During two weeks in August, HTC reviewed 75 hotel sites offered by the 30 largest hotel companies. Each site was examined to determine if user help is available on the site’s home page and on its reservation page. The results of the survey are indicated in the accompanying chart.
If there was any doubt that customer support or online help is vital to site users, it was quickly dispelled as we undertook the survey by the serious problems we encountered in using 12 of the sites, often when attempting to access the reservation page or to view rates and availability.
HTC’s survey found that 89 percent of the sites visited provide some user support on the home page while 80 percent offered some sort of user support on the reservation processing page. On the surface it would appear that hotel companies are providing needed user support.
Looking deeper, however, we found that user support on most hotel sites is limited—indeed sometimes very limited. On 39 percent of the sites, only generic “contact us” functionality or a toll-free number for their reservation center on their home page was provided. On the reservation page, help is even harder to find with almost 43 percent providing only generic “contact us” functionality or a toll-free reservation center number.
“Contact us” functionality on sites is often a catch-all of options including such things as brochure requests, guest stay feedback, guest satisfaction surveys, site privacy policies, media inquiries, greeting cards, investor relations, employment opportunities and more. The most common help function provided by the “contact us” option is an e-mail form (for feedback or problem solving). Few sites, however, provide an e-mail response time commitment.
Moving up the scale of support, some of the reviewed sites offer specialized Internet user support including answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) that relate to the site, to online reservation processing or to topics that are more general. Others provide a special Internet support toll-free number or step-by-step instructions on completing an online reservation. But, the number of sites offering this level of support is not high—about 30 percent provided it on the home page, but only 20 percent provided it on the reservation page.
Two of the reviewed sites provided detailed instructions by using pop-up windows. Six Continents offers a pop-up window on its newly redesigned site that provides both new and returning users with an overview of site changes as well as detailed instructions for new users on how to make online reservations. Four Seasons Hotels offers an “online users guide” in its pop-up window. Recognizing that many customers might not be familiar with how to print material displayed in a pop-up window, Four Seasons provides the instructions on how to do so.
A few sites have adopted the support strategy of walking users step-by-step through the online reservation process. The site for hotels at Walt Disney World provides a list that checks off each step as it is completed in the booking process. Outrigger Hotels takes a similar approach in leading its users through the process.
What do Baymont Inns, Hilton Hotels Group, Red Roof Inns and Woodfield Suites have in common? They make up approximately 10 percent of the sites in the survey that provide “push-to-talk” user support on their sites. “Push-to-talk” permits a user to click on a button on the open page to access technology that allows them to talk directly with a reservation agent, either through a phone number or through the microphone on their computer. Each company offers a slightly different version.
Hilton provides “push-to-talk” service to users in not only the United States and Canada but also in eight other countries (the United Kingdom, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, Australia, Japan and Dubai). When Hilton offices in these countries are closed, the push-to-talk button is suppressed and a message is displayed indicating this. The “push-to-talk” service is provided on each of the Hilton brand sites.
While other companies offering the “push-to-talk” support do not offer worldwide support, they do provide an added service of permitting the user to select a call time (in 15 minutes from now, for example). This is useful to users who have only one phone line or who would rather delay talking with an agent.
HTC tested the “push-to-talk” functionality on each of the sites where it is offered. Each site returned the call request immediately although there was a slight hold time (under 10 seconds) waiting for an agent to come on the line.
While “push-to-talk” is considered the highest level of user support and very easy to use, the technology must draw on the resources of a customer service center or central reservation office to provide this service to the user. Staff responding to “push-to-talk” requests must be suitably trained in both basic Internet use and online reservation processing.
The results of HTC’s survey overall would indicate that hotel companies have yet to embrace the idea of providing extensive user support. As hotel Web sites continue to attract users, particularly those unfamiliar with making reservations online, insufficient site support threatens to undermine an important sales channel, presenting a significant competitive disadvantage to those hotel companies that are not up to this challenge.
Judith P. Burns is executive vice president of Hospitality Technology Consulting. She can be reached at judy@burns-htc.com.