Hotel Web Research Articles

Sustainability Communication: Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Practices of the Hotel Chains in Turkey

In this research, it has been examined whether the hotel chains serving in Turkey implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 in their sustainability practices by acting as green hotels and how they attempt to attract guests with their sensitivity towards the environment. The sample includes three Turkish and three international hotel chains having the highest number of rooms. The data between 2019 and 2021 about which goals the hotel chains adopt have been obtained from their sustainability reports on their web pages or on the Internet and analyzed through web content analysis. As a result of the study, it was found that two of Turkish hotel chains do not adopt any of the 17 goals; the other adopts 15, two of the international hotel chains adopt 12 and one adopts 6 goals. None of the hotel chains have submitted their reports on their own web pages directly. Instead, some have a link directing visitors to their reports on the Internet others do not, but they hold their reports on the World Wide Web. Consequently, it has been observed that neither national nor international hotel chains have a tendency to use their hotel web pages for sustainability communication.

An Implementation of Voice Assistant for Hospitality

Voice user interface has gained popularity in the recent years. A chatbot is a machine with the ability to answer automatically through a conversational interface. Instead of using mouse and keyboards as input and screen as output, a chatbot with extra voice user interface feature improve the system and enhance the user experience. A chatbot is considered as one of the most exceptional and promising expressions of human computer interaction. Voice-based chatbots or artificial intelligence (AI) devices transform humancomputer bidirectional interactions that allow users to navigate an interactive voice response (IVR) system with their voice generally using natural language. In this paper, we focus on voice based chatbots for mediating interactions between hotels and guests from both the hospitality technology providers’ and guests’ perspectives. A hotel web application with voice user interface was implemented which provides voice input/output interface to enhance the user experience. Speech recognition component was used to dictate the user voice input to text. Speech synthesis API was used for text to voice conversion. A closed domain question answering (cdQA) Natural Language Processing (NLP) solution was used for processingof query and return the best answer possible.

Impact of Hotel Web Accessibility for Customers with Disabilities on Their Purchasing Decisions

Impact of Hotel Web Accessibility for Customers with Disabilities on Their Purchasing Decisions

A Language Appraisal of Hotel Web Pages in Indonesia Five Starred Hotels: Interpersonal Meaning

This article aims to examine the interpersonal meaning of hotel web pages using the Appraisal framework in the view of assessing the frequent occurrence of the appraisal subsystem in the text. The employment of attitudinal, graduation and engagement of text construe the alignment. They explain how the hotel introductory text construction does align the reader. Martin & White (2005) argued that appreciation reaction framework determines interpersonal significancies. The emotive prosody of this appreciation reaction is “it grabs me”, decorative, and then “I want it” (Martin & White, 57:2005). The dominant result of appreciation resources of reaction is shown in this research than other appreciation resources. We can replace the word “it” with the prosody of appreciation. As a result, the appreciation reaction of quality appears dominantly (44%). It means that the hotel talked much about the things: facilities and services. Finally, the interpersonal meaning of the hotel Webpages is ‘I am the most / I am the best’. It implies that the hotel is the best in quality and services in order to attract the reader. It proves that the web pages authentically in constructing the text in order to persuade the potential customer to purchase the hotel product.

AN ANALYSIS OF MOVE AND LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF HOTEL HOMEPAGES

This study’s aim is to analyze the move structure and linguistic characteristics of hotel homepages for the three hotel classesthe similarities and differences among the three classes. Data was collected from 138 hotel homepages in Pattaya, Thailand. The framework of Askehave and Nielsen (2005) and Leech’s (1966) were adopted in this study. The results revealed that a total of five moves were found across all homepages; nevertheless, there were some differences in a frequency of occurrence and also the level of linguistic descriptions among the three classes. Moreover, each move and step indicated its remarkable linguistics characteristic.The findings in the study would be beneficial to learners, instructors, practitioners in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in general and hotel Web site designers in particular. The further study should investigate the move structure in all hotel star ratings in order to provide a typical structure of move analysis. Furthermore, the images appearing on the homepages should be included in the analysis to fulfill the communicative purpose for online hospitality.

Analisis Informasi Situs Web Hotel Bintang 4 di Kota Bandung

Four-star hotel categorized as upscale hotel where the facilities and level of services are high, a good hotel website content is very important in an online search pattern. From a hotel accommodation, tourist will get information about the hotel and for hotel side they will improve their connectivity and also interactivity with the customer. The objective of this research is to measure the level of hotel website content. In this research, samples of 38 four-star hotel websites located in the city of Bandung will be assessed by using an observation guide consists of 5 dimensions. The dimensions are: information reservation; information about the hotel facilities; contact information and the use of social media; surrounding area information; website management. Descriptive content analysis approach will be used as a tool to describe the characteristics of message content in hotel web sites and also summarize the idea of each message given. Data analysis showed that not all the hotel web site adopt indicators for good informative web site, therefore hotel are unable to provide complete information for the customer accessing related hotel websites, therefore the effect miscommunication and different perception might arise.

