Travel companies in the dark about web performance

Customers of top UK travel firms are enduring a poor and inconsistent web experience and the companies themselves are oblivious to the problem, according to research.

Web sites of 21 travel companies were tested over a two-week period assessing how quickly visitors could access content and perform tasks on the site, as well as what percentage of the time the site was accessible.

EasyJet’s web site was the best performer in the test, with a response time of just half a second for broadband connections. But the test also indicated up to six seconds response time on a slow broadband link.

Travelocity also had a good performance on fast connections, with response times well above the industry average at 2.23 seconds, yet the test also showed that some customers were experiencing a nine-second wait on slower connections.

“We were staggered that some of the biggest brands in the industry sat at the bottom of the benchmark for response time, and didn’t fair much better for availability,” said the report from the study conducted by supplier Gomez.

“This testing reconfirmed that companies running performance tests from datacentre nodes alone can’t guarantee a precise view of how their web sites are really performing,” it said.

Companies included in the benchmark were Accor Hotels, Air France, Avis, Best Western, BMI Baby, British Airways, Budget, Easyjet, EBookers, Expedia, Hertz, Hilton, Intercontinental, KLM, LastMinute, Lufthansa, Opodo, Ryanair, Travelocity, Trip Advisor and Venere.