USA | YouGov has released its latest report focused on the rate of Americans who find booking a holiday a stress inducing task.
More than two in three Americans who book vacations find the process stress inducing (70 percent), citing air travel as most likely to cause stress, according to a new YouGov report.
The three most stressful travel booking activities for Americans are booking airport transfers (46 percent find stressful), booking flights (45 percent), and selecting luggage allowance (41 percent), followed by booking accommodations and booking rental cars.
YouGov’s new Booking Burnout: US travel stress report unpacks how Americans plan vacations in 2025, which parts of the booking process they find the most stressful, and which OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) have the most satisfied customers.
The report found that Booking.com leads the industry in customer satisfaction (Net +63.9), followed by Trivago (+63.2) and choicehotels.com (+62.0). Meanwhile, CheapTickets improved most in 2024 year (up +7.3 YoY).
Other findings included that 64 percent of US vacationers plan to take at least two personal trips in 2025, and 14 percent plan to take four or more.
Nearly half of US vacationers begin booking more than three months in advance (47 percent), while less than a sixth (16 percent) of vacation bookers book within a month of travelling. The report also found that 46 percent of vacation bookers who use AI-powered recommendations said it is “unhelpful” or “neither helpful nor unhelpful” – indicating much potential for improvement to AI-powered booking experiences.
Thirty-nine percent of US vacationers plan to take an international trip in 2025, with nearby Canada leading as the most likely destination, especially among vacationers aged 18 to 34 (17 percent vs 11 percent gen pop). Americans aged over 65 are looking at the Caribbean or West Indes (six percent vs five percent gen pop)
“Advances in technology, such as AI-driven recommendations and mobile-friendly platforms, are transforming how travellers research, compare, and secure their trips,” said Kenton Barello, VP at YouGov America.
“But not every traveller is taking advantage of these tools, or the tools aren’t necessarily helping with the most impactful pain points, leading to continued stresses for US travellers.”
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