The effectiveness of embedded social media on hotel websites and the importance of social interactions and return on engagement

Purpose The main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of embedded social media channels and determine whether the embedded social media channels enhance the overall experience of travelers using the hotel Web sites. Design/methodology/approach A true-experimental, between-group and post-test-only design was used to address the primary research questions. Two privately accessible complete versions of the Web site (one with embedded social media channels and one without them) were designed for the experiment. The uses and gratifications approach was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Data were analyzed using ANOVA. Findings The results of this study revealed that embedded social media channels on the hotel Web site enhanced travelers’ social gratifications of perceived social interaction. Apart from these benefits for travelers seeking social gratifications, embedded social media channels did not enhance the overall experience (content and process gratifications) of travelers using the Web site. Practical implications In the case of embedded social media on hotel Web sites, this study suggests that hotel managers measure return on engagement to examine the effectiveness of embedded social media, instead of return on investment. Social implications The study revealed that the emergence of embedded social media channels and their integration on hotel Web sites will have significant influence on travelers who seek social gratifications. Originality/value The findings of this study offer new empirical evidence that embedded social media channels enhance only travelers’ perceived social interaction during their first visit to the hotel Web site.

Marketing and Commercial Activities Offered on Croatian Five-Star Hotel Web Sites

Tourism is the crucial industry for Croatian economy and this statement is supported by high growth rates of tourism income. One of the important factors for tourism are accommodation facilities, especially hotels. Due to the fact that we live in the information technologies era, the Internet became a new space for doing economic and business activities in all spheres, and especially important in tourism. Hotel Web sites become increasingly important, and this phenomenon will be analyzed in this paper. Using a data base containing data for the 30 five-star hotel Web sites, a survey was conducted on how much these new technologies are used in tourism industry in Croatia. Marketing and commercial activities offered on hotel Web sites have a significant impact on the hotel's commercial success. Characteristics of the five-star hotels hotel Web sites will be examined and compared thought the basic groups of Web business activities. Also some recommendations for the successful hotel Web sites will be provided. Hotel Web site in the future will not be only a promotion channel, but also an active generator of the hotel business and development.

Personality Differences and Hotel Web Design Study Using Targeted Positive and Negative Association Rule Mining

As people have unique tastes, the way to satisfy a small group of targeted customers or to be generic to meet most people's preference has been a traditional question to many fashion designers and website developers. This study examined the relationship between individuals’ personality differences and their web design preferences. Each individual's personality is represented by a combination of five traits, and 15 website design-related features are considered to test the users’ preference. We introduced a data mining technique called targeted positive and negative association rule mining to analyze a dataset containing the survey results collected from undergraduate students. The results of this study not only suggest the importance of providing specific designs to attract individual customers, but also provide valuable input on the Big Five personality traits in their entirety.

The Tangibility and Intangibility of e-Service Quality

This research aims to explore the effect of e-service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Especially, the current paper focuses on customer perceptions and reactions to the tangible factors of e-service quality in the Business-to-Customer (B2C) area. This tangible eservice quality includes web design esthetics, ease of use, virtual tour, and visualization. In addition, intangible e-service quality involves information content, reliability, security, and customization. In order to investigate the interrelations among tangible and intangible eservice quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty, the survey is conducted. Data from 468 tourists, who have purchased hotel packages during the last three months from hotel Web sites, is used for testing the hypothesized model. The result shows that the significant effect of tangible e- e-service quality on the intangible e-service quality and the significant effectiveness of e-service quality in improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The impact of hotel property size in determining the importance of electronic distribution channels

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the use of electronic distribution systems (EDS) in Korean hotels and investigate the differences between large and small and medium (S&M) hotels.Design/methodology/approachThis is a qualitative and explorative study. An in‐depth interview was conducted of seven large hotels and nine S&M hotels.FindingsRegardless of size, the surveyed hotels received, on average, more reservations through offline systems than online. It was found that large hotels showed less variation in the use of EDS than S&M hotels. While there was no distinct difference in the overall use of EDS, in terms of average, the highest percentage of hotel EDS use was demonstrated by S&M hotels. Regarding specific components and distribution flows, large hotels overall employed a variety of distribution channels, often implemented in multi‐faceted systems. S&M hotels, in most cases, adopted simpler distribution flows, i.e. hotel web sites and online travel agencies. This difference seems to be the result of the affiliation of primarily large hotels with huge hotel corporations.Research limitations/implicationsAn emphasis has been placed on the current use of an EDS within S&M hotels, given their greater competitive challenge with regards to their larger counterparts.Practical implicationsMeaningful implications are made that building an extensive and effective information system appropriate to the size and type of the hotel's operations is especially needed by S&M hotels.Originality/valueThe paper addresses EDS issues specifically for S&M hotels.

