When was the last time you booked a vacation in a travel shop? Chances are that you booked online since booking travel online has become a commodity nowadays.

Yesterday I am exploring options for my summer holidays. Guess what? It appears to me that the travel world still believes we all think like travel booking agents.

Starting my search is a piece of cake. The sites are attractive. Convincing, swaying, and compelling me to already dream about reading a good novel in a serene Italian olive orchard.

Since I don’t have a specific set of criteria, my list of search results is quite long. I go and fetch myself a glass of wine, and enthusiastically start browsing through the first pages of hundreds of search results.

So what should be an enjoyable on line trip is slowly starting to become a rather painful journey:

• I click on a picture on a travel website to get some more details on the hotel. When I want to go back to my results, they’re gone. Does this company want me to book?
• When trying to return to my list of holiday options, the days on which I would like to travel have suddenly changed. Does this travel agency want me to fly with them?
• During another search, I realize that an overenthusiastic use of filter options has narrowed down my results too much. I don’t have a clue on how to remove a few criteria while keeping what is most important to me. Does this website allow me to choose for myself?
• Exploring flight only options, I bump into messages like: “To reopen this page Safari must resend a form. This might result in duplicate purchases, comments, or other actions.” This website has trouble with usability.
• While dreaming about the luxurious club villages on a beautifully designed travel site, I lose track of prices. Am I not supposed to care about price when booking this type of holiday? This website is not for me. It’s for people who don’t care about budget.

Buyer’s loyalty is in short supply. I’m afraid travel site operators will learn this the hard way: users rarely give them more than one or two chances to impress with their usability.

The “Hospitality & Tourism Industry Report” from the customer satisfaction measurement firm iPerceptions indicated that after price considerations, convenient, hassle-free sites with high measures of responsiveness led to the most completed bookings.

“Once price has been removed as a barrier, site functionality and convenience for the booking process are key to growing conversion and minimizing chances of losing the visitor to the competition,” the report said.

So dear travel agents, web masters, web marketers….

If you want people to actually book a holiday, the basic rule is simple: make it easy for them to find your holiday treasures.

Do you have a local travel agent who understands what you want after just a few hints and finds you the perfect holiday? Who gives you alternatives and offers real deals, so fit to your needs that you are delighted and will always book there again?

That’s the experience I want on line. That’s where I would be persuaded. And that’s where my money goes.

Sigrid