Understanding travel consumer behaviour
By Darren Cronian on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

As a consumer I rarely stick to the same travel company. I prefer to shop around but if I have a bad experience with a company I’d never use them again. My dad always books his Florida holiday with Travel city direct, he doesn’t check to see if he can get the holiday cheaper.

Understanding travel consumer behaviour

Writing this blog I have come to understand a little more about consumer behaviour, and not all of us act the same when planning and booking our holiday. I’d like to know do you use different travel companies or stick with the same company?


Similar posts


Keep up-to-date by subscribing to our weekly newsletter or RSS feed



8 responses to “Understanding travel consumer behaviour”

Simon | 19 February, 2008 at 1:15 pm

I’ve been on holiday 3 times in the past 4 years (1 sun, 2 ski), and each time I’ve booked it differently.

The Sun holiday was through Expedia, and I found the experience excellent and would definately consider booking with them the next time I want to go.

The Ski holidays, one we packaged up ourselves, which was trouble free and flawless. This year we went with DirectSki, and this was my first experience of a proper Charter Travel Agent trip - let’s just say I won’t be going down that route again ;)

Darren Cronian | 19 February, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Simon, I don’t know why but I find the Expedia site to be difficult to navigate, maybe if I used it more I might get to grips with it, but its not the easiest site in my opinion.

I’ve never been on a ski holiday, always fancied trying snowboarding though, not sure why!

Suzanne | 19 February, 2008 at 1:55 pm

I’ve never used a travel agent, but if I book through anyone besides the hotel directly, I use hotels.com. I do check with other sites, but keep coming back to them. I’ve had good service when I unexpectedly needed to cancel, or when I’ve had a complaint. These days, though, I usually find the best deal through the hotel’s own website.

I rely on TripAdvisor.com for reviews of potential lodging and attractions. I’ve planned several international and domestic trips using the recommendations there, and haven’t been disappointed yet.

foxnomad | 19 February, 2008 at 3:07 pm

I mainly stick with FareCompare or Kayak — if I can’t get the deal I want on either of those, I’ll start browsing individual airline websites.

Darren Cronian | 19 February, 2008 at 3:27 pm

Suzanne, yes, I’ve been pretty impressed with hotels.com and have used them to help me find hotels for the NY, Boston and in Canada.

Fox, is FareCompare predominately US flights? I love Kayak, so easy to use and always provides good results.

John | 23 February, 2008 at 1:14 pm

It depends where I am going.

For a short break I will organise it myself, for a long haul holiday I would usually book with a travel company or agency.

Sammie | 23 February, 2008 at 1:15 pm

My parents have booked to go to Croatia but have organised the holiday themselves. I’m alittle worried that they will get stranded.

MikeK | 23 February, 2008 at 1:15 pm

I walk into a travel agency and let them do all the organising.

Please post a comment