Boutique hotels: technology, social media and green practices

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to link consumer use of technology to two very popular themes in the hospitality industry: boutique hotels and environmental responsibility.Design/methodology/approachThe case study focuses on how boutique hotels legitimize their green practices through the use of technology – web sites, social media – to communicate their environmental recognitions to discerning eco‐conscious consumers seeking small lodgings. The authors analyze the type of environmental legitimacy practices used by the boutique hotel segment of the tourism industry, using a variety of international, regional, or trade recognized environmental evaluation assessments to legitimize their boutique hotel green practices. A diverse sample of boutique hotel accommodations in two attractive, but similar international destinations – Istanbul, Turkey and San Francisco, California – are used, through content analysis of hotel web sites.FindingsSan Francisco Bay Area hoteliers, in the majority of instances, used their web sites to illustrate one international standard, LEED certification, for building structure. However, these hoteliers generally reported use of varying regional standards for legitimizing their green practices. Istanbul hoteliers reported on maintaining international standards for legitimizing their green practices, but did not seek specific standards for building structures.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research surveys of specific consumer perceptions of their search and experience would prove valuable in terms of destination selection and experience of environmentally‐conscious boutique hotels. Social media and related web sites utilize consumer self‐reporting, which would add additional insight for future research in this area.Originality/valueThe authors' analysis studies the web promotion of two similar geographic tourism destination boutique hotels' use of international versus regional legitimacy of their environmental practices.

A linguistic multicriteria decision-making model applied to hotel service quality evaluation from web data sources

Currently, there are a large number of hotel Web sites that develop their own seals of quality based on customer feedback. As a result, a hotel can be classified differently by various Web sites at the same time, creating confusion in the consumer perceptions about the quality of a given hotel. Moreover, there are attempts to standardize such service quality evaluation, such as the SERVQUAL instrument, which is a multiple-item scale for measuring service quality with several dimensions. In this context, we present a two-stage linguistic multicriteria decision-making model to integrate the hotel guests' opinions included in several Web sites, with two objectives: on the one hand, obtaining a SERVQUAL scale evaluation value of service quality with the integrated answers of the input opinions; on the other hand, getting a SERVQUAL overall evaluation value of service quality. This model is incorporated into an opinion aggregation architecture to integrate heterogeneous data (natural language included) from various tourism Web sites. As a particular case study, we show an application example using the high-end hotels located in Granada (Spain).© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Study of Website Optimization Strategy and Implementation

Internet users will usually use search engine to find the relevant traveling information before planning the trip, and search for suitable hotels and book hotel accommodation rooms in advance through the internet reservation system .The hotel website search engine marketing strategy has become an important part of the hotel marketing management. The study found that " research and implementation methods have obvious actual benefit", “recommend to conduct some of the implementation methods prior to the building of Web site ", " in Blog Article Marketing, ‘Sina Blog " import flow is high ", "in Free Platform And BBS marketing, ‘PChome & ebay " import flow is high etc; Researchers suggest the hotel sites operators continue to implement the hotel Web sites search marketing in the future through methods such as "assist with paying keyword advertising marketing" and "add more links to external website", "set up their own official blog" and " and “conduct Facebook, Plurk Twitter marketing” and etc.

To book or not to book: the role of hotel web site heuristics

PurposeThis study aims to examine web site heuristics and their influence on the likelihood to purchase.Design/methodology/approachA convenience sample of 28 participants was assigned a list of 30 hotel web sites to evaluate according to predetermined criteria and open‐ended questions.FindingsResults indicated that booking decisions are positively related to a web site's aesthetic appeal. The study found the presence of photographs on a hotel web site was the most significant factor impacting site appeal and influencing the booking decision. Other features affecting purchase decisions included ease of use, color, link availability, lack of web site clutter, and sites unique in appearance.Research limitations/implicationsResearch limitations included the size and composition of the sample. Respondents were college students, thus they represented a younger demographic and one which may be more tech‐savvy than other age groups. Also, the hotel web sites which were evaluated were located in one popular US tourist destination, meaning generalization to a larger population or to another industry may be limited.Practical implicationsResults showed four variables; pictures, ease of use, neat/uncluttered and plain/boring; were most significant on both site appeal and site influence. Practitioners would be well served to improve these web site elements to better accommodate customers and realize the greatest return on investment.Originality/valueThe paper investigates heuristics of hotel web sites. Findings identified areas for improvement by practitioners as well as areas for future research.

