Apps take up real estate on smartphones. Travel and hospitality apps have to earn the right to take up space on a consumer’s phone—and a few make the grade.

Consumers deem Booking.com, Alaska Air Group Inc., Kayak, TripAdvisor LLC, TripIt, Hotels.com L.P., Zipcar and Orbitz LLC worth the smartphone real estate, according to a new report “The best- and worst-rated travel apps” by research group Application Resource Center by Applause App Quality Inc.

ARC reviewed 40 popular travel brands defined by market share and revenue, and analyzed the app store ratings and consumer reviews for those apps in both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Apps were required to have more than 150 reviews to qualify for the study. In addition to the reviews, ARC weighed several metrics, including usability, performance, elegance, security, privacy and content, and applied a rating between 0 and 100 for both the travel company’s Android app and iOS app. The app’s final score was an average of the two. ARC weighed speed as one of the top factors, says Ben Gray, digital experience analyst at ARC and the author of the report.

The 40 most popular travel apps earned an average score of 47. Seven of the nine lowest-rated apps were for Android while six of the nine highest-rated apps were for iOS.

The top eight travel apps each scored above 67. Most of leading travel apps are travel booking apps that offer choices from many airlines and hotel chains as opposed to apps for specific brands. Apps in the travel booking app category earned an average score of 65, the highest of all categories, with car sharing’s app average at 62, vacation rental 53, trains 41, hotels 40, airlines 33, cruise 30 and car rentals 27.

Jeremy Kressmann, a travel analyst at market research firm eMarketer, says what distinguishes the apps at the top of the list is that they make it easy for consumers to purchase fast.

“When people do make purchases on mobile, they are not going to spend hours and hours looking for something.” Kressmnan says. “They want something that takes advantage of the location of the device, something that’s fast with not a lot of tap through.”

Alaska Airlines, with a score of 81, also ranked as the top airline app by far, with JetBlue Airways a distant second at 40.

“[Alaska Airlines] is an extremely useful app giving me immediate access to mobile check-in, boarding pass, account details, including accrued miles, miles remaining to next membership tier, seat selection and more,” says Ryan Williams, vice president, travel, at mobile research and measurement firm Millward Brown Digital.

Notably, Hilton Worldwide’s app improved by 15 points from ARC’s last report in November 2014. Gray attributes the rise to a new version of Hilton’s iOS app that makes it easier to book reservations. JetBlue also improved seven points, since it added flight status to its “Today” tab and introduced Apple’s fingerprint identity sensor Touch ID.

Apps that had a quality score less than 40 and more than 2,000 reviews, include United Airlines Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Hilton, American Airlines Inc., Marriott International Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., The Hertz Corporation and US Airways.

When it comes to airlines’ overall low rankings, Kressmann of eMarketer says most airlines have done a decent job of getting mobile tickets and smartphone ticket scanning to work smoothly, he says. Other airline features, however, are often buried in the app, Kressman says. For example, travelers who have a long flight may not decide to upgrade their seat until they are at the airport thinking about the flight. Seat upgrades would be a useful feature in an app, he says. Airline apps may offer this, it is just difficult to find in the app.

“[Travelers] will pay that $150 for an upgrade,” Kressmann says. “Why can’t that be on the mobile app? That’s a big area for opportunity.”

Williams agrees, saying that consumers should never have to dig for information they use frequently. Even top-ranked Alaska Airlines app can improve, he says.

“While I love my Alaska Airlines app, one feature that has been buried a step deeper in the recent redesign is seat information,” Williams says. “This is one feature I use multiple times a week as I’m constantly looking to improve where I sit on an upcoming flight.  It now takes an extra click to get to that info which I find frustrating.”

Car rental services should also consider making add-on services, such as insurance and adding a GPS to a car, easy to access, Kressmann says.

Besides making sure features are easy to access, travel companies should also ensure that their app is functional. 44% of app defects are found by consumers, with 20% of companies notified by public reviews and 24% notified by direct feedback, according to a 2014 Perfecto Mobile Ltd. report “Why Mobile Apps Fail,” which surveyed 900 global consumers.

Follow mobile business journalist April Dahlquist, associate editor, mobile, at Mobile Strategies 360, @Mobile360April

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