Study pinpoints differences between users of travel intermediaries
There are various differences between the users of travel intermediaries such as Travelocity, Expedia, Travelaxe and Kayak, according to a study by Natasa Christodoulidou, Pearl Brewer, and Cary Countryman.
The study including 5,000 participants was published in the Journal of Information Technology this fall.
The data collected through the survey showed that there were significant differences found in the factors of loyalty and decision autonomy between travel intermediaries’ users and travel meta site users.
The survey question asking about loyalty was: “If I found another travel website that better met my needs, I would switch to using the new website.”
According to the analysis, travel meta site users are less likely to switch to another travel website if they found a comparable travel website that met their needs.
This means that travel meta site users are more loyal than travel intermediary users. This could serve as a caution to the intermediaries that could benefit from these results and attempt to examine why the travel meta site users are more loyal and less likely to switch to another travel website compared to the intermediary users, according to the report.
When analyzing the decision autonomy factor, the results showed that travel meta site users have higher decision making autonomy as to which website to use than travel intermediary users.
The survey question asking about decision making autonomy was: “What percentage of your travel do you have the option of choosing how to book (either business or leisure as opposed to company managed travel)?”
Among those who booked their own travel, the majority of them answered that they use travel meta sites. This could be attributed to the fact that meta sites offer incentives such as reward programs and better technology, and therefore appear more attractive to the consumer when they have a choice on how to book their hotel stays.
This can potentially have large implications for the travel intermediaries; many travel intermediaries receive a large part of their revenue from agreements they have with travel companies, said the authors.
Of the study 5,000 participants, half were males and half females. They were randomly invited from an online panel of 2.3 million participants.
The pre-screening condition was that participants have stayed in a hotel in the past twelve months. The responses were divided into those that primarily use travel intermediaries and those that primarily use travel meta websites.
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