You want a perfect travel website? Most travel websites have very basic selling, usability, and accessibility errors. These affect how the website is used, a business is perceived and, crucially, how much product you shift.
So what is a travel website? Maybe offers and information about transport, hotels, and destinations, with pictures, multimedia, organised into categories, backed with a booking process, maybe some user feedback, social bookmarking, and even a downloadable widget. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But how can you avoid ticking the boxes and being the operator of just another plain old travel website?
Competition online is still focused largely on price and volume, presented as choice. So if you’ve got lots of text, prices, thumbnail pictures and lists, your offer is probably the same as many of your peers. Research (Google) tells us a customer visits 23 different websites – the chosen one four times – and makes 12 searches before booking. So how do you stand out?
The biggest mistake is that travel sites often treat travellers generically, and website propositions clearly reflect this. So ask yourself who you’re talking to. Are you appealing to their needs? What’s your point of differentiation? What’s their reason to believe in you? Does the content and functionality you provide deliver on the promise of your brand strapline? Or does it jar and put them off maybe because of usability issues or because it breaks in their browser?
Travel is a considered purchase; and people, being different, naturally have different considerations. If you’re not clear on the questions then your product will be treated as a commodity, driven by price. And our research tells us that trust is a higher priority than price in purchasing decisions, so you still have to communicate a clear service proposition to gain trust even if price is the main part of it.
Forrester Research breaks down a travel audience model simply into three categories. This is a useful starting point for understanding how travellers’ needs differ.
- Business travellers value efficiency, control, the ability to compare results and details. They’re put off by slow-loading web sites or splash screens
- Entertainment / leisure motivated travellers value social media tools and multimedia. They’re highly impulsive, making them an excellent target for cross-selling and time-sensitive deals
- For family-motivated travellers personal online safety is very important and trust is therefore paramount.
The models are examples of broad groupings and clearly don’t answer all the questions. If you’re doing some work on your website, then consider the following:
- Segmenting and researching your target groups and creating “personas” (pen portraits) to aid planning
- Looking deeply at your brand proposition, core values, and messaging, and testing these on real users
- Onsite surveys to gather data about how your website is performing currently. Try for 100+ responses; 500 is better
- An expert review from a specialist who can review the design, usability and selling proposition as a whole
- Some good, solid, user experience consultancy – interaction design and information architecture
- Usability testing of your current site, prototype for changes and nearly complete new site. Do this by defined target audience – as different groups use the web in different ways
Travel is increasingly about personal identity; people collect “experiences”. The good experience should start during the planning, or they’ll switch off. Plan your proposition to stand out and you’re likely to switch them on.