American consumers are both unforgiving and demanding when it comes to their mobile interactions with travel companies, according to a new study conducted by travel research firm PhoCusWright on behalf of Kony Solutions. The survey, which polled 792 American adults who traveled for leisure in the last year, explored how mobile proliferation has affected consumers' engagement with travel brands.

One of the study's key findings focused on consumers' reactions to a mobile application or website malfunction. While travellers are generally tolerant of minor mobile application/website issues, with 36 percent stating they would access the company's website via computer instead and 33 percent expressing they would call the company, 31 percent of respondents explained they would be less likely to use that application/website on a mobile device in the future. In addition, 21 percent would find another mobile application/website to use.

Smartphone users are even less forgiving, with 37 percent indicating that they would be less likely to use that application or website again and 28 percent would seek out a competitive mobile application.

"Not only can an application malfunction affect a travel company's interaction with a particular user, but according to our survey 25 percent of consumers would tell others about their bad experience. That number goes up to 32 percent when looking specifically at smartphone users," said Carroll Rheem, director, research, PhoCusWright. "These findings reinforce the importance of creating a robust, reliable mobile offering from the start."

The survey also explored the avenues in which consumers are interacting with travel companies. Although visiting a travel website on a computer is still most popular, 26 percent of consumers have engaged via SMS text message and 20 percent did so through email on their mobile device. In addition, 14 percent have downloaded a mobile travel application to their handset.

Speaking to the significance of social networks in today's marketplace, 35 percent of consumers have engaged with a travel brand through an online social network on their computer and 11 percent have done so on their mobile device.

In terms of mobile device ownership among travelers, the survey found that no single brand has captured travelers. However, feature phones retain a 64 percent market share.

"Mobile proliferation is changing the way consumers interact with travel companies. They have come to expect the same level of service from mobile applications that they do from any other engagement with a brand," explained John Stewart, vice president of technical services for Kony Solutions. "In order to offer the best possible brand interactions to consumers, travel companies should leverage technologies that provide them with rich mobile applications and ubiquitous deployment options across the entire breadth of channels and operating systems available, while also offering secure, supported hosting services."