FREE ESSAY ON TRAVEL WEBSITE BENCHMARKING REPORT

TRAVEL WEBSITE BENCHMARKING REPORT

Benchmarking Report:
Travel and Hospitality Website
February 20, 2001
Table of Contents
A. Report Purpose............................................... 2
B. Executive Summary
1. Methodology............................................. 3
2. Findings................................................... 4
3. Advice..................................................... 5
C. Comparisons 
1. Usefulness Defined...................................... 7
2. Scoring Matrix........................................... 8
3. Description of Attributes............................... 9
4. Weighting Scheme....................................... 11
5. Brief Description of Benchmarked Sites.............. 12
6. Design Insights........................................... 14
A. Report Purpose
The purpose of this report is to gain a better understanding of what comprises a well
thought out travel and hospitality website. This benchmarking report will analyze four
popular travel and hospitality websites based on certain evaluative attributes. These
attributes will then be ranked in a manner explained further in the methodologies section
(B1). Through analysis of the four websites chosen and our respective findings, various
design insights (C6) will come to the forefront as more useful or less useful than
others. The term usefulness will be elaborated on in section C1. This research will allow
us, in building a travel and hospitality website, to employ the most useful designs and
realize what attributes on which to focus. In the executive summary section we will offer
advice (B3), having surveyed the leading sites as to what could be improved upon or
developed further to enhance the overall experience at each particular website. 
Executive Summary
B1. Methodology
The following section titled methodolosy will describe our approach to the benchmarking
report including our testing criteria. The task presented to us was to benchmark travel
related web sites. There were several possibilities in terms of which sites to use. Our
group chose to benchmark the four most visited travel web sites: Travelocity.com,
Expedia.com, Lowestfare.com, and Cheaptickets.com (source: Consumer Reports). Consumers
have visited these four web sites the most, therefore they must have provided value for
their consumer. We felt it would be beneficial for our group to benchmark them, in order
to gain insight on how our web site will ultimately look, and what functions it will
provide.
After we chose which travel web sites to benchmark, the next step was to choose the
attributes upon which the comparisons would be made. We chose seven attributes, which we
felt encompassed what the typical consumer would look for in a travel web site. They
were: 
1) Ease of Use/Usability/Navigability/Site Map
2) Info Content/Pricing Info/Content/Updates
3) Appearance/Layout/Structure/Consistency/Graphics
4) Site Speed/Download Time/Reliability
5) Buying Online/Simplicity of Purchase/Member
6) Site Support/Help Desk
7) Products/Selection/Ability to Compare
Each attribute has multiple descriptors because it is of our opinion that they are
closely related. The Description of Attributes Measured section (C3) will describe these
attributes in further detail.
Each of the attributes was applied to the four web sites, and was rated on a scale of 1
to 5, with 1 being the best. Furthermore, each of the attributes was weighted, these
weights can be found in the Weighting Scheme section (C4).
Once all the information was gathered, conclusions were drawn on the quality of four web
sites. Finally, drawing on those conclusions, advice was given to the consumer on the web
sites, so they can make a more informed decision when choosing which of the top travel
web sites they should use. These can be found in the Findings and Advice sections, which
immediately follow. 
B2. Findings 
The goal of this Findings section is to set forth the information we gathered regarding
each website after following our research methodologies. In surveying each of the
aforementioned websites, many commonalities as well as differences were found. The areas
the Findings are grouped into include:
? Overall format/Ease of use
? Relevant links presented 
? Speed of site/links
Format
Overall, the sites were easy to use and for the most part uncluttered. The one exception
to this was in Travelocity. This site, while informative, did result in sensory overload
when viewed. Expedia, Lowestfare and Cheaptickets all seemed to have just about the right
amount of information/links available to make sure the customer could quickly find what
they needed without being overwhelmed. The forms to enter data for the desired
trips/packages were quite easy to use and pull-down menus were generally available to
speed transactions.
Links Available
In this area, all of the sites excelled. Links for tours, cruises, contests, hotels, car
rentals and just about every other vacation/business trip related good could be found on
the sites. A person should have no trouble selecting which of these fits their needs.
Expedia and Travelocity however take the top position as far as these offerings go. They
seem to have more sponsorship deals than Cheaptickets and Lowestfare. The two former
sites directly offered a solution for the consumers entire travel experience while the
latter only offer planed tickets.
Speed
Here again, Travelocity and Expedia won top honors. Lowestfare and Cheaptickets offered
fewer links and their pages also took a longer time to load. This seems a bit out of
place in that Travelocity and Expedia each used a greater quantity and more detailed
graphics than the others. 
