Customers of leading travel firms are facing poor and inconsistent online experience and the companies themselves are ignoring the problem, according to new research.Online research experts Gomez conducted the tests on websites of 21 travel companies 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 came out top 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 fared well on fast connections, with response times well above the industry average at 2.23 seconds, but 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 a spokesperson from Gomez.

“This testing re-confirmed that companies running performance tests from data centre nodes alone can’t guarantee a precise view of how their web sites are really performing.”

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.
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