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New Orbitz Survey Finds Travelers Prefer to Book With Online Agencies to Comparison Shop Multiple Hotel Brands, Access Lowest Rates |
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Majority (91%) want to comparison shop multiple hotel brands when booking a hotel. According to the Orbitz Hotel Survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive®, nearly half of consumers (49%) believe web sites like Orbitz offer the lowest hotel rates more than calling hotels directly (25%) or using hotel websites (22%) do. |
Amid industry discussion on where consumers find the best hotel deals, with online agencies or through hotels directly, the survey found that over the next 12 months, more online travelers (43%) anticipate using third-party sites like Orbitz most frequently for hotel reservations than calling a hotel directly (40%) or using hotel websites (35%).
"More than half of all hotels booked online are booked by a third-party agency such as Orbitz," according to a 2004 study by PhoCusWright. The study also confirmed, "Third-party sites offer compelling deals and shopping options and will continue to represent the greater share of hotel Internet bookings."
Low prices aren't the only reason consumers turn to sites like Orbitz when booking hotel rooms. Besides price, the majority (65%) of travelers look for the ability to search for hotels near a specific address, and another 33 percent value the ability to search for hotels.
"This study confirms that the vast majority of travelers want to shop multiple hotel brands when booking a hotel," said Kurt Weinsheimer, vice president of Hotels at Orbitz.
The Harris Interactive® survey also validates that online travelers do not want to call hotels directly to haggle over rates. Among those surveyed, nearly one-third (27%) said that they would avoid calling a hotel directly to request a lower rate because there was no guarantee the rate would be lower than what they already found online; 21 percent indicated that they wouldn't call a hotel directly because they were uncomfortable negotiating by phone; another 17 percent said they don't have the time to make such a call; and 8 percent said they don't want to spend the money on calling a hotel directly.
Methodology
Harris Interactive® fielded the survey from August 5-9, 2004, via its QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus service, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,464 U.S. adults (aged 18+), of whom 1,662 have stayed in a hotel/made a hotel reservation or booked a vacation package that included a hotel stay within the past year. Data were weighted to reflect the total U.S. online adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and amount of time spent online. In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall sample. Statistical precision for the smaller sample results is plus or minus 4 percentage points of what they would be if the entire population of adults with online access who have stayed in a hotel/made a hotel reservation or booked a vacation package that included a hotel stay within the past year had been polled with complete accuracy. This online sample was not a probability sample.
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