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Disturbing travel industry trend: sharing private data
Airline and travel firms are more apt than ever to share customer data with other companies without permission, according to a published report.
Information Week analyzed 41 of the largest online travel companies. Their Consumer Respect Group (CRG) report found that 38% this quarter failed to adequately handle customer privacy, compared to 26% earlier this year.
The travel business trend goes against the normal standard of other industries increasingly refusing to share such information.
“The industry (travel) has a lot of synergistic sharing arrangements, so data sharing tends to be a little more prevalent,” said Terry Golesworthy, president of the CRG. He said sharing data without permission was a practice very disliked by consumers.
Despite the trend, the travel industry improved in its overall treatment of online customers, scoring a 7.2 Customer Respect Index, compared with a 6.8 in the beginning of the first quarter, according to the CRG.
Nine travel-related sites received CRIs of 8.0 or above, which is considered an “excellent” rating in the biannual analysis. None of those companies share customer data without permission.
The reason for the improvement in treating online customers is a major effort by airlines to win back customers who have been buying tickets from web-based resellers, such as Expedia or Travelocity, according to Information Week.
“They’re desperately trying to take back the business by offering services that are similar to ones available through resellers,” Mr Golesworthy said. “The web-based resellers have taught traditional travel-related companies quite a lesson.”
Traditional companies, for example, have become more responsive to email inquiries, Golesworthy said.
The companies that had the five highest CRIs were Marriott International, 8.4; Alaska Air Group Inc., 8.3; Enterprise Car Rental, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Northwest Airlines Corp., all 8.2; Travelocity and US Airways Group, 8.1; and Avis and Orbitz, 8.0.
The bottom five companies were Hotels.com, 6.1; United Airlines, 5.9; Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., 5.8; Southwest Airlines, 5.6 and Norwegian Cruise Line, 5.1.
Report by David Wilkening
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