Travel related mobile apps could be highly valuable tools but often fail to deliver on their promise to improve productivity and keep travellers informed, according to a new report from JD Power.
Travel apps are too often slow to load and lag behind other consumer applications such as those providing banking and credit card services, according to research from the consumer research company.
“While some travel apps are delivering on their promise, others are missing the mark at critical moments of truth that can significantly influence traveler perception of brands and services,” said Michael Taylor, Travel Intelligence Lead at JD Power.
“We see big swings in scores among travel apps when users evaluate searching and booking functions.”
Hotel, travel booking, and rental car apps studied by JD Power received an overall customer satisfaction score of 849 on a 1,000-point scale, while airline apps scored 840. Banking and credit card apps not only scored higher, but are used more.
However, airline apps are the most highly adopted among travellers at 90 per cent, followed by hotel apps (84 per cent), booking apps (79 per cent), and rental car apps (58 per cent).
Travel apps were found to be especially lacking on critical day-of-travel usage, with just 58 percent of hotel apps and 62 percent of airline apps rated as easy to use.
Airline apps were seen as especially slow to load during travel, a particular problem when travellers often rely on their mobile devices for storing and viewing boarding passes.
