Travel websites failing to meet customers expectations says Atcore’s survey

Travel websites failing to meet customers expectations says Atcore’s survey

Holiday booking sites are not delivering what consumers want, according to a new survey. Less than half of the last booking sites visited by holidaymakers delivered on the most important factors, such as best price, selection and ease of use.

Holiday booking sites are not delivering what consumers want, according to a new survey.

Less than half of the last booking sites visited by holidaymakers delivered on the most important factors, such as best price, selection and ease of use.

Travel technology company Atcore surveyed 1,500 holidaymakers from the UK, Sweden and Germany for its Future of Booking report.

It found that 63% of holidaymakers do not consider price to be the most important factor when booking and ‘must-have’ booking features often advocated by the industry, such as recommendations, ability to share and lifecycle communications, are only ranked highly by 7% of holidaymakers.

47% of those surveyed ranked control – such as the ability to do more advanced searching on a site – and consolidation – booking more elements to a trip such as activities and transfers, as the most helpful features of a booking site.

Just over a third said none of those features were featured on the last site they used.

But package holiday websites are delivering more of what customers want. The survey found that these deliver holiday makers’ top features, on average, 9% more often than other sites.

Atcore’s chief commercial officer Dave Cruickshank said: “Consumers are rightly demanding and have a wide variety of needs when making travel bookings and the challenge for travel companies is to ensure booking technology keeps up.

“In a world where 81% of people abandon online travel bookings, there is a burden on the industry to improve consumer satisfaction with the holiday booking experience and a clear opportunity for travel businesses that can do this faster and better than their competitors.”