Poor Travel Web Sites Drive Customers Away
Oct. 2, 2006. We always encouraged owners of luxury vacation rentals to have their own web sites. However, it is important that the website be a quality site that reflects the attributes of the property that it is advertising. In addition, it should be user-friendly and advertise the property honestly, with plenty of photos.
Indeed, many online travel companies don’t do a very good job, according to an article in Hotel Tech Resource “Online travel companies are missing out on bookings and actively encouraging users to visit rival websites, according to web usability consultancy Webcredible. A study of over 25 travel websites reveals that hidden charges, cumbersome search functions and booking forms that are hard to find are among the top mistakes made by some of the UK's biggest online travel agencies.�
The article goes on to quote Trenton Moss, director of Webcredible as saying , “'The travel sector experiences one of the highest levels of comparison shopping online, with a massive one in four visits to travel websites coming from another site in the same category. Users are unlikely to hang around for long if they can't find what they're looking for, but by making a number of easy-to-implement changes online travel companies can significantly improve the satisfaction of their website visitors, ultimately leading to increased bookings�
