Gómez Performance Index For Hotels: September 15 - October 15, 2004

The Gómez Performance Index (GPI) for Hotels benchmarks end-to-end application response time and availability of leading hotel and third-party travel services Web sites executing a multi-step transaction -- the ubiquitous hotel room search. The steps measured consist of navigating to the homepage; initiating a search query; and gathering room details and rate information.

The Gómez Performance Index (GPI) for Hotels benchmarks end-to-end application response time and availability of leading hotel and third-party travel services Web sites executing a multi-step transaction -- the ubiquitous hotel room search. The steps measured consist of navigating to the homepage; initiating a search query; and gathering room details and rate information. Measurements for the Hotels GPI are taken from a cross section of a high-speed Internet backbone networks once every hour from 10 co-location facilities around the U.S.

To read the complete methodology for the Hotels GPI, please click here.



Data Analysis

For the third consecutive period, Expedia maintained the top ranking in the Gómez Performance Index (GPI) for Hotels. Response time across all benchmarked online travel service sites averaged 9.78 seconds, while transactional success rate decreased slightly to 98.66% during the period.

Response Time

Expedia posted a 0.19 second improvement in response time over the previous period, strengthening its grasp on the top rank in this Hotels GPI benchmark category. Hotels.com registered a 2.00 second improvement, while Starwood declined by almost the same interval during the measurement period. Overall, seven firms performed faster than the benchmark average, which was 0.26 seconds slower than the previous period.

Success Rate

Average success rate was 0.44% less than the average posted during the previous publishing period, due to decreased transactional availability of two of the benchmarked services. Still, eight of ten services had success rates greater than 98%, suggesting a high level of consistency across the online hospitality services industry.

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Gómez helps companies understand the impact of performance as well as usability and functionality relative to the online customer experience. The site elements we benchmark are instrumental in shaping overall customer satisfaction, and drive customers' willingness to utilize the online channel. Gómez follows the travel, retail and financial services industries, measuring the business effectiveness of Internet offerings.