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February 10, 2005

The latest report of the Online Customer Respect Study by the Customer Respect Group shows that the biggest travel websites in the world vary greatly in how well (or how poorly) they treat their Internet customers.

The Customer Respect Group evaluates each travel company's online customer experience on its simplicity (ease of use), responsiveness, privacy policies, attitude (how customer-centric the site is), transparency and principles (regarding protecting customer data).

These categories are derived from surveying a representative sample of the adult Internet population on their online experiences, along with analysis by the Customer Respect Group of corporate Web sites.

Overall, the companies studied do best in attitude and worst in responsiveness, with 19% of companies failing to respond to either of two online inquiries sent, and 10% only responding to one.

Transparency is also a strong suit of many companies.

Interestingly, US Airways seems to be handling its online services well, despite its perilous financial position (the company has filed for bankruptcy twice in two years) and in contrast to the recent headlines it has received for bad service (including delays and lost baggage around Christmas because of weather and staffing problems, and a US Department of Transportation study which declared it the worst US carrier based on consumer complaints).

In the Customer Respect Group study, US Airways receives the highest rating among airlines for how it treats its customers online.

The company is followed by a mix of US-based and international airlines of varying sizes, with the top five rounded out by British Airways, Air Canada, Independence Air and Northwest Airlines.

The average score for airlines' online service is 6.6, with a high of 8.0 for US Airways and a low of 5.3 for Frontier Airlines. Other forms of passenger transportation — rail and bus — average a slightly higher 6.8, but this is deceiving, since only two companies are surveyed, Amtrak and Greyhound. Amtrak receives an 8.4 for its Internet presence, while Greyhound gets a 5.2.

Hotel Web sites achieve about the same range of scores as the airlines, with a sector average of 6.6, led by Marriott International (8.4), Mandalay Resort Group (7.6) and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (7.5). Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts comes in last, with a rating of 3.4 — by far the lowest of all companies surveyed.

Online travel sites fare better, as might be expected, since the Web is a central aspect of their business, which is not the case for airlines, hotels and others.

Orbitz places first, with a score of 8.6 — the highest of any company in the survey. Travelocity and Expedia aren't too far behind, however, with scores of 8.2 and 8.1, respectively. Ebookers comes in last, with a rating of 5.5. The overall average for the sector is 7.3.

A look back at results for this sector from last year shows that not too much has changed. Orbitz has put some room between it and its competitors, and Travelocity has improved considerably, while Hotwire and Priceline have fallen slightly. Hotels.com is still low, but has improved almost a full point on the scale.

Better consumer experiences haven't translated into an advantage for Orbitz in terms of visitors to its site, based on data from Nielsen//NetRatings.

It's also worth noting that Southwest is the only airline in the top five, despite having one of the lowest ratings in the Customer Respect Group study (5.5 — only Frontier Airlines is lower).

This stems from Southwest's decision in 2001 to not allow online travel sites like Orbitz to list its flights. Consumers who desire to see Southwest's prices for flights must go straight to the airlines site.

Source: eMarketer