Hotel website usability pitfalls drive down bookings

May 12, 2009 | Hospitality Industry

A new report by iPerception finds that visitors have real trouble completing basic tasks at hospitality sites. Most noticeably, 1 of every 2 visitors who came to a site to make a reservation reported being unable to do so.

iPerceptions Inc., a provider of web-focused Voice of Customer analytics, today released its new Hospitality Industry Report Q1 2009. The report, which analyzes user-generated feedback from more than 137,000 visitors to more than 100 hospitality sites from January through March 2009, is the first in a series of quarterly reports from iPerceptions that deliver new insight into the people who are coming to hospitality websites, why they are there, what they intend to accomplish, and how well they are able to complete their objectives. The quarterly reports also provide site operators with the first-ever industry benchmark of site satisfaction and task completion through the Hospitality iPerceptions Satisfaction Index (iPSI).

“Major structural shifts are under way in the hospitality industry,” said Duff Anderson, vice president of research and development at iPerceptions. “Merrill Lynch projects that 45% of hotel bookings will be made online by the end of next year. At the same time, social media is morphing the traditional relationship between hotel and patron. In addition, economic jitters pose a systemic challenge to the industry. The Hospitality Industry Report series is designed to provide the benchmarks and hard data that marketers need to navigate these changes and make the most of emerging opportunities.”

According to the iPerceptions Hospitality Industry Report Q1 2009, booking is the leading preoccupation of hotel website visitors, who are primarily arranging leisure travel (70%) rather than business travel (30%). Also directly relevant to marketers and site operators are these key findings:

Price Sensitivity Hurts Satisfaction Scores

According to the iPerceptions Hospitality Industry Report Q1 2009, cost sensitivity is already having a negative impact on hospitality website satisfaction scores. The report isolated and evaluated the ten key elements of the visitor experience on a satisfaction scale of 0 to 10. Of the ten, the lowest marks went to Bottom Line (this site supports my budget goals) and Starting Point (this site is an effective starting point for my travel plans). The weak performance of these attributes, which pertain directly to price and perceived sense of value, stood in contrast to other attributes like Convenience and Discovery, and brought down the collective satisfaction rates with hospitality sites.

Usability Pitfalls Drive Down Bookings

The report also finds that visitors have real trouble completing basic tasks at hospitality sites. Most noticeably, 1 of every 2 visitors who came to a site to make a reservation reported being unable to do so. While some of the reasons underpinning this low rate lie outside the purview of the web experience, the top barriers reported by visitors were problems with site navigation, the booking flow, and insufficient hotel and room information, all of which fall squarely on the plate of interactive marketers and website developers.

The First Time Is the Worst Time

The iPerceptions Hospitality Industry Report Q1 2009 also found that 47% of site visitors were onsite for the first time and thus not acclimated to site navigation, architecture, and functionality. Hotel websites find it difficult to cater to this segment, as evidenced by first-timers’ collective iPerceptions Satisfaction Index score of 6.85, notably lower than the score of 7.51 posted by the most frequent visitors.

“Feedback from thousands of visitors collected over the past quarter demonstrates a clear negative correlation between poor website design and ability to complete an online reservation — a fact that is hard to ignore,” continued Mr. Anderson. “To boost their efficiency in a troubled economic climate, hotel websites will need to focus on delivering simpler, more intuitive site navigation, a streamlined booking process, and more robust content, supplemented with better pictures and more lifelike virtual tours.”

Download the full report at iPerception