InsureMyTrip Blog

Editorial Update: It’s clear to us that, in the past two months, Ratings and Reviews on InsureMyTrip.com has had a huge impact on the way people purchase travel insurance.  In less than ninety days, we’ve seen tremendous gains in the scope and popularity of the feature.  Our customers have generated six times more content than any other review site, and with nearly four thousand original, unbiased traveler ratings, InsureMyTrip.com has emerged as the leader in not only online travel insurance offerings, but impartial reviews of travel insurance as well.

We’re thrilled to announce the latest site improvement to InsureMyTrip.com: Customer Ratings and Reviews. This exciting feature allows users to view, submit, and comment on thousands of ratings by fellow travelers of the travel insurance plans sold on the site.  It also shows travelers the star ratings for plans they are comparing, offers sorting and filtering features for usability, and breaks down the ratings into categories so travelers can see how specific travel insurance policies measure up in areas such as cost effectiveness, coverage options, and claims processing.

Our reviews have been submitted only by travelers who purchased their policies through InsureMyTrip.com, which means that visitors to the Ratings and Reviews forum can be confident that the people rating the products have direct experience with only those plans that we sell.  However, commenting and actively engaging in discussions on the page is open to all users, whether they have purchased through InsureMyTrip.com or not.  Ratings and Reviews on InsureMyTrip.com is a community forum, where we hope to see travelers engaging with one another, with IMT moderators, and even with the companies whose products we represent.  Our vision is to build a community of informed, passionate, engaged travelers whose thoughts and opinions about travel insurance can not only serve to benefit other travelers, but also shape the way companies within the industry think about, discuss, and improve their products and services.

We’re pleased and proud that as of the launch of the new Ratings and Reviews feature, the plans we sell have an average rating of 4.25 out of 5 possible stars.  97% of reviewers would recommend the policy they purchased to a friend or family member, and even among those travelers who had to file a travel insurance claim, 84% would still want to recommend that policy.  We’re honored that our customers have shared such positive feedback with us, and hope that Ratings and Reviews can be a tool with which we can continue to communicate even more closely with travelers.

Like the new Ratings and Reviews?  Have suggestions to offer?  Visit our Facebook page and drop us a note telling us what you think of InsureMyTrip.com’s Ratings and Reviews.

Dennis, Information Technology Manager

I am happy to report that the technophiles at InsureMyTrip.com are embarking on another computing adventure – we will be joining the “test flight” of IPv6 by participating in World IPv6 Day on Wednesday, June 8, 2011!

What is the big deal about IPv6?
In brief, the IP address framework currently in use is finite, and due to the explosive growth of the Internet will run out of available addresses before the end of 2011, if projections are correct.  The newer framework, IPv6, has a nearly inexhaustible number of addresses, for the most part.  The World IPv6 Day event is a 24-hour test of the new framework in order to inspire and motivate more companies to be ready for the eventual transition to the Internet address structure of the future.

What effect will this have on our users?
None, really.  Visitors to our site will see no change, and will be able to browse and buy as usual.

Why participate?
InsureMyTrip.com strives to be a technology-forward company, and this is a great way to pursue that goal while doing so along-side Internet giants, such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and YouTube.

Chris, User Experience Manager

We just updated our quote results and comparison pages to allow you to filter results by plan type, coverage, provider, or cost. You can find the plan you need faster, without having to compare all plans.

A screenshot of the Coverage filter in action.

With filters, you can

• view only the plans that offer Cancel for Any Reason coverage, or
• move the Cost slider down to view only plans costing less than $50, or
• look at plans from a specific provider, such as CSA, Travel Guard, or any one of our companies.

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Chris, Products Manager

Several of us attended the BIF-5 Conference last week and had our minds opened wide by some of the great stories told by the presenters, such as Patricia Seybold speaking about “Developing Change Agents to Spawn Grass Roots Innovation and Transformation in Africa.” One of her key points was that ground-up rather than top-down change has better, longer-lasting success. She went on to challenge the audience to think about how they could incorporate customer-led innovation practices in their organizations.

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Kerri, VP of Technology

One of the most exciting aspects of working at InsureMyTrip.com is hearing about the great trips our customers go on. We know you plan every last detail to fill your travels with adventures and new experiences. I’m sure some of them are trips of a lifetime.

At InsureMyTrip.com, we’ve been on a journey of our own. We revised our website and built a brand new software platform that we hope will make choosing the insurance policy for your travels even easier. We made the navigation and quote form simpler and added more help content throughout the site. We have reorganized comparative elements to provide coverage information in clear, concise terms and make it easier to find what you’re looking for faster. (more…)