Online Bookers to Travel Industry: Disclose and Be Transparent on Pricing

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That the future of travel booking is digital is now undisputed.

Consumers have spoken and they want to book through digital channels.

Even as online travel agencies and travel brands themselves strive to improve the online and mobile experience, what do consumers really want from the travel industry? Almost 18 years into online travel, what are the most important elements missing from consumers’ online booking experience?

Skift + Amadeus decided to ask the the hardcore, online-only travel bookers in United States about their views on what’s missing from their experience.

The results were eye-opening.

We’ve outlined the top-level results, as well as differences by demographics, below.

Important: This single-question survey was administered to the U.S. internet population from June 2-3, 2014 through Google Consumer Surveys, with a qualifying question with 1,949 responses. The primary question was served to 503 regular online-only travel bookers (weighted down to 300 respondents). The methodology is explained here. See previous Skift Surveys here.

» Topline Result (Chart 1, below): The majority of the online bookers (56%) want booking sites to be consistent in their pricing results across various channels AND also be transparent on the add-on ancillary fees driving the growth in airlines sector.

The much-vaunted one-stop shopping experience is still low priority among online bookers, as most of them are used to comparison shopping and would rather check various sources than do it all on one site. The ease of use of mobile booking is also not as high a priority yet as the industry would like to think, but that is likely to change in the near future.

» Breakdown by sex, Chart 2 below: Clearly, women want more consistency of pricing results, but both sexes want clear disclosure of ancillary fees. Ease of mobile booking and one-stop shopping is more important to male online travel bookers.

»Breakdown by age, Chart 3 below: The younger online travel bookers want better disclosures on fees and consistency of pricing.

» Breakdown by region, Chart 4 below: The U.S. Midwest is surprisingly most vocal on what they think is missing from their online travel experience, and it is a varied mix, starting with fees and pricing.

» Breakdown by region, Chart 4 below: The rural American online travel bookers, an oft-ignored demographic, want better consistency in pricing and fees from the travel industry.

» Breakdown by income, Chart 5 below: Overwhelmingly, the rich want a one-stop shopping experience from online booing, which hints to the need for better luxury concierge services that do it all for them.

This content is created collaboratively in partnership with our sponsor, Amadeus.