Travel companies are trying hard in updating their consumers to make bookings directly through their brand’s website where as travellers still consider online travel agencies as an alternate choice.
A report by Global finance house HSBC called “Anatomy of the Consumer” gives an insight into the buying habits of travellers and those shopping in other industry verticals.
After studying around 2000 customers of the travel sector, it has been found that 51.4% expected to get the best deals from OTAs, with 31.7% from hotels or airlines, and just 17% from offline travel agencies.
According to HSBC, airlines and hotel chains are “eager to develop a direct relationship with their clients, to own the relationship with them and secure loyalty”, meanwhile report shows how far hotels and airlines need to go in order to change the perception that OTAs will score a better price.
A new campaign has been started by several companies, “Better Book Direct” which encourages more bookings on its own website. As they want to reward the loyal customers by giving lowest prices.
Study shows that in Hotel industry too, the two-thirds of respondents (62%) claiming that they consider multiple channels for bookings.
Author: Anush Mathews
Anush works as QA Lead in Teknokraaft and works with our OTA team.