Gone are the days when cancellations used to be a rare thing. A recent study highlights the fact that cancellation is a serious affair now.
In order to study post-booking behaviour, leading OTA Cleartrip has conducted a comprehensive analysis of the situation. The study has brought to light that 12% of the customers who make bookings for their travel, eventually return to either change or cancel their travel plans. Among them, 80% are online and 20% are offline (through customer care).
The largest portion of this cancellation was for flights at 60%. The left over 40% were for trains and hotels. What made the importance of cancellation straightaway was that 70% of flight cancellations were done online by the bookers themselves.
As people have an easy access to mobile phones than a laptop or desktop a major portion of cancellation happened over the phone itself.
Another noteworthy finding from this analysis was that the importance of allowing Train Booking cancellations, online and on-the-move. With a low fine for train booking cancellations and the limited availability, it was noticed that people booked train tickets in advance, even if their plans are not frozen. They would then cancel these bookings if plans changed closer to the travel date.
Author: Pradeep M.S
Pradeep works as Technical Lead in Teknokraaft and works with our OTA team.