Approximately One in Four Americans Would Rather Forfeit Vacation for 2 Years than Pack Up and Move

NEW YORK, Jan. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Unpakt (www.unpakt.com), a new, instant pricing application helping consumers find reputable moving companies and book their moves online, recently partnered with Harris Interactive, one of the world's leading market research firms, to conduct a comprehensive online survey revealing consumer feelings toward the moving industry. Bringing transparency to an industry that, until now, has been known for its uncertainty, Unpakt is revolutionizing the moving industry by offering a comprehensive platform for consumers to compare movers, receive exact price quotes rather than estimates, and manage a move online, all while considering both consumer and mover feedback to improve the process overall.

Unpakt's survey revealed that Americans move an average of 8.2 times in their lifetime. Moreover, 88% of Americans chose to move by themselves rather than hire a moving company. This could be largely due to survey findings that indicate almost half (46%) of Americans are afraid movers will steal their belongings during a move and 69% of Americans fear that movers will damage belongings during a move.

While it is common knowledge that almost no one enjoys moving, the Unpakt survey explored just how much people really despise moving by asking respondents to reveal the unpleasant activities they prefer to moving. Unpakt found that 72% of Americans preferred at least one unpleasant activity to moving, such as visiting a dentist (40%), sitting in traffic (40%), going to jury duty (37%), doing their own taxes (34%) and more. In fact, a staggering 23% of Americans would rather forfeit their hard-earned vacation days for TWO YEARS in lieu of moving.

In terms of the cost of moving, one frequent complaint from consumers after using a moving company is that they paid more for the move than anticipated. This is likely because of hidden fees, given that many moving companies use estimates rather than exact price quotes. Of Americans that paid more for their last move than initially anticipated, 57% paid upwards of $175 all the way through $1,000 more for the move than expected.

Well over half of Americans also agreed that it is hard to find a good moving company.

Enter Unpakt: "As someone who has been in the moving industry more than 25 years, I have seen firsthand exactly why consumers are uneasy about working with moving companies and are often dissatisfied with the industry as a whole," said Sharone Ben-Harosh, founder of Unpakt. "With Unpakt, all of this is changing. Today's informed consumer is able to easily compare costs, receive guaranteed prices and access customer reviews when booking travel or searching for good restaurants, so the same should be true of booking a move and finding a reputable mover. Unpakt is now providing these services."

Survey data found that 58% of Americans said they would be most likely to use online reviews or online research to search for a reputable moving company. However, until Unpakt, an all-in-one solution offering cost comparisons, exact prices and an honest referral platform featuring customer reviews in one convenient, easy-to-use resource did not exist. Unpakt, an online tool revolutionizing the moving industry, now allows customers to create an inventory of all their furniture and boxes and quickly enter moving date and location information. Once the information is submitted, Unpakt provides a comparison of guaranteed prices from Unpakt's pre-screened movers. From there, the customer can book the move on-the-spot or save the search and revisit the booking process at a later date. In essence, Unpakt is THE most comprehensive and honest referral platform for moving companies.

Survey Methodology

** The survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Unpakt from December 17 to 19, 2012 among 2,309 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Samantha Wannemacher at 5W Public Relations.

About Unpakt

Unpakt is a comparison pricing site for consumers searching for a moving company. Offering a platform where consumers have access to pre-screened movers, consumer reviews and exact price quotes rather than estimates, Unpakt brings transparency to an industry that has previously been known for its uncertainty.

Created by entrepreneur Sharone Ben-Harosh, the founder of FlatRate Moving, Unpakt has launched in major cities across the country, with plans to have 3,000 movers in the top 200 U.S. cities and 2,000 movers in the top 100 international cities in 18 months. Unpakt is THE next big thing in the moving industry.

SOURCE Unpakt