Travelocity emerges top of a satisfaction poll for online travel agencies which also reveals price continues to be the main driver for using the OTA channel.
A report by market intelligence firm J.D. Power looks at seven factors in determining customer satisfaction with competitiveness of pricing, usefulness of information and availability of booking options listed as the top three in order of importance.
Overall satisfaction with OTAs comes out as 788 (out of 1,ooo).
Hotels is the biggest segment booked by users of OTAs (58%) followed closely by flights (52%), packages (33%) and car hire (31%) according the research.
After price, said by 66% to be the main reason for using an OTA, comes past experience with the brand (44%), brand reputation (22%) and positive reviews of the brand in blogs, websites and articles (19%).
Customers with high levels of satisfaction purchase more often than those who rate satisfaction as average, with those rating sites as outstanding, purchasing 4.4 times per year compared to 3.1 times a year.
The study also looks at how an OTA's response to customer problems impacts satisfaction. Almost 20% of customers say they have had a problem with booking online.
Although the satisfaction of these customers is 44 points lower, at 754, than those who haven't experienced any issues, it can recover to a score of 780 if problems are resolved.
Travelocity pips Expedia to the post by a few points is interesting given the pair's announcement eight months ago that Expedia would begin powering search results for Travelocity in 2014.
The top five OTAs are:
- Travelocity 804
- Expedia 798
- Booking.com 797
- Hotwire 795
- Priceline 792
In 2012, when
a similar study was carried out, booking.com emerged top while flights were the biggest category purchased. Back then, price was also the main reason for purchasing on the online travel agency sites.
The 2014 Online Travel Agency Satisfaction Report was carried out from March 11 to 31, 2014 and includes responses from 2,673 customers who made an online purchase on an independent travel website in the past 12 months.
NB: Price image via Shutterstock.