Department Stores for Online Travel

Anyone who has used travel sites like Expedia or Orbitz can tell you the experience is much different than booking on the site of your go-to airlines. I recently booked a vacation through Orbitz and while it was great to be able to search through such a wide variety of options, I found myself feeling exhausted after the experience. I also find the experience of shopping for hours in a large department store to be exhausting for similar reasons. While I tend to go to boutiques or smaller retail stores because I find the experience to be more enjoyable and that it's generally easier to get what I want, I still go to department stores when the timing is right. That was when I began to see similarities between the user experience on these type of travel sites and the department store shopping experience.

Think about Macy's. It's easy to go into Macy’s to get a shirt, get distracted, and come away with two shirts as well as a new pair of shoes and socks. Well, on sites like Orbitz, it’s easy to go shopping for flights and come away with a plane, a rental car and tickets to see SeaWorld too. This is a very different experience than a user has when booking with their preferred airlines or hotel chain with which they know what they're going to get, have faith in the brand and are familiar with the experience.

While various travel websites can offer similar services, the user experiences are very different.  Below are five types of users that these sites might appeal to. 

Those who like to juggle options 

For the open minded traveler who wants to explore ads or is perhaps headed to a destination unknown, travel sites can be a great way to develop their itinerary. While lots of advertisements and options might seem like clutter to the destination shopper, they might spark an idea for the shopper who is still weighing options. 

Patient Shoppers

Travel sites were designed to allow consumers to compare rates between airlines. Then they went on to compare hotels, transportation, rental cars, packages, cruises, activities, etc. This requires more effort on the part of the consumer as there are simply more choices to make.  Like searching through racks in a department store, it takes patience, but, if you have it, there are some good things that can be found with a little digging.  

Those who dream of deals

I say “dream” because, let's be honest, the deals on these sites aren't actually anything different than any deal you can find on an individual hotel or airline site. The difference is that all the deals on the web are aggregated to one site where you can compare and combine them.

Travel tribe outcasts

For those who have no loyalty to a particular airline or hotel chain and are open to experiencing new brands, sites like Orbitz can be a great way to get introduced to them.  However, for the club member who prefers their familiar and comfortable experience, both on the plane and on the web, the extra advertisements and options are likely to make things seem clouded and complicated.

Open-tab keepers

For the planner who is looking for that rental car and open to a variety of hotels and activities, the abundance of options on these sites can be worthwhile. These sites allow users the convenience of adding multiple purchases to one tab and having a single itinerary as opposed to having five separate emails to track down later.

Similar to the shopping for handbags, consumers who are have their minds set on a specific brand and nothing more should stick to the boutiques. However, those who are willing to take the time to “sort through the sale racks” might come out with some exciting things.