Influence of Advertising Attributions on Attitude toward Advertisement, Brand Attitude and Purchase intention: Emphasis on Hotel Web Advertisement

Influence of Advertising Attributions on Attitude toward Advertisement, Brand Attitude and Purchase intention: Emphasis on Hotel Web Advertisement

Study on Chinese Tourism Web Sites' Distribution and Online Marketing Effects

As a platform and carrier of tourism information, tourism Web sites (TWs) and online tourism marketing have deeply affected the tourism industry. The authors adopt a geographical perspective to analyze the distribution of Chinese tourism Web sites (CTWs), and statistical analysis with SPSS 16.0 was conducted to explore the online marketing effects of CTWs. Some meaningful results were produced: (a) The number of CTWs generally decreases from eastern China to central and western China and are especially dominant in tourism developed provinces. (b) The number of tourists has strong statistical correlation with the number of CTWs. (c) The strongest correlation for inbound tourists is with hotel Web sites, and the highest correlation coefficient is 0.807 between the number of domestic tourist and resort Web sites. Both inbound and domestic tourists have a low correlation coefficient with travel agency (TA) Web sites. (d) There exist some statistical models between tourist numbers and different kinds of CTWs. The results clearly unveil the marketing effects and correlation of CTWs and are helpful for further online marketing strategies.

A comparative study of web site performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a set of criteria and an instrument for evaluating upscale hotel web sites and test these in a comparative study of South Korean and the US upscale hotel web sites.Design/methodology/approachThe hotel web sites are assessed by a team of 25 trained evaluators. The study measures and compares the overall effectiveness of upscale hotel web sites and checks the correlation between overall web site effectiveness and size of upscale hotels in South Korea and the US by using balanced scorecard (BSC) approach. To evaluate and analyze upscale hotel web site performance or effectiveness, 14 upscale hotels in both South Korea and the USA are selected. These hotels are selected through Expedia.com or Hotels.com and are rated as either four‐ to five‐star.FindingsThe results show that there is no significant difference in the overall effectiveness of the upscale hotel web sites in South Korea and the USA. However, the web sites of the Korean upscale hotels perform slightly better than their US counterparts. The main conclusion drawn is that most upscale hotels in both countries are not effectively using web sites from the marketing and upscale hotel perspectives.Originality/valueThe first objective of this research study is to develop a web site evaluation tool for upscale hotels. The modified BSC approach for performance measurement is adopted as the overall framework for the evaluation process. Therefore, BSC performance measurements are adapted and developed to reflect the specific context of upscale hotel online marketing, with an upscale hotel perspective being added to the critical success factors. Also, this study compares actual upscale hotels web page in two different countries and that approach is unique.

Are pictures worth a thousand room nights? Success factors for hotel web site design

PurposeConsumers as well as hotel web sites are evolving, changing the requirements and expectations for online hotel room reservations. Building on previous research, the purpose of this paper is to explore hotel web site design's influence on site appeal and likelihood to purchase.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methods. College‐age participants visited hotel web sites detailing their impressions. Using a grounded theory‐based approach and regression analysis, web design factors are identified and assessed.FindingsThe paper finds a preference for enhanced graphical web site design. This finding contradicts prior studies. The paper also finds continued importance in: ease of use, brand loyalty site content, and site aesthetics.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. The coding of qualitative data can be affected by researcher bias. This paper also suffers from an age and geographic population bias. While this paper suggests that certain factors influence the likelihood to purchase, more extensive definition of these factors is needed. In addition, several factors, which were important in previous studies, have incongruous findings in this paper and need further examination.Practical implicationsThe results give direction to the design of effective hotel web sites.Originality/valueRapidly evolving internet technologies and consumer behavior generate a need for ongoing research to consumer behavior. A study with valid insight and information completed previously may not accurately reflect today's internet hotel market. The findings are significant: they suggest there has been a shift in consumer preferences.

The importance of user‐generated content: the case of hotels

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop understanding about the quality of user generated content (UGC) on web sites from the point of view of the customer. This is an area not yet explored, while the use of UGC is expanding on many web sites and its importance is rapidly growing.Design/methodology/approachThe research undertaken is a pilot amongst a small number of interviewees who have been asked to judge the quality of UGC on hotel web sites.FindingsThe findings of the research show that three types of information are needed by the person using UGC on hotel web sites: objective information about the hotel; information about the reviewer's qualifications; and information about the reviewer's beliefs and expectations.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the small number of interviewees this research is limited and can be defined as explorative. The outcomes can be used to develop a survey instrument in relation to further research on user generated content.Originality/valueThis research is original because there has not been any other initiative in this area and it will certainly stimulate more research because of the importance UGC has in a world of expanding internet usage. The outcomes of the small‐scale pilot will make it possible to develop broader quantitative research on UGC on web sites.