Travelers Give Travel Industry Big Points For Customer Satisfaction, But American’s Say They Can’t Afford Summer Vacation
by Heather Cassell
Summer vacation kicks off in less than a month from today. It will be primetime for customer complaints to cheery reviews from happy travelers.
Keeping customers happy will be key this summer to enticing travelers to put their hard-earned cash and promise of relaxation and good memories into the hospitality and travel leaders’ hands.
Especially when 39 million Americans plan on skipping vacation altogether. Sixty percent of Bankrate.com summer vacation survey’s 2,577 adult respondents to the online survey taken March 20 – 22 said they simply can’t afford to take a vacation. The culprit? Keeping up with daily bills, according to 44% of respondents, and 22% said they were focused on paying down debt.
The estimated average vacation costs are $1,979, according to the survey published April 25.
Family obligations are getting in the way of 13% of respondents’ wanderlust, while 9% said they simply can’t take time off from work, even if they have paid time off. Among those who have paid vacation, only 59% plan to use more than half of it, according to the survey.
The gobble stopper is that 23% of respondents said they aren’t interested in vacation. What?
Some travel companies appear to really be getting the message to woo the 52% of vacationers who plan to take a vacation this summer with good old-fashioned hospitality and perks.
Friendly Skies
Customers are flying high with Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines. The two airlines took the number one spot in customer satisfaction for low cost and legacy airlines, according to the annual American Consumer Satisfaction Index Travel Report 2018-2019 released April 30.
American Airlines dropped below the average score while United Airlines skidded in at the bottom just above Frontier and Spirit airlines.
The improvements say a lot considering airline satisfaction was at an all-time low not too long ago.
“Airlines sat at a near-record low of 62 just a dozen years ago,” said David VanAmburg, managing director at the ACSI, in the release. “Now they’re among some of the most improved industries over that time.”
Alaska bumped Southwest Airlines from the top spot scoring 80 showing that passengers are happy with the airlines acquiring Virgin America which expanded Alaska’s network and lowered fares, according to the April 30 ACSI news release.
Delta rose 1% achieving a score of 75 putting it solidly at the top of the legacy airlines. The airline offers travelers many in-flight amenities, including seatback screens, USB ports, and Wi-Fi.
American scored 73 dropping 1% and United scored 70 after a 4% leap. Frontier scored 64 and Spirit scored 63, which saw 3% and 2% climbs, respectively.
Airline mobile apps gave the airlines a huge boost at 82 matching ease of traveler check-in. This was the first year ACSI included mobile apps in the survey, along with boarding experience (79), call center satisfaction (78), and the range of flight schedules (77).
“Delta also has plans to improve its mobile app by offering miles as currency,” said VanAmburg. “This will enable its members to upgrade through the app.”
Other new metrics added to the survey included cleanliness, overhead storage, complimentary and ‘premium’ food, and in-flight entertainment which can be “some of the most problematic aspects of air travel,” cited ACSI.
Travelers were “reasonably satisfied” with cabin cleanliness (78), however, the worst part of flying remains seat comfort (69) with limited leg room that irritate passengers.
Sweet Dreams
Travelers have more options with vacation rentals thanks to Airbnb and hotels are feeling it this year. Guest satisfaction with hotels dropped 1.3% scoring 73 on the ACSI.
“This is a transforming industry,” said VanAmburg. “If corporate hotels aren’t able to step up, they’re going to continue to slide.”
Hilton Worldwide, which is celebrating its centennial this year, topped the ACSI score at 80, despite falling 2% this year, tying with Marriott International, which was down 1%, with many of the hotels’ brands scoring high on the survey.
Hilton and Marriott still offer more upscale and luxury properties, better guest service, and higher-quality amenities than other hotel brands, ACSI noted in the release.
It’s no surprise that budget hotels all scored low.
However, budget and luxury hotels took a hit among guests who were critical in their scoring saying, “hotels have deteriorated in almost every aspect,” according to the release.
Making a reservation and checking-in is still easy with each task scoring 84, yet both scores were down from 2017-2018. Guests marked hotels down for staff being less courteous and helpful (82), room quality worsened (81), and call center satisfaction plummeted 6% to 78, the same mark as quality of in-room amenities setting a new ACSI benchmark, according to the release.
Hotels need to adapt accordingly to the digital world where complaints can spread quickly through social media, but they can also be resolved just as quickly, ACSI noted.
Virtual Travel
TripAdvisor’s reputation as a trusted source of user-generated reviews put the world’s largest travel site on top scoring 82. The major revamp of its website in 2018 couldn’t have hurt the site either.
Travelers who book online gave travel website mobile apps higher scores than airlines with quality ranking 85 and reliability ranking 83. Booking and payment continued to be easy on travel websites scoring 84. Ease of website navigation and site performance were also up with both scoring 85.
The survey measured customer satisfaction based on a scale of 0 to 100 measuring nearly every aspect of a traveler’s experience based on responses from 12,873 randomly selected individuals. The respondents were interviewed April 5 – March 27 by email.
Book your next Intrepid women-only vacation with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
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