B3. Advice 
The following Advice section will briefly cover our advice to the company whose site we
tested/researched. Following is our brief advice for each of the four sites which may be
useful to both the business and consumer.
Travelocity.com
As a market leader, travelocity.com excels in most of the attributes that we chose as the
most important. One thing that could be done is to not put so much information on the
homepage. Clearly defined links could save space and reduce some of the clutter. To help
new customers, the homepage should also emphasize the site guide link by making it bigger
and describing what it does. The website should continue to avoid using extensive banners
and providing the customer with a straightforward way of having the most up to date
information on the purchasing options.
Expedia.com
Similar to Travelocity, Expedia is a market leader and has a website that is better than
most. Tabs are clearly laid out in the top portion of the page and the consumer can tell
where they are at all times. The membership option does not allow the business to learn
much about their visitors. The only information gathered when a customer becomes a member
is the name and location of the visitor. Perhaps the site could probe for interests in
terms of destinations and methods of travel and then provide more detailed travel and
lodging suggestions. Other than this aspect, Expedia has developed a very inclusive site
with extensive yet user-friendly features that will bring first-time visitors back.
Lowestfare.com
Lowestfare.com does an acceptable job with their site. There is not one glaring weakness
in their approach. It is easy to use, even for people who have not been to a travel web
site before. There is adequate customer service, and becoming a member is relatively
easy. They have enough information about their packages to satisfy most people. Their
main problem is that they do not excel at anything. They do not really give the consumer
reason to not visit the other leading travel web sites. Other sites, such as Travelocity
and Expedia, have a more extensive selection of packages and flights available. Those two
also have a more stylish and fun layout, compared to Lowestfare.com's minimalist look.
Therefore, it is our advice that consumers should use Lowestfare.com as a second or third
choice for their travel-related needs. There are other web sites that do the job just a
little bit better. 
Cheaptickets.com
Cheaptickets.com should definitely try to make the appearance of its site more appealing.
It seemed as if Cheaptickets did not want to spend much money in its site, hence keeping
its reputation of being cheap. Yet, a change of fonts, colors, and design details should
not cost much if anything. Cheap Tickets needs a more professional look because some
consumers will be turned off by the simplistic look. Also, the download time for the site
and its different pages is rather slow and could be made faster by possibly limiting the
amount of information on each page. They do have a lot of advertisements on each of their
pages, which may help them in terms of cost, but hurts them in terms of customer appeal.
The site was obviously prepared with cost in mind which may be perhaps passed on to the
consumers. 
Comparisons
C1. Usefulness Defined
There are two main components that determine the usefulness of a system. They include the
utility and usability of the system. The utility of the system is determined by whether
or not the system is relevant, measured by whether it does anything that people care
about and if it solves key issues or problems. If the system is irrelevant, regardless of
whether or not it is easy to use, then the system will be useless. The second component
that determines the usefulness of a system, its usability, asks the question of whether
or not the system can be used by a user, and if so, can the user use it effectively.
Usability also can be further described by its five main characteristics: ease of
learning, efficiency in use, memorability, error frequency and severity, and subjective
satisfaction. To understand these characteristics we need to understand how they are each
measured. First, ease of learning is measured by how fast a first-time user can learn the
user interface to accomplish basic tasks. Second, efficiency of use is measured by how
fast a user can accomplish tasks, after he or she has become an experienced user of the
system. The third characteristic, memorability, is measured by the ability of a previous
user of the system to use the system again more effectively then the previous time,
without having to re-learn how to use the system. The fourth characteristic, error
frequency and severity, is measured by the number and severity of errors that users make
using the system, and how easy is it for the user to recover from these errors. Finally,
subjective satisfaction measures how much the user enjoys using the system. Both utility
and usability of a system, along with all their characteristics, determine the usefulness
of a system.
*Insert excel matrix sheet here*
C3. Description of Attributes Measured 
The previous table showed how we ranked the four sites and this section will describe the
specific criteria that went into the separate groups of attributes we ranked. We selected
seven main attributes, or rather groups of attributes, which we used to describe the
websites we evaluated. Each group of attributes contain several specific and unique
characteristics which are all closely related to each other. When selecting our groups of
attributes, we considered the list of attributes picked for last semester's evaluation of
laptop websites. We determined which of those attributes were imperative to an evaluation
of travel websites, and then determined if any other characteristics needed to be added
to a group of attributes, or if any of the attributes could be consolidated into another
group.
