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Making usability a priority for travel sites

May 13, 2010 | Online Travel

Cost is a major factor for both business and leisure travelers when booking their trips, but even when the price is right, users will balk at Website problems or abandon their purchase if they have trouble navigating and dealing with the checkout process.

A January 2010 survey of US online travel bookers by PhoCusWright found that while too-high prices were the main driver to booking abandonment, a litany of site-related complaints followed, including not wanting to register, slow loading times, and general frustration or confusion.

These problems can also prevent travel bookers from returning in future. More than one-third of all travelers told PhoCusWright that site problems would make them less likely to shop again. Business travelers, who are more likely than leisure travelers to book a trip on any given travel site visit, were especially harsh in their condemnation. They were more likely than average to say they would immediately turn to a competing travel site (23%) and tell friends, family and co-workers about their bad experience (14%).

Website performance monitoring firm Gomez found in December 2009 that nearly one-fifth of US online buyers had experienced slow load times on travel sites, and 11% had had problems completing transactions. A majority of respondents would give up after just one or two bad experiences on a site.

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