Online hotel booking decisions based on price complexity, alternative attractiveness, and confusion

Abstract

The goal of this research is to investigate customer confusion and its antecedents, specifically price complexity and alternative attractiveness, and to validate a link between confusion and hotel online booking decisions. Price complexity and alternative attractiveness are demonstrated to have significant influences on three types of confusion: overload confusion, similarity confusion, and ambiguity confusion. Moreover, these three types of confusion cause customers to defer purchase decisions. An online survey was used to collect data from customers who booked hotels online within the past six months in both the United States and Canada. The study findings suggest that hotels should focus on improving price presentation and traveler interactivity to reduce consumer perceptions of price complexity. Furthermore, hotels need to re-evaluate the cooperation with OTAs to overcome the challenges of having too many attractive options for travelers