Our first group of attributes we chose included Ease of Use/ Usability/ Navigability/
Site Map. We defined ease of use along with navigability as how easy it was to navigate
the website, including moving forward and back from page to page and window to window, as
well as using hyperlinks, scroll bars, and shortcuts. Specifically, we used our previous
definition of usability, including its five characteristics: ease of learning, efficiency
of use, memorability, error frequency and severity, and subjective satisfaction. For the
site map, the first thing we investigated was whether or not the website had one, and if
so, was it clear and did it have hyperlinks to each part of the website.
Our second group of attributes included Information Content/ Pricing Information/
Updates. We described information content as including destinations, dates, prices,
details of packages, as well as complimentary information such as trip highlights,
options and itineraries. Also, pricing information had to be exact, and include
alternatives to compare to. Updates meant that the website had to demonstrate that all
information is current and that the website were constantly updated. 
Third, we chose Appearance/ Layout/ Structure/ Consistency/ Graphics. These visual
characteristics are very subjective in opinion when evaluated, but uniformly had to
demonstrate a visual pleasing, captivating, and well structured/ layed-out website. Once
again, the presence of scroll bars, buttons, and neatly organized windows were expected
for these criteria. 
Fourth, we chose Buying Online/ Simplicity of Purchase/ Security. This was perhaps most
difficult to test because we never were going to make an actual purchase. However, we
attempted to simulate an actual purchase as closely as we could, which oftentimes
required becoming a member of the website. We also checked privacy statements that
indicated how secure the website was.
Our fifth group of attributes included Site Speed/ Download Time/ Reliability. These
quality assurance-type issues were difficult to distinguish because speed issues are
sometimes related to the specific website and sometimes related to the computer hardware
you are using to test the website. We attempted to distinguish the two by inputting as
many options into interface question boxes, and then getting a response, and then
attempting to crash the website by performing tasks quickly as well as simultaneously.
Our sixth group of attributes was whether or not the websites had Site Support/ Help
Desk. We defined site support as whether or not you could use the website to ask any
questions a user may have about anything on the website. Also, the presence of a help
desk would indicate that questions about the website could be answered, and if they could
not, was there contact information that would point a user in the right direction.
Finally, our last group of attributes included Products/ Selection/ Ability to Compare.
Products and selection needed to be ample, including many alternatives to evaluate,
including different airlines and lodging accommodations. 
C4. Weighting Scheme 
Reasons for specific weights can be understood from our preceeding description of the
attributes.
Attribute Weight
Ease of Use/ Usability/ Navigability/ Site Map .2
Information Content/ Pricing Information/ Updates .2
Appearance/ Layout/ Structure/ Consistency/ Graphics .15
Buying Online/ Simplicity of Purchase/ Security .15
Site Speed/ Download Time/ Reliability .1
Site Support/ Help Desk .1
Products/ Selection/ Ability to Compare .1
C5. Description of Benchmarked Sites
Expedia.com is one of the market leading travel and hospitality sites on the web. The
site allows reservation booking and online payments methods for members, yet you do not
have to purchase anything to become a member. The site is well designed structurally with
page tabs telling the customer which portion of the site they are in at all times.
Graphics and other flashy multimedia are used sparingly, increasing the reliability and
decreasing the download time for pages. Packages are automatically ranked by price once
the member selects the destination and times of travel, information content is average
due to a small amount of info about particular hotels, airlines etc. When evaluating the
site an actual purchase could not be made so there was no way to tell whether a detailed
itinerary was provided or how the online buying process and site support should be
ranked. Overall the site was well organized, attractive, provided an adequate amount of
information, was easy to navigate and responded quickly to queries.
Travelocity.com does a great job in creating a website that offers the customer its
service. This website is very easy to use and navigable as the links are clearly defined,
there are site shortcuts, and the customer can easily go back to previous sections. Also,
by clicking on the site guide link, a new customer can learn all of the details about the
features of travelocity.com. As far as the information content of the site goes, the
packages are fully detailed with certain options in bold and specific pricing. It can
also be assumed that the site is frequently updated with the newest information. The
appearance, layout, and structure of the website is organized, but there is a lot of
information presented to the customer on the homepage that may make it appear a little
cluttered. The speed of the site is fast going from link to link and selecting various
options. It can also be considered reliable too because it does not get overloaded with
options or crash when navigating. Travelocity.com allows navigation of the site and
offers membership advantages. The purchasing process is simple and straightforward. The
website guarantees the safety of online purchases through their Shop Safe Guarantee. Site
support and help desk is amply provided for the customers as there are FAQ links, and
option to e-mail, and phone numbers to call with questions. This particular website
offers a wide selection and takes into consideration the customers' specifications. There
is great ability for the user to compare the packages offered.
