Abstract
The Internet and its services nowadays have significant influence on the organization of our travel arrangements, starting from information gathering to final booking and payment and they are the major distribution channel for travel services and products. The focus of the paper is on digital accommodation platforms, which enable users to search, explore, compare, book and pay online for accommodation all over the world. The study presents habits and attitudes of Serbian consumers to digital travel purchases, particularly accommodation booking. First, the most significant models of online booking systems, such as hotel websites, online tourist agencies and dedicated accommodation booking platforms are presented and compared. The analysis of the habits of Serbian travelers showed that they very often use various websites and online platforms to book their travels, but also that they prefer well-established international platforms, such as Booking.com and Airbnb. They also use online booking more when staying abroad than for domestic stays, and usually book shorter and cheaper travels and stays. As a key advantages of online booking systems, respondents stated wider variety of the offer and time and money savings.
Highlights
The rise of Internet usage has opened new business possibilities in many areas, including traveling
There were questions related to the attitudes about online reservations, i.e., if they consider online booking as safe, if they would recommend in to others, if they are intending to use it in the future, etc. and the answers to these questions were based on 7-point Likert scale
The paper presents a study of the habits and attitudes of Serbian consumers regarding online accommodation booking
Summary
The rise of Internet usage has opened new business possibilities in many areas, including traveling. EMarketer (2018) estimates that worldwide digital travel sales, which include airline, car rental, cruise, hotel, accommodation and transportation, were $694 billion in 2018 and that they will reach $931 billion in 2022. Based on Google data, more than 80% of consumers make an online research to organize their holidays, visiting 26 websites on average and spending more than 2 hours in online search for the right place and the right offer (Filieri et al, 2015). This online search often includes the analysis of social networks and travel recommendation websites
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