According to information from the European Consumer Centers Network, the largest number of consumer complaints today are due to online travel services. The European Commission and consumer protection authorities studied 352 price comparison and travel booking portals in the entire EU and noted a number of discrepancies, especially in the way prices are calculated and presented. This means that it’s all the more important that companies equip their employees with the right tools to avoid frustration for business travelers.
Key results of the study at a glance:
- In a third of the cases, the first price shown didn’t match the final price.
- In almost a third of the cases, the total price or how the price was calculated are not clear.
- In a quarter of the cases, there was no indication that statements about a shortage of availability were strictly limited to the provider’s website.
- In a fifth of the cases, the special offers shown were not actually available.
Consequently, the consumer protection authorities have asked the operators of the websites in question to resolve this problem by bringing their practices in line with EU consumer laws, thereby ensuring complete price transparency.
Business travel
Many business travelers also use online booking portals and make their hotel reservations directly. They want to be able to make decisions on their own and have constant access to a variety of content and information. Companies are strongly advised to equip their traveling employees with the right tools to prevent frustration and to involve them in planning their own travel itinerary. There are many risks when hotel bookings are made outside of the company’s travel program:
- Losing hotel volume means losing negotiating leverage with preferred partners.
- When air and hotel reservations are not made in the same program, it becomes harder to take care of travelers in case of a crisis.
That’s why BCD Travel developed the hotel booking functionality in TripSource. It has the tools that business travelers like to use and provides information and booking options for over 600,000 hotels worldwide – from houses to hotel chains and independent boutique hotels.
If you also want your travelers to stay in-program and start using TripSource, please contact us.
