Premier Inn retained its top spot in the latest eTravel Benchmark study from eDigitalResearch, with Ryanair bottom of the league table of 47 firms.
The survey found that 43 out of the 47 websites received ‘satisfactory’, ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ customer service scores, with the airline sector failing to answer over 51% of all email queries.
The sites scored well for searches about budgets, timeframes and destinations – but many did not follow up with good customer service support, as clients often have further queries.
Lloyd Viney, associate director of eDigitalResearch, said: ‘More online travel sites are looking to reduce traffic through their customer service departments by increasing the amount of information they put on their websites.
‘However, as holidays are the single biggest annual purchase for many, people tend to rely on customer service contact to give them confidence in the booking process.’
Websites that properly address the ‘online customer journey’ will win business, he added.
Industry best practice came from Booking.com, which answered 100% of emails, including 60% within six hours.
Booking.com was ranked second overall out of the 47 with a score of 82.2%, just behind Premier Inn (82.8%).
However, the budget chain's high score wasn’t reflected across the hotel sector, which was among the worst performers. Travelodge was second from bottom of the entire list, with a score of 60.4%, just ahead of Ryanair with 58.4%.
Eurocamp was third overall with 79.7%, followed by Keycamp (79.6%), SeaFrance (79.3%), Virgin Holidays (79%) and Eurotunnel and Hayes & Jarvis (both 78.3%).
British Airways topped the airline sector with 76.6%, which put it 15th overall, and Thomas Cook the online travel agent sector with 75.4% (19th).
eDigitalResearch said travel is marginally closing the gap with the retail sector, the best performer across multiple industry sectors, but still has a long way to go because of its weaker customer service scores.
Viney advised: ‘Leading retailers are increasingly involving the customer more through online polls, forums, mini-communities and product ratings. Travel brands need to mirror this approach by developing more interactive websites.’
See also:
On the Beach improves website experience (13/07/2010)
Operator revamps trade site (01/07/2010)
Premier Inn’s website is top of the league (01/04/2010)
Thomson tops web satisfaction poll (17/11/2009)
Online frustrations risk travel firms' reputations (13/10/2009)
Hilton heads website experience survey again (21/08/2009)
New research claims web players could do better (23/07/2009)