Travel Website Booking Facilities lack Flexibility, says Report

More than 50% of hotel websites do not make clear whether displayed rates are for a room or per person, confusing customers who search between accommodation and holiday sites, according to a report issued by Travel UCD, a consultancy in travel and hospitality website design.

The 50-page report, titled Hotel Booking Process Design and Usability, studied the user interfaces of 87 leading travel agency, hotel booking agency and hotel chain websites, to assess the ease of the consumer booking process.

The research found that less than 20% of websites can handle all the common types of room occupancy offered by hotels; for example, reserving two rooms for three adults, or booking one superior and one standard double room for two couples. Families also lose out, with many hotel websites unable to offer rooms for child occupancy, or, conversely, accepting bookings for child occupancy when legal regulations forbid the reservation.

Alex Bainbridge, report author, says: 'With online hotel reservations predicted to reach 20% of all online travel bookings by 2005, websites are striving to achieve maximum user stickiness. Many sites do not meet the usability needs of their customers, despite the keenness of consumers to book on the web. The majority of problems are simple design errors, which can be solved without the need for a complicated website overhaul.'

Travel UCD's research is based on a functionality evaluation of 87 sites and extensive usability testing of the six most representative websites, conducted by 24 computer-literate users: two x 12 user usability tests, involving the following websites: Accor Hotels, DowntownDisneyHotels (iHotelier), Expedia, Opodo (Worldres), TravelSelect, Wotif. The design consultancy evaluated each site's efficiency and error count, and examined learnability, memorability, and user satisfaction.

Analysis of aspects of a hotel booking process included:

* Booking process flow - an analysis of the six booking process styles currently in use
* Rate value display - what should the rates include - and how should they be displayed?
* Multi-room reservations - handling reservations for more than one room
* Uneven occupancy levels - for example two adults in one room, one adult in a second room
* Children - how reservations involving children should be handled.

Associated Link: Travel UCD

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