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Travelers irked by Web travel sites fees
A screen shot of the Travelocity.com
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Kai Ryssdal: We've all been there. You want to book a flight, so you spend hours online sifting through all the different options. Hours. Once you get by all the ads for tour packages and rental cars and find the flights you want, you discover you've been hit by hidden fees. Marketplace's Dan Grech reports that people are getting so fed up with travel Web sites, they're turning back to the trusty travel agent.
DAN GRECH: The survey, conducted by Forrester Research, found just one in three people believes travel Web sites do a good job. That's down significantly from one year ago.
HENRY HARTEVELDT: You don't want to anger one out of three customers, especially in a recession.
That's Henry Harteveldt, the study's author.
HARTEVELDT: The travel industry fiddled while Rome burned. They failed to take advantage of the boom times and the profits they made and reinvest those in better Web sites. Now they pay the price.
The survey found 26 percent of travelers would be willing to try a bricks and mortar agent, up from 23 percent a year ago. Alex Trettin runs Travel Leaders, an agency in Tacoma, Wash. He says he charges a fee, but saves people time and money.
ALEX TRETTIN: What I do is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, live, breathe and love travel. And so, I'm probably going to be better at planning your vacation than you are.
Would-be travelers say they're frustrated with extra fees that pop-up online and the confusing array of choices for flights and hotels. Michael Going is president of Funjet Vacations, a company that bundles travel packages. He says despite the frustrations, online travel won't disappear.
MICHAEL GOING: Smart companies, big companies, successful companies, they'll make the technological investments and evolve to be more user friendly. But so will travel agents.
He says agents increasingly are using their own Web sites to lure in passengers, and then convince them it's easier to use an agent.
I'm Dan Grech for Marketplace.
As with any professional service, there will always be those who view the product as a commodity and only look at price rather than value of what they receive. The internet provides a platform of making the travel experience less about wants and needs and focuses entirely on cost. Fortunately a majority of travelers appreciate experience, continuing education, and the personal touch provided by a human. Travel consultants value their client relationships and do all possible to ensure a worry free experience and thus a repeat customer.
We started an online booking system for a large corporation a few years ago, and found that if given a choice, travelers preferred booking with an agent 94% to 6%. People use the internet to get information, but when they want to book, they almost always prefer a live agent. Trust is such an important factor that we are starting to talk to our customers on Skype so that we can see facial expressions of what they like and don't like. You can't do that on the internet. Elise Shane www.planetamex.com
You guys failed to mention that the largest online travel company, Expedia hasn't had *any* booking fees since March. All it takes is a glance at the latest earnings reports to tell that while lower prices throughout the travel industry has resulted in lower revenues, bookings are only down 5% from last year which is impressive considering the tough climate.
