Sluggish Economy Helps Reduce Lost Luggage
The economy has had a trickle-down effect on the travel industry, which is good for airline passengers and bad for those staying in hotels or renting cars. With less people flying, passengers benefit from less lost luggage, fewer delays, and more seats available. A study on consumer satisfaction with the travel industry recently showed an increase in airline satisfaction for the first time in a long time.
Hotels are facing a difficult time as consumers and businesses tighten spending on vacations and scale back on conventions and business travel. Despite the escalating recession, the hotel industry has, up to this point, been surprisingly resilient in its ability to protect the guest experience. As with most service industries, customer service tends to get better when there are fewer customers to serve. However, in the second quarter of this year, the impact of the recession finally took its toll. With severe budget pressures and cuts in staff and services, 154 of the 274 hotel companies measured received lower satisfaction scores compared to the first quarter of 2009.
In addition to lower satisfaction scores, measures of loyalty declined for most hotel brands, with guests less likely to recommend or return to their last hotel. Critical to customer loyalty, value scores also declined, with guests feeling they received less for their money compared to last quarter. Loyalty programs played less of a role in hotel selection and customers were less concerned about green programs when booking a hotel. Guests did not feel as welcome and staff friendliness scores were down. Guests also felt less pampered and less entertained during their stay. Other declines were product related (comfy beds & furniture, properly functioning lights, etc.), showing further evidence that budget cuts have made an impact on the guest experience.
Passenger satisfaction with airlines improved slightly despite the bad economy. With fewer people flying, there have been shorter lines, increased on-time arrivals, less lost luggage, more space availability, and higher steward-per-passenger ratios. Midwest Airlines was the top scoring airline. US Airways benefited from its more generous frequent flyer miles and discounts on select flights as well as from a better on-time arrival record.
The car rental industry continues to face a difficult operating environment with fewer people renting cars and rising costs. Reductions in staff and operational cutbacks continue to hamper service and impact customer satisfaction. Dollar showed the biggest improvement in customer satisfaction while Thrifty had the biggest decline. Enterprise continues their industry dominance with overall satisfaction and loyalty scores well above competitors.
In this economy, less lost luggage and fewer trips to the lost and found is a very good thing. People don’t have cash available to run out and replace everything in their suitcases. On that note, it is a good idea to protect all of your valuables with id tags and asset labels.
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