Lowestfare.com sells discounted tickets and published fares on all major airlines and
provides reservations for hotels, car rentals, and discounted cruise and tour packages.
These products are available through the company's three distribution channels: the
company's Web site www.lowestfare.com; 1-800-Lowestfare, toll-free reservation and
customer service center; and more than 10,000 travel agencies. Lowestfare.com is
consistently ranked, by Media Metrix in the top five most visited sites in the travel and
tourism category. The company, owned by financier Carl Icahn, recently acquired Jetset
Tours, an international airline ticket consolidator and tour operator, and Maupintour, a
luxury escorted tour provider. Within the site itself you always know where you are, and
can go to almost any other page pretty easily, with options at the top and bottom of
screen for the main sections. The site does not have a site map. There is a lot of
information on the packages they sell and there is also a useful Travel Guide section,
which highlights places to visit in some of the top world cities. Not the fanciest site,
but it is consistent. Does have an amateurish feel. It's minimalist look helps with the
overall speed of the site. You buy using a secure server, takes you through booking the
flight, hotel or car rental step by step. Only members can purchase. The site is also
personalized for members and has a 24/7 customer service number and an email address.
They have two separate calling centers, so they have plenty of people for customer
support. Just not as many options as other related web sites.
Cheaptickets.com is a relatively simple travel site. It is very easy to navigate through
despite it not having a site map, but the appearance of the site is not very appealing.
It is very simple with the use of primary colors and not much graphical detail at all.
Even the logo, Cheap Tickets is not eye-catching. The information on the site is somewhat
thorough. A lot of their flights and hotels and overall packages have for example, from
$79 as opposed to exact prices, but there is a great ability to compare many different
hotels and flights in a designated area which do state exact prices and fares. Yet, it
does stay consistent in this layout and it is very easy to go back and forth between the
sections of the website without getting lost. As for the site speed and download time,
Cheap Tickets is not very fast and it takes a while for all the information on each page
to download. The biggest and best feature about the Cheap Tickets website is their site
support. Help features are available at every single step of the site along with
frequently asked questions that any consumer might ask. This is probably why each page
takes so long to download in that this help option is so readily available. The other
main feature of the site is its focus on low prices. It could be the reason for the cheap
look of the site and its simplicity and that itself may appeal to many consumers.
C6. Design Insights
In the first section we discussed the Benchmarking Report's purpose... to help us better
understand what makes an outstanding travel and hospitality website. We then went on to
describe our methodologies, findings and advice in the Executive Summary. The last main
section dealt with our comparisons of the four sites we chose to benchmark. In this
section, titled Design Insights, we will expand on what we discovered at these four
sites, what that teaches us about a first class travel and hospitality website, and how
we will choose to apply this in our own development of a travel and hospitality site with
a particular focus in Atlanta.
All four sites did there job in the broadest sense. All four offered the consumer some
specialized product and/or service in the sites particular niche. Expedia and Travelocity
encompassed the most products and services and are extremely well-developed, coherent
websites. Cheaptickets and Lowestfare did as their name suggests provide a much more
discounted product. At the latter two sites service was cut as well as site development
in an attempt to pass savings on to the consumer. These two categories of travel and
hospitality sites are indeed extreme opposites, the customer focused sites with a broad
range of products as well as services and the cut-rate, discount provider with a product
focus and an eye on the bottom-line.
Our attempt in developing a travel and hospitality site is to bring these two different
aspects together and blend them into a low-cost full-service website. While some aspects
of our site may be limited by our timeframe and hardware constraints we will build a site
that is attractive as well as cost and time efficient. The site will include, similar to
Expedia and Travelocity, a customer feedback interface in which previous customers can
post their experiences and dealings with us for potential new customers to review. We
will provide as much information and pricing content as is feasible given our
constraints. In addition we will use graphics that load quickly so even customers with
slow internet access can view our site without delay. In order to build a repeat business
with customers we will be providing a member login iterface that will record to our
shared database the specifics about our customers and their travel habits and any rewards
points, similar to frequent flyer miles, that they may have earned. 
This benchmark report has greatly helped our understanding of the different features and
aspects of a quality travel and hospitality website. This knowledge gathered will now be
applied to our own site development.