Many travel apps and websites created by legacy hotel, airline and rental car brands are lagging behind those of digital online travel agencies and travel industry disruptors such as Uber, Lyft and Airbnb, according to the J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Travel App Satisfaction Study and the J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Travel Website Satisfaction Study.
In addition, according to the survey, all travel industry websites — even those operated by digital natives — score substantially lower in customer satisfaction than do high-scoring websites in other industries, such as credit cards. Michael Taylor, travel intelligence lead at J.D. Power, said that given the crucial role they play, many travel apps and websites are still too complex for consumers to navigate and do not offer the most helpful information at the right time. JetBlue ranked highest in overall satisfaction among airline apps, IHG among hotel apps, Orbitz among OTA apps and Avis among car rental apps. Southwest Airlines ranked highest in satisfaction among airline websites while Choice Hotels ranked highest among hotels, Booking.com among OTA’s and National among car rental sites.