Glassbox Data Uncovers Slow Loading Times As Top Issue for Booking Travel via Websites and Apps

Survey results show travelers expect seamless booking experience with simpler search filters, price comparison tools and more flexibility

Glassbox, a leading provider of digital experience analytics for web and mobile applications, announces the release of its report, Beyond the Booking: A Look Inside Digital Experience for Travelers, highlighting consumers’ pain points when digitally booking travel. Aimed at uncovering the interactions or roadblocks that cause travelers to abandon their customer journey, the survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers found that 72% of respondents prioritize easy-to-use search filters when booking travel. These insights underscore consumers’ frustrations and preferences when it comes to travel.

“Our data overall is showing that travelers will abandon bookings due to poor experiences on both website and mobile applications”

The survey shows that the convenience of on-hand mobile technology has encouraged preferential booking on native mobile apps among Millennials and Gen Z respondents – 49% of Millennials and 44% of Gen Z noted a preference for booking travel via mobile app. Similarly, data from a leading hotel brand uncovered conversion rates from native mobile apps were almost double that of conversions from desktop web.

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Additional Glassbox data highlights include:

• Easy-to-use search filters (72%), price comparison tools (69%) and flexible booking options (62%) are top features respondents consider essential in a hotel/travel website or mobile app.
• Consumers are increasingly likely to try rentals like Airbnb or VRBO if dates or rooms desired are not shown as available when trying to book – roughly 1 in 3 across Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z respondents.
• When consumers hit roadblocks with a digital booking, 40% will simply turn to another hotel/travel website, app or booking engine.
• Travelers signed into a hotel or booking website are more than 5X as likely to finish a booking as those who do not, according to a leading hotel brand working with Glassbox.

“Our data overall is showing that travelers will abandon bookings due to poor experiences on both website and mobile applications,” says Glassbox CMO Asim Zaheer. “On top of this, they are very specific in what they expect their booking experience to be and what pain points would cause them to turn away pretty immediately. Travel and hospitality brands need to leverage this kind of data to better understand what a seamless user experience looks like for today’s travelers, in order to meet their evolving needs and expectations.”

According to a study conducted by Google, as page load time goes from one second to five seconds, the probability of bounce increases by 90%. If a page takes more than 5 seconds to load, there is a high chance visitors will leave the website. Slow load times are the top issue Glassbox’s survey respondents experience (46%) when using a hotel/travel website or mobile app. This is followed by 42% who said difficulty finding relevant information, and 35% who cited confusing navigation as their main pain points.

Consumers’ digital journeys are becoming more and more complex. It’s crucial to optimize website and mobile app speed as well as offer easy search, price comparison and flexible navigation to improve user experience and reduce bounce rates.

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