Captivate Office Pulse recently completed a study on travel brands trends, looking at companies in the Hotel, Car Rental, Online Travel, Cruise Line, Rail, and Airline industries.

The study measured future brand consideration, ratings, and attributes for each company such as: “availability/location,” “cost,” “reliability,” “quality,” and “cool factor.”

Participants in the survey were asked what the most likely reasons to buy, use, or recommend a specific brand were, and thus ranked different attributes of the companies. The travel industry as a whole saw significant growth in the “customer service,” “quality,” and “reliability” attributes. Between November 2010 and June 2011 customer service saw a 144% increase, quality a 60.4% increase and reliability a 87.4% increase as the most likely reason to use or recommend the brand.

Several companies distinguished themselves from the industry as a whole based on their growth. For example, Avis surpassed the car rental industry in growth for “quality” and “customer service.” American Airlines surpassed the airline industry for “my kind of brand,” Expedia, the online travel industry for “reliability” and “customer service,” and Norwegian Cruise Lines surpassed other cruise lines for “quality” and “reliability.”

Most brand ratings saw significant increases, particularly for the “very good” rating. Carnival Cruise and Choice Hotels both surpassed their industry’s growth on the “very good and good” rating in the last 6 months.

Despite the overall growth in many areas, the travel industry saw significant decreases in the attributes, “my kind of brand,” “reputation,” and “cool factor,” indicating that travel brands might be losing touch with their customers. Some brands may want to take a look at how companies like American Airlines, Marriott, and IHG are staying in sync with their customers – these brands all surpassed their respective industries with their growth in one of these key areas.