There’s no doubt that online travel is dominant but today I wanted to see if travel companies have improved consumer communication. A few years back I realised that the majority of travel companies did not allow consumers to contact them through a cheap method of communication – that’s email.

Have they improved, well I visited the websites of three big travel brands and three independent travel agencies to see who is the best at communicating with the consumer. The results are quite interesting, so let’s see who wins the travel rants consumer test.

Big Brands

Travel Republic

Provided an online facility which allowed me to raise any questions about my booking; provided address, telephone and fax number but no email address or contact form for any holiday queries or issues that I may have with their website. The contact details seemed to be hidden at the bottom of the about us page.

Thomson

I found the contact us link in the footer of the site and whilst they don’t provide you with an email address they do provide a ask a question service where you can find frequently asked questions and the response. With a few clicks I could find the office addresses, and they were telephone numbers I could use, unfortunately though they are 0871 and 0844 numbers.

Expedia

Like Thomson, Expedia have a customer services section with the most frequently asked questions and their responses, but I couldn’t find a link to a contact us page, which had clearly the office addresses and relevant telephone numbers, and I couldn’t find any feedback or email contact form.

Independent Travel agencies

Travel Counsellors

Well, it wasn’t a good start because their site was not loading properly in Firefox or the Safari browser but that’s for another article. I have to congratulate them on the fact that the contact us link was at the top of the site, easily found, had the business address, telephone numbers and an email form where I could ask questions and leave feedback.

Southall Travel

Hat’s off to Southall Travel; not only do they provide an email address, telephone number, business address, but they also offer a live chat feature, where as a consumer I can chat with someone from the company and ask them questions live. Great idea.

The Holiday Place

Another independent travel site with an easy to find contact us page, which included a number of telephone numbers, the business address, and an email enquiry form. The downside is that the enquiry form is quite long, and cumbersome to complete, so offering a quick enquiry form for general advice would be a good idea.

So what have I learnt from this.

The independent travel agencies are offering email communication and in my opinion are making the communication channels much easier for consumers. On the other hand though the larger brands would get many more emails, so offering a ‘ask a question’ type functionality like Thomson and Expedia do, is be a good idea for frequently asked questions.

The winner for me though is Southall Travel for their live chat feature – a free and neat idea for consumers to communicate with a travel company. What would you like to see travel companies do more where communication is concerned?

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