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| Customer Support and Trust & Security are Most Important Aspects of Overall Customer Experience for Hotel Reservation Websites - Latest Research from Keynote Systems Reveals |
SAN MATEO, Calif., Apr 14, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), today announced the results of the Keynote Competitive Research Industry Study examining U.S. Hotel Reservation websites. In the 2011 U.S. Hotel Reservation Sites study Hotels.com took first place for Best Overall Customer Experience and Marriott.com came in first for Best Overall Technical Quality for their websites. The entire study is available for immediate purchase. To request more information please visit: http://bit.ly/ushotelsites. Winners of Keynote Competitive Research studies are invited to participate in the company's Online Excellence Program which recognizes the "best of the best" websites as ranked in the studies. The rankings are based on responses from real users, who were observed as they accomplished tasks on each of the sites studied, as well as real data collected through Keynote website monitoring to assess the technical quality of the sites. For each study, Keynote recognizes the companies with the overall top ranking, as well as those exhibiting excellence in specific categories. For the 'Customer Experience' portion of the study, Keynote observed and conducted online interviews with 1,800 prospective air travel customers as they interacted with the websites of a total of nine leading hotels and online travel agencies (200 people per site): Expedia, Hilton, Hyatt, Hotels.com, Marriott, Orbitz, Priceline, Marriott and Travelocity. For the 'Technical Quality' portion of the study, Keynote performed 6,000 total measurements for each site, for a total of 54,000 total measurements, from 12 locations in the U.S. Keynote Competitive Research produces leading industry research using the company's commercially available Web performance monitoring and real user experience testing products. Keynote regularly evaluates the current state of online customer experience, technical quality (responsiveness/reliability) and implementation of best practices on leading websites across a wide variety of vertical markets including financial services, automotive, media/entertainment, retail, travel and technology. More Information about the Customer Experience Rankings for Hotel/Travel Websites For the 'Customer Experience' component of the study, Keynote sent 200 U.S. resident Internet users to each of the nine websites. The online panelists were asked to evaluate the website's home page, then to use the site to find hotel accommodations in a major city for specific check-in/check-out dates. Panelists were asked to look for accommodations that would best suit their needs, including price, special amenities, and availability for specific dates. Once panelists found suitable accommodations they were asked to make note of the room rates per nightand go as far as possible in the booking process without actually entering payment information. Finally, panelists were asked to utilize the sites' customer support features to find the answer to a question or problem they may have had when looking for accommodations. The study revealed that when tested by actual users Hotels.com offers the strongest Overall Customer Experience, placing first in Brand Impact and Customer Satisfaction, and placing second to Expedia in Conversion Impact. Other key findings include:
"Based on our analysts' observations and interviews with our panel of actual users, our study of US hotel reservation websites revealed that when booking hotel reservations online trust and security, customer support and the booking process are the top determining factors of a positive customer experience," said Christopher Musto, general manager of the Keynote Competitive Research group at Keynote. More Information about theTechnical Quality Rankingsin the U.S. Hotel/Travel Website Study In addition to evaluating customer experience with its panel of actual users, the Keynote study also examined two broad aspects of technical quality: responsiveness and reliability. Responsiveness comprises: high speed response, DSL (midband) response, response time consistency, geographic uniformity and load handling, while reliability is comprised of availability and outages. For the 'Technical Quality' portion of the study, using measurement computers located in 12 cities across the U.S., Keynote measured a typical transaction of searching for and reserving a hotel room online. Each measured transaction began at the site's Home Page, searched for hotels in New York, NY and ended at the reservation page that prompts the user to enter his/her personal information. Based on the thousands of transactions monitored over the course of the study, Marriott.com ranked first in Overall Technical Quality. In the two components of 'Technical Quality,' Sheraton set the standard for responsiveness (or speed), while Marriott led the group in reliability and was third in responsiveness. In order to collect the Technical Quality data Keynote used its Transaction Perspective(R) product, the leading real browser based service for measuring and monitoring website performance from the end user perspective. With Keynote Transaction Perspective the company examines website performance from multiple geographic locations by simulating users clicking through transactions on a website. Keynote collected more than 6,000 data points that detailed each of the sites' technical performance in terms of page responsiveness and reliability. The study is available for purchase from Keynote and comes with extensive analysis of brand impact, acquisition impact, reliability and responsiveness and the factors that drive sites' performance in these areas. Clients will receive an executive presentation, extensive back-up charts and illustrations, and online access to all clickstreams, verbatims, question responses and panel facts for all panelists at all sites for all tasks and can download and use this data in their own research. To inquire about a copy, please visit us online: http://bit.ly/ushotelsites Follow Keynote on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/KeynoteSystems and www.twitter.com/Keynote_Mobile About Keynote Keynote Systems (NASDAQ:KEYN) is the global leader in Internet and mobile cloud monitoring. We provide companies with solutions for continuously improving the online experience. Founded in 1995, Keynote delivers testing, monitoring and measurement products and services for any enterprise including online portals, e-commerce sites, B2B sites, mobile operators and mobile infrastructure providers. Keynote products and services help companies improve customer experience in four areas: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming and real user experience testing. Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority(TM), Keynote has a market-leading on-demand infrastructure of over 3,000 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 275 locations around the world. Keynote's 2,800 customers represent top Internet and mobile companies including American Express, AT&T, Disney, eBay, E*TRADE, Expedia, Google, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, T-Mobile and Vodafone. 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 1-800-KEYNOTE. Keynote(R), DataPulse(R), CustomerScope(R), Keynote CE Rankings(R), Keynote Customer Experience Rankings(R), Perspective(R), Keynote Red Alert(R), Keynote Traffic Perspective(R), Keynote WebEffective(R), The Internet Performance Authority(R), MyKeynote(R) , SIGOS(R), SITE(R), Keynote(TM), The Mobile & Internet Performance Authority(TM), Screen Sensing Technology and Keynote FlexUse(TM) are trademarks or registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2011 Keynote Systems, Inc. SOURCE: Keynote Systems, Inc. Keynote Systems, Inc. |