40% of Booking Failures Caused by Technology
Last week I had an opportunity to talk to Claude Guay, formerly an analyst with PhoCusWright but now the CEO of iPerceptions, an analytics company based out of New York. iPerceptions recently published their Hospitality Index report around the same time that Forrester research came out with their report indicating the customer satisfaction in the Travel Industry has continued to decline. From a technologists point of view, the thing I found most interesting about the report was the fact that over 40% of customers failed to complete a booking on a hotel website because of booking or navigation problems. Price on the other hand only accounted for 13% of customers failing to complete a booking. That seems to me to be a huge wake up call for on-line travel companies.
What is the cause of these problems? Well, without analyzing the sites directly, it is hard to say, but I can make some general observations based on hotel sites I have reviewed (both large and small).
1. Many reservation systems focus on the process rather than the customer need. Claude and I seemed to agree on the idea that because hotel reservation and property management systems have been around for a long time and, to some degree, the technology is strongly ingrained in some organizations, that the front-end booking interfaces are much more in line with traditional agent style booking experiences rather than a customer centric booking style. This is reinforced by the results of the study which shows that the majority (over 45%) of the users who failed to complete the booking were first time visitors.
2. The booking process, on average, takes ten to twelve clicks. It is proven that the more steps a customer must go through to complete the booking, the greater the likelihood that they will abandon the transaction. Does the customer really know the difference between your standard room and your deluxe room? Do they really want to see all that unformated text that gets spit out by the GDS? (You know the one, it’s all in upper case letters and reads like a brochure). Focus on simplification, reducing choices for the customer rather than increasing them, and shorten the track from choice to purchase.
3. Assume the customer has never booked a hotel in their life and build the experience for them. The iPerceptions report clearly showed that the more experienced a customer was, the less likely they were to abandon their transaction. Simply put, once a customer has learned your booking process they will probably book again. But can a hotel really afford to have over 40% of their potential customers NOT book just because they couldn’t figure out how to book a room from you. Think about it, they just want to do business with you, make it easy for them to do so.
There are a lot of hotel booking engine technology providers and, for the most part, they all seem to have the same basic booking interface. If the iPerceptions report is correct, what it should be telling these developers is that they need to re-think what they are doing and focus on conversion and experience. The benefit of working in an emerging space like tours and activities, is that we don’t have the same technological baggage to deal with. In part, that’s why we we have been able to be more innovative in designing the booking process for Rezgo. One very valuable lesson I have learned is that you have to think outside your comfort zone if you ever expect to be truly creative.
Well done, Stephen. The travel industry has to learn that booking travel online CAN be easier.
40% of Booking Failures Caused by Technology
Well done, Stephen. The travel industry has to learn that booking travel online CAN be easier.
40% of Booking Failures Caused by Technology
Great post – to be honest I'm surprised it's only 40%.Figured it would be higher. Some systems/sites/processes are just *not* user-friendly at all. Even for those of us technically-inclined.
Great post – to be honest I'm surprised it's only 40%.Figured it would be higher. Some systems/sites/processes are just *not* user-friendly at all. Even for those of us technically-inclined.
Hoteliers are also missing out on greater revenues/bookings because they limit the number of channels they sell across.
Hoteliers are also missing out on greater revenues/bookings because they limit the number of channels they sell across.
Outstanding data, hopefully many travel booking sites will have a look at this and realize that they need to have an easy-to-navigate website in order to stop losing clients for dumb reasons
Outstanding data, hopefully many travel booking sites will have a look at this and realize that they need to have an easy-to-navigate website in order to stop losing clients for dumb reasons
I hav eexperienced my such cases of glitch. BU when I got held of LMT site the problem is a past. I have been very imressed with their software and happy to recommend it to all.
New York Hotels
so the hotels should also provide booking online. They should also update most of the time their websites. More focus on the processing of booking.
Thanks to LMT i never experienced those things. They have a very great service from booking to my flight to hotel booking.
Yes, we can not avoid those problems because sometimes the internet connection was down. So that is really possible that almost 40 percent Bookings are failed.
Yes, we can not avoid those problems because sometimes the internet connection was down. So that is really possible that almost 40 percent Bookings are failed.
I think it is normal to have these kinds of problems when it comes to internet or rather when internet connection is involved. Like the problem in Booking for flights.
I think it is normal to have these kinds of problems when it comes to internet or rather when internet connection is involved. Like the problem in Booking for flights.
Simply put, once a customer has learned your booking process they will probably book again. But can a hotel really afford to have over 40% of their potential customers NOT book just because they couldn’t figure out how to book a room from you.
Does the customer really know the difference between your standard room and your deluxe room? Do they really want to see all that unformated text that gets spit out by the GDS? (You know the one, it’s all in upper case letters and reads like a brochure).
Very interesting
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That really happens sometimes and we can't avoid that. Though there are some failure in technology, it's still great because it helps a lot in our daily life, it makes work easier.
I know that there are lot of reservation in hotels which is done through internet by the people usually not accredit its because of some problems in the site. Well, if I were the one who avail a reservation to a hotel for example those cheap hotels that really give good service and amenities., I will follow up my reservation so that they will know that I really want to stay on the hotel which I have reserve with.
I think 90% of Booking Failures Caused by Technology
Online Booking may cause a lot of problem because of those factors that is mainly on the site itself. Other booking agencies doesn’t have a good website development that’s why there are some bugs which is not been fix and if someone have doe a reservation, then there’s no successful transaction that is being done, in result that is a failed booking transaction because of the technology.
Online booking can be quite harmful in developing countries. But most of booking agencies are also not have proper site for booking. so it could be really tough to book online.
Thanks for informative and helpful post, obviously in your blog everything is good.If you
post informative comments on blogs there is always the chance that actual humans will
click through.
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Thanks for sharing this post! I have to agree that with those things mentioned on this blog and a lot of clicking of this and that sometimes the customers/travelers loose their patience. I think if we want online booking to be successful the site developer to make sure that everything is smooth sailing with the online program.
Thanks for great tips.
Hopefully the percentage has decreased since 2009, however we are sure that hoteliers still can find the way to improve their websites in this key section.