SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 2005--Keynote
Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN):
- Price, Selection Give Online Travel Agencies Edge Over Hotel
Web Sites
- Expedia, Travelocity Provide Best Online Customer Experience
- Keynote Study Examines Consumer Experience at Leading Lodging
Web Sites
Consumers are increasingly likely to book lodging online,
according to a new study performed by Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN),
The Internet Performance Authority(R). Keynote provides the industry's
most comprehensive competitive benchmarking of leading travel and
lodging Web sites through its syndicated research reports.
The Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings for the Lodging
Industry are based on research with 2,000 customers as they evaluated
and interacted with 10 leading travel and lodging Web sites. In
addition to traditional opinion data, Keynote's proprietary research
technology collects detailed qualitative and behavioral data as
customers perform tasks at each site.
The Expedia, Hilton, Hotels.com, Hyatt, Lodging.com, Marriott,
Orbitz, Sheraton, Travelocity, and Wyndham Web sites were evaluated as
part of this competitive benchmarking study.
Consumers Increasingly Likely to Book Lodging Online (vs. Phone)
The Keynote study revealed steady growth in the number of
consumers stating they use the Internet to book lodging accommodations
as compared to those using other methods, such as calling hotel
reservation lines or calling a travel agent. More than two-thirds
(67%) of consumers participating in the study reported that they are
likely to book on a hotel Web site as compared to just 57% who are
open to using a phone reservation system. Just 16% report a
willingness to use a travel agent.
"We've seen a continual increase in consumer comfort and use of
the Internet for booking travel arrangements, but this is the first
time we have seen all the online options for booking beating the
offline options," said Dr. Bonny Brown, director of research and
public services for Keynote. "We have come to a point where consumers
with Internet access are now more likely to book online as compared to
using the phone."
In 2003, Keynote research showed consumers as increasingly
comfortable with phone reservation systems, with nearly two-thirds
(63%) reporting that as a typical method for booking, as compared to
just 50% reporting willingness to use an online agency site and 59%
willing to use a hotel Web site. In January 2004, Keynote research
revealed that consumers preferred certain hotel sites to phone methods
for booking, but preferred phone service over booking on third-party
or agency sites. In its latest study, Keynote's annual benchmarking
revealed that consumers now prefer all online booking methods over
offline alternatives.
Price Still Paramount, Online Agencies Capitalize on Advantage
Despite the shift in preferred channels, price is still paramount
to consumers booking online, with 61% of consumers reporting this as
an important consideration. In fact, the top frustration for consumers
is also price-related, with one-in-four (24%) consumers complaining
that they did not get the best price when booking on a specific site.
Hotel and accommodation selection was a consideration of 33% of
consumers booking online and past experience with a hotel was a
consideration of 29%.
"Online agencies typically perform the best in demonstrating value
and selection to the consumer and thus perform the best in terms of
converting browsers into buyers," said Dr. Brown. "Hotel sites that do
provide strong search and comparison tools perform significantly
better than hotel sites as a whole, and can perform on par with online
agency sites."
The ability to compare prices was also reported as a critical
factor by 46% of consumers.
Expedia Leads, But Travelocity and Orbitz Make Big Gains
In fact, all the online travel agencies studied scored
significantly better than any hotel site, aside from Marriott, in
customer experience and customer conversion. Expedia, Travelocity and
Orbitz ranked as the best sites in the Keynote Customer Experience
(CE) Rankings, an overall measure of online customer experience based
on evaluation of more than 250 metrics. Online agency sites also
topped the Keynote Conversion Impact Index, which gauges the overall
likelihood of a visitor to book on a site or return to a site in the
future.
Keynote Customer Experience Keynote Conversion Impact Index
Rankings Rankings
--------------------------------- ------------------------------------
1 Expedia 1 Expedia
--------------------------------- ------------------------------------
2 Travelocity 2 Travelocity
--------------------------------- ------------------------------------
3 Orbitz 3 Hotels.com
--------------------------------- ------------------------------------
Although Expedia continues to lead the Keynote CE Rankings,
Travelocity and Orbitz have made significant gains in their customer
experience and conversion performance over the past year in which
Keynote benchmarked lodging industry sites. During this latest study,
more than 68% of consumers visiting Travelocity said they would likely
book lodging on the site in the future as compared to 62% stating that
in previous studies. More than 72% of Orbitz visitors expressed intent
to book on the site in the future, as compared to 62% in the previous
study.
Travelocity made gains with consumers in the study in large part
because of its improved customer support and ease of use, and Orbitz
made significant gains in ease of booking and price satisfaction.
Expedia performed strongly across all leading drivers of customer
satisfaction, notably in ease of booking, customer support and price
satisfaction.
The entire study, Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings for
the Lodging Industry, is a large-scale competitive benchmarking study
examining overall industry trends and providing analysis of specific
sites. The full report includes hundreds of additional data points, a
detailed analysis of the findings, and recommendations for improving
site performance. For further information about the full report, visit
http://www.keynote.com/syndicated.html.
Keynote Customer Experience Research
Keynote is the leading provider of customer experience research
services, offering both syndicated and custom research examining
consumer attitudes and behavior on the Web. Keynote's research
provides critical business insight into online customer experiences,
industry trends and competitive Web strategies for a variety of
vertical industries. In addition to traditional opinion data,
Keynote's proprietary research technology and access to a panel of
160,000+ consumers allows for the collection of detailed qualitative
and behavioral data that inform its reports.
Keynote's syndicated research includes two distinct types of
reports: the Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings, which provide
competitive benchmarking and rankings of the leading Web sites in a
specific industry; and Open Web Research (OWR), which takes a broader
look at the customer's experience across the entire Web when
performing specific tasks, such as booking business travel.
Keynote CE (CE) Rankings are available for a number of industries
including the retail, banking and credit card industries, as well as
several travel verticals, including the airline, cruise and rental car
industries. The Keynote CE Rankings are the successor to the Vividence
CE Rankings following Keynote's acquisition of Vividence in September
2004.
To learn more about Keynote's syndicated research offerings and
for a list of the various vertical industry reports that are
available, visit:
http://www.keynote.com/solutions/cem_syndicated_research.html
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq "KEYN"), The Internet
Performance Authority(R), is the worldwide leader in e-business
performance management services. Over 2,100 corporate IT departments
and 16,000 individual subscribers rely on Keynote's growing range of
measurement and monitoring, service level and customer experience
management services to improve e-business performance by reducing
costs, improving customer satisfaction and increasing profitability.
Keynote is viewed as The Internet Performance Authority due to the
company's global infrastructure of over 1,600 measurement computers in
more than 50 cities worldwide that capture and store on a daily basis
over 40 million Internet performance measurements, frequent media
citations quoting Keynote's Web performance data and analysis, the
company's market-leading Web performance indices for vertical markets
and leading customer research that provides critical business insight
into online customer experiences, industry trends and competitive Web
strategies.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California
and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at (650)
403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are
registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners.
(C) 2005 Keynote Systems, Inc.
CONTACT: Keynote
Dan Berkowitz, 650-403-3305
dberkowitz@keynote.com
or
Lippert Heilshorn & Associates
Chenoa Taitt, 212-838-3777
ctaitt@lhai.com
Michael Hopkins, 212-838-3777
mhopkins@lhai.com
SOURCE: Keynote Systems, Inc.