We embrace the fact that looking and searching and getting inspired and everything that comes with travel is a messy process.
Quote from James Ferguson, senior design manager at Skyscanner, in an article on PhocusWire this week.
Reimagining customer experience, part 1: digital design
There is a long-held belief that "travel planning is broken", or "travel search is broken".
Numerous travel startups have taken to the stage at pitch events over the years to explain that consumers despise the process of inspiration and then searching and booking flights, accommodation and everything other element of a trip.
Based on what, apart from their own trials and tribulations, is this assertion made?
If the mechanism was so busted and presumably frustrating then millions of travelers would have thrown away their laptops or smartphones in disgust and offline travel agencies would be experiencing a renaissance that could only be compared to the rapid growth of an Airbnb or Uber.
It is perhaps true that in the absence of genuinely useful and efficient alternatives, consumers have stuck with the old methods and grit their teeth every time they start the process and just get on with it.
But there is another view, which many also hold - that is, these supposed awful methods of discovery and searching and booking travel are actually a useful part of the process, allowing travelers to plan their trip at their own pace and perhaps finding things that would not ordinarily come across if they were channelled blindly down a specific route online.
Mobile interfaces have certainly given brands - such as Skyscanner - the opportunity to figure how they can make the procedures more user-friendly given the smaller screens.
But the basic elements of a travel search remain: fairly messy at times, but it works - the same way that it always has done.