Summary
Holidaymakers rely heavily on peer reviews when making booking decisions. This makes customer feedback one of your most powerful sales driver – but only if you ask the right questions, at the right time.
In this blog, we’ll focus on three critical phases for your customer experience:
- Booking
- Experience
- Post-trip
We’ll explore how asking the right travel feedback questions at these moments can transform vague data into actionable intelligence that increases conversions, strengthens supplier relationships, and builds the customer loyalty that drives long-term profitability.
Why asking the right travel feedback questions is more important than ever
Today's holidaymakers won't book without doing their homework first. 97% of travellers read reviews before deciding where to stay, which car to hire, or what experiences to book. But travellers are increasingly turning to AI assistants for trip research, asking conversational questions like "What's the best family hotel in Barcelona?" rather than scrolling through traditional review sites.
71% of AI-generated responses pull from existing online content, including customer reviews. Verified feedback has become essential for visibility in this new search landscape. Without authentic, verified reviews to guide these AI tools, they may surface unverified or even misleading feedback instead, potentially damaging your reputation before a customer even reaches your website.
Feefo's verified invitation process ensures only genuine customers can leave reviews, creating the foundation of quality feedback that both humans and AI can trust.
How generic travel feedback questions can cost you reputation and revenue
Purchase-verified feedback remains the most valuable business intelligence you can gather. Yet many travel companies undermine this opportunity by asking generic, open-ended travel questions such as, "How was your trip?"
A customer responds "fine”, but what does that actually mean? If it's paired with three stars, there's clearly some turbulence. With five stars, it suggests smooth sailing. Eithe way, you're still guessing. Was it "fine – everything went exactly as planned" or "fine – but you could have done better"? The sentiment is completely different.
Vague questions produce vague answers, leaving you as much in the dark as if you hadn't asked at all. You miss critical insights into the experience you're delivering, fail to spot and address negative sentiment early, and lose the chance to strengthen customer relationships through meaningful dialogue. You need to know how to collect feedback more effectively.
Phase 1: The booking journey (questions to improve conversion and trust)
Holidays are significant investments. We won't part with our money without thorough research, which puts travel companies in a unique position: you can gather feedback across the entire customer journey, starting before anyone even travels.
Understanding how customers experience your booking process uncovers friction points and builds trust at the most critical moment: the point of sale.
Generic questions like "How was it?" rarely reveal specific issues, but ask "How seamlessly could you make payment?" and you'll quickly identify problems with card processing or search functionality that are costing you conversions.
Gathering feedback at this early stage serves two purposes: it reveals obstacles you can remove, and it demonstrates transparency through purchase-verified travel service reviews that can be displayed to reassure future customers.
Here are three travel feedback questions to gather smarter booking insights:
|
Question to ask the customer |
Rationale for the business |
|
"How easy was it to find the information you needed to make your booking decision?" |
Reveals content gaps and navigation issues that may be causing hesitation or abandoned bookings. |
|
"On a scale of 1-10, how seamless was the process of selecting and paying for your trip?" |
Pinpoints UX/UI friction points and conversion drop-offs on the website. |
|
"Were the customer reviews on our site helpful in making your booking decision?" |
Validates the effectiveness of your social proof and helps measure Feefo's value at the critical point of sale. |
Phase 2: The experience (questions that reveal operational issues at every touchpoint)
Your influence extends beyond your website. The real test of your service happens during the trip itself – from airport transfers to hotel check-ins, guided tours to restaurant recommendations. Each touchpoint represents a potential pain point or delightful surprise, and you need visibility into all of them.
These travel survey questions could be sent via email Surveys, SMS, and WhatsApp – providing low-friction ways to capture feedback when it's most relevant and honest. Reaching customers during or immediately after specific experiences means you're not relying on their memory weeks later. This real-time insight lets you manage your entire supply chain more effectively, identifying which partners consistently deliver and which need improvement.
Beyond operational issues, this is also the ideal time to gauge perceived value. Questions like, "Did the overall cost represent excellent value for money?" capture sentiment while the experience is fresh, helping you refine pricing strategies before customers have time to compare with competitors.
Here are three travel survey questions that reveal operational strengths and weaknesses:
|
Question to ask the customer |
Rationale for the business |
|
"How would you rate the local transfer service's punctuality and professionalism?" |
Pinpoints weak links in the supply chain (e.g., a specific transfer company or local partner). |
|
"How accurately did our website description match your actual experience of the destination/accommodation?" |
Identifies gaps between marketing promises and reality, helping you refine descriptions and manage expectations. |
|
"Was the hotel staff's response time to your requests satisfactory?" |
Assesses the quality of service provided by third-party accommodation staff. |
Phase 3: Loyalty and advocacy (questions that predict repeat business and brand health)
The final phase focuses on what happens after travellers return home. Feefo allows you to time your requests strategically, so you're not overwhelming customers with questions all at once. Send these follow-up questions a week or two after their return, when they've had time to reflect on the overall experience.
This stage measures sentiment about the trip itself and captures insights you can leverage for future marketing. Was it genuinely enjoyable? Would they choose you again? What stood out most? The answers to these questions directly predict repeat business and identify your most valuable brand advocates.
Use sentiment scores to create targeted marketing segments. High-sentiment customers become your VIP segment – perfect candidates for exclusive offers, early access to new destinations, or referral incentives. Meanwhile, moderate scores reveal opportunities for service recovery before customers drift to competitors.
Here are three focused travel questions that measure loyalty and future value:
|
Question to ask the customer |
Rationale for the business |
|
"How likely are you to recommend our travel agency to a friend or colleague?" |
Provides the net promoter score (NPS), the gold standard metric for growth and advocacy. |
|
"How likely are you to choose our agency for your next travel booking?" |
The most direct predictor of future customer lifetime value (LTV). |
|
"What was the most memorable aspect of your trip that would lead you to book with us again?" |
Helps identify the core, repeatable drivers of loyalty to feed back into marketing and product development. |
Conclusion: asking better questions to generate higher profits
The travel industry runs on reputation, and reputation is built on quality feedback.
Asking the right travel survey questions at the right time transforms generic data into actionable intelligence that directly impacts your bottom line. Better insights lead to smoother booking experiences, stronger supplier relationships, and higher customer satisfaction – all of which allow you to command premium prices and protect your margins.
In a market where AI increasingly determines which brands appear in traveller searches, verified customer feedback separates you from competitors still relying on unverified sources. Companies that gather strategic, detailed reviews improve their operations while securing visibility in the channels where future bookings will happen.
The travel companies thriving tomorrow are asking smarter questions today. Start by examining your current feedback approach: are you gathering the insights that drive loyalty, or just asking for stars?
Contact us and discover how Feefo's multi-touchpoint surveys and multi-channel requests could transform your data and boost your bottom line.
