# Promoting last-minute deals on booking page: fewer conversions

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Other (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Discount
- Date shared: 2009
- Test run by: [Online Dialogue](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/online-dialogue/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.onlinedialogue.nl/klanten-en-resultaten/van-der-valk-case/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/od-van-der-valk-promote-deals/

Extra promotion of last-minute deals, offers and packages on Van der Valk's reservations overview page lowered conversions. Online Dialogue ran this multi-variant test for the Dutch hotel group around 2009. The promotions distracted visitors, and the source gives no figure for the drop.

## Result

**fewer conversions**

- Conversions: down versus the original. This variant lost.
- The source says the promotions distracted visitors but gives no percentage, sample size or confidence level.
- In the same test, a clear booking button lifted conversions by at least 13%.

## Control

The reservations overview page without extra promotions.

## Variant

Last-minute deals, special offers and hotel packages promoted more strongly on the page. The idea was that more promotion would bring more buyers.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- Visitors on a reservations page have often already chosen. Deals pull them back into browsing.
- More options can stall a decision, as people stop to compare.
- Promoted offers compete with the main booking action for attention.

## Caveats

Multi-variant test that tested each change alone and all together; the source gives no figure for the drop. Hotel booking site (travel, treated here as lead-gen). The test dates from around 2009, when the program began. Sample size, duration and confidence are not shared.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we promote deals and packages on the booking page, then more visitors will book because they see more reasons to buy.
- Primary metric: Bookings per visitor
- Guardrail: Revenue per booking
- Guardrail: Clicks away from the booking flow
- Guardrail: Deal page conversion
- Who should test it: Booking sites thinking about adding promotions to pages where visitors are close to deciding. This result suggests keeping deals on browsing pages instead. A deal-led site where visitors come for offers may see a different result.

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Credit: Online Dialogue ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/od-van-der-valk-promote-deals/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.