Hotel Websites Have Much to Do
to Increase
User Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty (2004)
iPerceptions and Hospitality eBusiness Strategies
(HeBS), two of the most respected names in hospitality-related
eBusiness and eMarketing strategy and intelligence today released
the first edition of the RUSH Report, a new strategic report for
the hospitality vertical.
The RUSH Report, an intelligence report on user
satisfaction and website performance in the hospitality sector,
provides the industry with an in-depth analysis of key aspects
of site performance and user satisfaction. The Report is based
on feedback from nearly 40,000 survey respondents, actual website
visitors to hotel brand websites.
The RUSH Report provides answers to questions of
crucial importance for today's hotelier: Who are your website
visitors? How are they finding your website? Why are they visiting
your site? How often do they visit your site? Are they Lookers
or Bookers? Do they find what they are looking for? What is their
experience on your site? How satisfied are they with the various
aspects of your site? Will they return to your website?
The RUSH Report also includes research findings,
analysis and over 10 case studies from the groundbreaking Q1 2004
Top Five Hotel Brand Website Comp Analysis, a proprietary research
study by HeBS on over 150 different aspects of the major brand
websites that addresses all the elements that represent best practices
for a competitive website.
According to Max Starkov, CEO of Hospitality eBusiness
Strategies, "49% of all visitors to hotel branded websites in
our study claim they do not belong to any hotel loyalty program."
Mr. Starkov continues, "For proactive hoteliers this represents
an untapped market and a great opportunity to increase user loyalty."
"We know from our work within the industry, as site
loyalty increases, so does the site's look to book ratio," explains
iPerceptions CEO Jerry Tarasofsky. "Hospitality web site owners
now have access to aggregated data never before available. Data
that paints a comprehensive picture of both the leisure and business
traveler's online experience," said Mr. Tarasofsky. "It marks
a turning point for establishing site satisfaction benchmarks
within the hospitality industry."
Another key finding in the report is that hotel
brands need to enhance practically every aspect of their website
to meet the increasing requirements of their major customer segments.
Less than 19% of all visitors to branded hotel web sites characterized
their experience as excellent," said Mr. Starkov. "Even more troubling
is the fact that almost 17% are not satisfied with their website
experience and qualify it as "Fair" or "Poor". Hospitality sites
have much to do to increase user satisfaction and this report
debunks a lot of assumptions that many hotel brands have about
their websites," challenges Mr. Starkov.
Here is a sample of the key findings in the RUSH
Report:
-
Who are the visitors? On average, 56.2% of all
website visitors on hotel branded websites are Leisure Travelers,
and 32.1% are Business Travelers. As much as 3.08% of the hotel
website visitors are involved in meeting or event planning.
- Why are they visiting? 34% of all website visitors on hotel
branded websites seek information about the hotel, while 30.8%
of visitors make or change reservations. Another 23% were found
to visit sites to research/compare rates. Aggregate findings vary
considerably when compared to distinct groups: Business Travelers,
Leisure Travelers, and Meeting/Event Planners.
- Lookers vs. Bookers: Online Bookers constitute 35.96% of all
visitors to the hotel website compared to Online Lookers, 64.04%
of all visitors. Significant differences were observed between
Business Travelers and Leisure Travelers.
- Customer Segmentation Analysis: Business Travelers are more
critical and demanding than the other user groups.
Issued annually with quarterly updates, The RUSH Report is a collaboration
leveraging the unique knowledge, experience and methodologies of
iPerceptions Inc. and Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS). It
combines the in-depth online hospitality industry expertise of HeBS
with the strategic quantitative attitudinal analytics of iPerceptions.
By Max Starkov, www.hospitalityebusiness.com, 2004
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