Mobile vs Desktop Travel Booking: What People Actually Do (and What We’re Building at ViaVia)

Mobile vs Desktop Travel Booking in 2026: Why ViaVia Is Building Mobile Booking First

“Mobile first” used to be marketing. Now it is simply where the market is going.

For years, most people did travel research on phones and then moved to desktop to pay, because desktop felt safer. That pattern is still real for complex trips. But the direction of travel is clear: more and more bookings are happening on mobile, and in some markets mobile is already at the point of overtaking desktop. 

At ViaVia, we are building a booking first trip operating system for Europe. We help you keep the whole trip in one place after you book, even if you booked across different providers, by ingesting booking confirmations and turning them into a unified dashboard. That only works if we respect what travelers actually do, which increasingly means building for mobile booking, not just mobile browsing.

The trend is moving toward mobile travel booking

If you look at where bookings are happening, mobile is no longer just the top of funnel device. In 2024, online travel booking through mobile devices, especially app based booking, was reported as the largest share in one major market sizing study, with mobile app based booking at just over half of the market. 

In Europe, the same shift is showing up in how mature online markets behave. Phocuswright’s research updates on the U.K. market describe mobile booking as poised to overtake desktop, alongside extremely high online penetration. 

The important part is not the exact percentage. The important part is that mobile booking is no longer “coming.” It is here, and it is pulling product strategy with it.

Why mobile booking is growing even for high stakes purchases

Mobile booking is growing because the phone is turning into the default identity and payment device. People trust biometric unlock. People trust Apple Pay and Google Pay. People are becoming used to doing expensive purchases on mobile, even when they still say they prefer laptops for deliberation. 

Mobile is also where travel planning actually happens. Planning does not occur in one tidy session. It happens in fragments, between life. A phone fits that reality, which means the “moment of booking” increasingly happens right where the decision is made, instead of being postponed until someone sits down at a desk.

There is also a platform effect. Travel companies have poured effort into mobile apps, push notifications, mobile loyalty, and mobile only incentives, which changes behavior over time. Even people who prefer desktop will sometimes complete on mobile because that is where the deal is, or where the saved state is.

Why desktop still matters, and why we are not pretending it does not

Desktop is still strong for a reason. Travel booking is a comparison problem. You compare price, location, timing, flexibility, baggage rules, fare types, and cancellation policy. Desktop gives you a bigger canvas, more tabs, and a calmer feeling of control. That matters when the trip is complex, when multiple people are involved, or when details like passenger names and documents create fear of mistakes.

Even as mobile booking grows, it is normal for travelers to switch devices for risk management. That is not “old fashioned.” It is rational behavior in a category where mistakes are expensive.

So the goal is not to kill desktop. The goal is to make mobile good enough to complete, and to make switching feel seamless when someone chooses to switch.

What ViaVia is building: booking on mobile, with continuity across devices

We are going to support booking on mobile. Not as a compromise, but as a first class experience.

The reason is simple. ViaVia is designed around the part of the trip that lives in your pocket. Once you are traveling, your timeline, your segments, your documents, your next steps, and your “what am I missing?” checklist are all mobile moments. If the trip operating system is mobile, then booking cannot be an afterthought on mobile.

But we are also building with a Europe first reality in mind. European trips are often multi segment. They are trains plus hotels plus something in between. They involve multiple providers and multiple confirmations. That is why ViaVia’s edge is not forcing you into one inventory. Our edge is that you can book anywhere, forward confirmations, and still get one coherent trip dashboard.

That approach changes how we think about mobile booking. We are not trying to win by trapping you in a single checkout funnel. We are trying to win by making the trip legible, regardless of where you booked, and by making it easier to confidently complete bookings when you do book with us.

The friction that still breaks mobile booking, and how we will handle it

Mobile booking fails when uncertainty rises faster than confidence.

If comparison is painful, users hesitate. If the final price is unclear, users hesitate. If cancellation terms are hard to find, users hesitate. If the location feels ambiguous, users hesitate. If the data entry flow feels brittle, users hesitate.

The “mobile first” version of travel booking that actually works is not a smaller desktop checkout. It is a trust first checkout. It reduces ambiguity, keeps the important answers visible, and makes the moment of commitment feel safe on a small screen.

That is the standard we are holding ourselves to. If we cannot make a particular booking flow feel safe on mobile, then we will not pretend it is. We will prioritize continuity, so you can start on mobile and finish elsewhere without starting over, and your trip will still snap into place.

The takeaway

If you are building in travel, you do not need to pick a side in a culture war between mobile and desktop. You need to pick the reality you want to serve.

The reality is that mobile travel booking is growing and, in some markets, already represents the majority of bookings.  Desktop still matters, especially for complex purchases, and consumers still use it for deliberate decisions. 

ViaVia is building booking on mobile because that is where the market is going and because that is where the trip lives. We will keep desktop strong too, but we are not going to wait for desktop to define the product.

A question for you

When you book travel, what do you actually do. Do you complete on mobile most of the time now. Do you still research on mobile and pay on desktop. Or does it depend on the type of trip.

If you tell us where mobile still feels unsafe, we will build directly against that.