Why Flexibility, Choice, and Customer Protection Are the Key to Travel's Future
Why Flexibility, Choice, and Customer Protection Are the Key to Travel's Future
In this report:
- How travelers’ expectations — and the challenges they’re facing — are evolving
- The booking factors that can help identify customer needs and desires
- How travel providers can utilize data to uncover the right offers at the right time
- Why mastering unbundled and ancillary products is key to travel’s future
- How leveraging customer protection policies and offering flexible, relevant choices can drive loyalty
- How Allianz Partners and Marriott International worked together to embed travel insurance into the hotel brand’s booking experience
The global travel industry is in full recovery mode. But as more people look to get away, they’re often unable to escape the worry that’s come to characterize the new normal: What if my short-term rental gets canceled? What happens if I test positive for Covid and have to postpone my return? What if my flight gets delayed and I have to find accommodations at the last minute in an unfamiliar place? How much will that cost? Multiple contingency plans have become the new must-have travel necessity.
For now, travel providers continue to offer flexible booking and cancellation policies that came in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. They’re popular with customers who are relieved to cast aside some of these travel what-ifs, making them more likely to book. Yet travel companies admit that these policies won’t last forever, and they don’t always make sense from a business perspective. As demand increases, retaining maximum flexibility could mean risking much-needed revenue in a still-fraught recovery period.
In this three-article series report, Skift and Allianz Partners teamed up to explore the answers to these questions amid today’s ever-changing environment. By putting customer protection, flexibility, and personalized choices front and center, they will be able to win customers, retain their loyalty, and drive critical revenue opportunities in the new travel landscape.
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