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Do travel sites stink? Survey says: yes

July 10, 2007

The Conference Board’s latest numbers about online travel booking have been released, and they tell us what we already know: travel sites more or less suck.

Of those surveyed, 15 percent said they weren’t satisfied with the travel booking experience, and another 55 percent expressed what can be best described as indifference (“somewhat satisfied” or “not very satisfied”).

“Travel Web sites,” the Conference Board concluded, “rank low.”

No kidding.

The question that this survey begs is: How badly do they suck? And do we deserve better?

I run the unofficial complaints department for the travel industry, and I can tell you that this summer is really bad. Not a day seems to go by that I don’t get involved in at least one new grievance related to a major travel Web site. I haven’t seen it like this since ’99.

Do we deserve better? The consumer advocate in me says “of course”!

The practical side of me has a different answer. It says travelers have demanded low prices, and this is what they’ve ended up with.

As travel sites continue to find ways to maximize their profits — offshoring call centers and adding automation tools that eliminate the need for people — something’s gotta give. Customer service is the inevitable casualty.

And the inevitable winners? Travel companies who still understand that they’re in the customer service business, not transporting cargo or processing transactions.

Yes, there are still a few of ‘em out there.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

5 comments

  • Enrico

    Yes Elliot,
    i agree with you!!

    Customer service is important…they joke on big dimensions…and budgets!!

    But i think also that tourists need an help of a real people…just do a tour of the most known travel forums and you’ll see how much people search for info.

    The problem is that on little sites people search for info but they book on big sites…

    http://www.volcanoetna.com/blog/

  • Joe

    I wonder how much of it is the fact that the people who program these things are, to an extent, delusional. For example, while trying to find a flight to London – Gatwick, Travelocity recommended a 31 minute connection between United and Continental. Everyone who thinks that my checked luggage would have made that connection, please raise your hand so that we can all laugh at you.

    I also like how Travelocity and Expedia don’t feel the need to tell you how much time there is between flights, so that you have to spend an extra ten minutes to figure out that they want you to make a 46 minute connection in Philadelphia. Orbitz solved this problem, but they still try to sell you ridiculously short or ridiculously long connections involving multiple airlines. I forget which one recommended a 22 hour layover in Cleveland.

    And the websites operated by the airlines themselves aren’t much better. American kept trying to sell me tickets on flights that were apparently sold out.

    I eventually booked on Air Canada, even though it involved going to Heathrow instead of Gatwick, simply because their web site didn’t make me want to put my fist through a wall. It very simply showed the departure and arrival times of each flight so that I could use my math skills to determine that I had a bit more than 2 hours in Ottawa going out, and about 3.5 hours in Toronto on the return. Also, they didn’t try to sell me tickets on a full flight. This almost makes up for the existence of the CRJ, which they are making me fly to and from Chicago.

  • Jeff Howe

    This is a very interesting post, and something that I have experienced several times — and so have friends and family members. When you’re looking simply for the lowest price and convenience, something is going to give. Either that means you have a 10-minute connection time in Dallas, a flight through Denver in January, or a gremlin in the Web that swallows your reservation — or worse, a hiccup in the website that double-books you!

    Yes, customer service in this society is horrendous, and getting worse. When I want to make a major travel purchase, I always use a travel agent. If I am going to spend thousands of my hard-earned dollars on a cruise, for example, and something goes wrong, do I want someone in another country that only has the basic framework of English helping me? What about a guy in a call center that was selling plasma TVs the week before? I think not! I want someone who can help me and with one call, fix it.

  • http://iguide.travel iGuide

    As the creator of a great travel guide, iGuide (http://iguide.travel), I can tell you the reason online travel agents ‘stink’ is because the airlines now give only a tiny share of the ticket cost — sometimes literally less than a dollar — to travel agents. How can a website, let alone a brick-and-mortar travel agent, provide much service with that?

  • http://www.campuscompare.com/college-resources/college-trends/don%E2%80%99t-book-your-travels-on-the-fly-use-these-tools-to-go-sky-high/ Brittany

    I actually found some pretty good travel websites with really interesting concepts…like sites that alert you when the fare drops, and then refund you the difference if it drops even more, or sites that aagregate from alllll the other sites… you just hafta find the right site!

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