Enhancing Hotel Analytics: How GA4 Can Help Drive Direct Bookings

Written by Niall Maloney, Chief Operation Officer at P3 Hotel Software.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Replaces Universal Analytics (UA)

It's been three months since Google switched off its Universal Analytics (UA) tool, on 1 July 2023. Many hotel businesses have migrated to the new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) service – and others should make the switch as soon as possible to ensure they continue to receive data about their website traffic.

In an age when a website is your shop window and business intelligence is overwhelmingly digitised, being able to see who is visiting your website and what they are doing there is a basic requirement – it’s akin to talking to your customers.

Choosing not to do so is short-sighted, especially in the hotel sector, where website analytics provide invaluable insight into customer engagement, which helps drive brand awareness and, ultimately, direct bookings.

The good news is it’s easy for any business to switch their website to GA4 – but it’s also important to understand the advantages that it offers over its predecessor, and how the new analytics tool works, in order to continue tracking online performance effectively.

So, here are five reasons why GA4 is better than UA and can help transform the e-commerce offering for hotels:

1. Track across web and app

One of the major changes is that GA4 has been designed to track traffic and engagement across web and apps. UA doesn’t do this. Globally, 46% of hotel guests make their online booking using a mobile device, so having one space where hotel marketers and analysts have a complete view of customer activity and their online performance is a major advantage.
 

2. More data

The big difference between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 is the new data model. GA4 utilises an 'event-based model' where every action that occurs on your website – such as the click of a button or a video view – is treated as an event and automatically recorded.


Hotels can use Google Tag Manager to create custom events from any interaction, allowing them to track the performance of individual elements of the website. As you interact with your data, GA4 learns what is important to you and presents it on a personalised home screen, so that you can quickly assess the data you need.

3. Greater insight

This is where GA4 really adds value. Hotel operators use website analytics to track the revenue generated on their website and booking engine. Previously with UA, they could use the E-Commerce report to assess how their properties were performing online, and to compare one property with another - for example, whether a hotel in a city centre generated more revenue than one in a rural location.

GA4 has replaced the E-Commerce view with a Monetisation report, which allows hoteliers to compare the performance of individual items – such as a hotel property, a rate, a room, a block or promo code – or a combination of them to determine the most popular which one derive the greatest revenue.

A hotel operator can now compare, for example, the performance of a B&B rate for double rooms against the B&B rate for single rooms, or discover whether luxury packages tend to get booked with higher room types, or if romantic package offers are more popular among bookings with more luxurious rooms.

This provides a complete view of the booking funnel. Hoteliers can see what visitors are searching for, what they are putting in their basket, and what they are actually buying. This understanding of user behaviour allows hotels to strategically plan room and rate packages and provide increased personalisation of content as guests progress through the booking process in order to maximise direct bookings.

4. Improved reporting

GA4 has a simpler interface that presents information in a cleaner and more efficient way. Reporting is more focused on user journeys and events, allowing you to analyse how users move through your site or app. This more intuitive form of reporting makes it easier for hotel operators to access the data they need to evaluate their online performance and make informed decisions to improve their services.

5. Better compliance

As the internet moves towards a cookie-less future, where it is harder for businesses to track customers across different websites, GA4 can use artificial intelligence modelling to see limited site performance when users do not accept cookies. It has been designed with user privacy in mind. It gives businesses and users more control over what personal data is collected and helps them comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.


The adoption of GA4 positions hotel operators to take advantage of emerging analytics trends as they evolve. Staying up to date with the latest analytics tools provides a competitive edge in understanding and catering for guest preferences and, ultimately, winning their loyalty.

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