates. I also believe there will be increasing ‘app fatigue’ and that the most successful apps will have ecosystems that eliminate the need for a traveller to download 3+ apps per trip.