Many travel agencies, aware that travel planning and booking are made mostly through the Internet in our era, have begun to operate online. The facilities and cost-efficient alternatives offered by online travel agencies (OTA) make them indispensable for properties and guests. It is critical for OTAs to provide high quality service while meeting this demand.
Each year, various reports and studies are published to analyze the service quality offered by OTAs. Aiming to enhance the service quality by measuring customer satisfaction, surveys and reports provide the agencies with a chance to make improvements and observe customer trends. The OTA Customer Satisfaction Report 2014, developed by the J.D. Power Company, which is among these important reports, has been published. It is based on the survey results acquired from 2,673 customers shopping from online travel agencies for 1 year.
Best online travel agencies
According to the survey, the 5 best online travel agencies are as follows:
1. Travelocity
2. Expedia
3. Booking.com
4. Hotwire
5. Priceline
According to another similar study carried out in 2012, Booking.com is ranked first and Booking.com steps down to 3rd in 2014 in the customer satisfaction category, which is explained by the fact that other agencies are more preferred thanks to their better prices.
Cost-effectiveness is a most significant reason of preference
Advantageous price options are among the primary reasons of OTA preference. According to the survey, competitive prices, providing useful information, accessibility, booking options play a role in determining the ranking of online travel agencies.
According to the study, 788 of 1000 agencies succeed in overall satisfaction. Hotel booking ranks the first with 58 percent among the services provided by OTAs. OTAs are preferred for booking flights by 52 percent, holiday packages are preferred by 33 percent and car rental is preferred by 31 percent.
Positive experience matters
As per the reasons for OTA preference, lower prices rank the first by 66 percent, which is followed by previous positive experiences by 44 percent and brand recognition by 22 percent.
The study reveals that customers with a high satisfaction rate purchase more than customers with average satisfaction rate do. Customers who are satisfied with online travel agencies purchase 4.1 times in average annually, while those stating that they are not satisfied purchase 3.1 times annually.
According to the survey, the problems that customers experience damage customer satisfaction. 20 percent of the customers that participated in the survey stated that they encountered a problem when booking online.
In our era, making sales through the Internet makes it possible to obtain high profitability by reaching a wider target audience with lower costs. If you operate with the goal of customer satisfaction, this profitability becomes permanent. You can also earn much more by making your agency online. You can carry your agency to the Internet with HotelRunner without needing any technical knowledge. Create your HotelRunner account immediately and start taking advantage of all these opportunities provided by the Internet.
