Online travel reviews encourage bookings
Travel reviews still encourage holidaymakers to book despite recent rulings about their legitimacy.
Travel review site TripAdvisor was told in February that it could no longer claim to offer "trusted and honest reviews" after an investigation by advertising watchdogs found the site could not guarantee customer feedback was genuine, see previous story.
But according to the eTravel Benchmark study, 75% of consumers still think that the majority of travel reviews are ‘mostly genuine’, whilst 61% would be more likely to make a booking after reading a positive review.
Travis Katz, CEO and founder of review website Gogobot said: "We need to help holidaymakers get trusted advice. By creating open online communities, people can choose who they want to follow, and ensure they get advice from people they know rather than anonymous strangers", see comment.
The eTravel Benchmark study, carried out by eDigitalResearch, found the highest level of customer satisfaction in over two years.
Holiday camp Haven came highest with score of 84.5% for interactive search features, appealing home page
Virgin Atlantic made the biggest improvement jumping 21 places due to a much more responsive telephone customer contact.
‘Staycation’ site Hoseasons and online travel agents Last Minute and First Choice all complete the top five.
The study found that online travel firms achieving lower ratings were criticised for poor levels of telephone or email customer service.
Derek Eccleston, research director at eDigitalResearch said: "The eTravel Benchmark results have often shown over the years that those brands that invest in their websites and offer a bit of ‘inspiration’ with interactive features and richer content, as well as support customers with a responsive and helpful telephone and email customer service repeatedly perform better than their rivals".
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