TTG Intelligence
Haven keeps digital crown
Haven beat off other top travel brands by offering the best digital experience. Patrick Whyte finds out how the domestic holiday park business has done it again
big name travel brands. This is according to eDigital-
N
Research’s latest eTravel Benchmark survey, which showed that the holiday park specialist took the top spot among travel websites for the second time.
In total, 51 UK travel websites
were surveyed across seven sectors, including airlines, hotel agents and online tour operators, using a mystery shopper technique between January and February this year. Although Haven did not finish top
ew research on customers’ online experience shows that British brand Haven is ranked top, ahead of other
in any of the individual categories its strong performance across the board meant that it scored 84.5%. In particular, users rated the interactive search features on its website highly and found the homepage appealing and easy to navigate. The research also showed a major
improvement for two companies in the Virgin Group. Virgin Atlantic gained 21 places to finish in second place with a score of 83% and Virgin Holidays was up to 13th place with 80.5%. According to the survey, each website had improved on a number of fronts, including first impressions, initial research and telephone customer services.
The other three places in the
top five were nabbed by Hoseasons (82.9%), which was down one place, Last Minute (82.6%), which was up 13 places to fourth spot, and First Choice with 82.5% in fifth place.
Constant tweaking Alison Dunn, head of ecommerce and customer conversion at Haven, said that she was “absolutely delighted” with the results of the survey. “We appeared at least in the top 15
in many of them [the categories] and came second in a couple,” she said, adding that “having a finger on the pulse in terms of analytics” enabled the company to continuously monitor and tweak the website. “Once a year we redesign it in line with our brochure” Dunn said. Haven can also tweak its website
depending on the season or even the weather. “We completely focus on conversions – whether it is through the trade or on the website,” she said.
Dunn also revealed that Haven was
currently working “on a couple of big projects”, including a new mobile enabled website. Derek Eccleston, research
director at eDigitalResearch, said this survey, as well as another one the company recently conducted, showed once again that online and mobile strategies were becoming increasingly important for the travel industry. “The eTravel Benchmark results
have often shown over the years that those brands that invest in their websites and offer a bit of ‘inspiration’ with interactive features and richer content, as well as support customers with a responsive and helpful telephone and email customer service, repeatedly perform better than their rivals,” he said.
Vanburgh House, Grange Drive, Hedge End, Hampshire SO30 2A7 T: 01489 772920 W:
edigitalresearch.com E:
derek.eccleston@
edigitalresearch.com
Sectors TOP 5 20 05.04.2012
HAVEN: 84.5.% VIRGIN ATLANTIC: 83% HOSEASONS: 82.9%
LASTMINUTE.COM: 82.6% FIRST CHOICE: 82.5%
Hotel Agents 79.7% Holiday camps and self catering 79.2%
Online tour operators 78.4% Airlines 74.2% Cruises 74.2% Online travel agents 73.8% Hotel chains 71.5%
Top 5 booking processes Travelodge: 88.8% Haven: 88.1%
Lastminute.com: 87.2% Travel Republic: 86.3% Kuoni: 85.7%
Databox
Bottom 5
Cunard: 68.4% Jet2: 67.8% Ryanair: 67.8% Holiday Inn: 66.8% Voyages Jules Verne: 66.7%
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