Online Hotel Booking Research Articles

Relationship of Customer Engagement, Perceived Quality and Brand Image on Purchase Intention of Premium Hotel’s Room

Brand image is a key factor for online hotel industry since the hotel offers experience and service that has intangible features, some tangible cues are more essential in shaping the brand image, which may generate travellers’ purchase intention. The traditional hotel industry is facing very serious problems. Because there are many new types of accommodation emerged based on the internet, such as homestay. Due to the change, it is necessary to understand the key factors that influence travellers’ online purchase intention in hotel booking sector. This study summarized the development of the brand image, customer engagement, and perceived quality of online purchase intention in the existing literature. This research aims to develop a theoretical model to examine the direct effect of the variables in the online hotel booking area, which helps the further investigation of online hotel brand image, customer engagement, perceived quality and travellers’ online purchase intention. Additionally, this paper generates and discusses contributing to the research. A respectable sample of 81 was collected through a survey and the data were further analysed using Smart-PLS. It proposed that brand image, perceived quality and customer engagement has a positive influence on online purchase intention. This study assisted hotels to build a strong online brand image that results in the travellers’ online purchase intention.

What Determines Tourist Adoption of Hotel Websites for Online Hotel Bookings?

The online purchase through web channels regarding travel related product services have really taken an unprecedented growth. The objectives of the study is to determine how information quality available on the websites of the hotels influence the intentions of customers of online bookings. Furthermore, the study also seeks to analyze how etrust as mediator influence the customer online booking intention.A simple random sampling technique used to collect the data with help of a questionnaire as the data collection tool to survey the customers in Delhi. The total valid sample size was 400. The framework and hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM empirically. The paper found significant and positive relation between information quality and online hotel booking intentions of users whereas the relation between source credibility and online hotel booking intentions found insignificant. In addition, etrust partially mediate between information quality and online booking intentions through hotel website and no mediation between source credibility and online hotel booking intentions.

Can the amount of information and information presentation reduce choice overload? An empirical study of online hotel booking

ABSTRACT During online hotel booking, travelers are exposed to numerous hotel options, possibly making them feel overwhelmed with choices. Based on an online hotel booking scenario, two 2 × 2 factorial design experiments (Study one: 2 choice sizes × 2 amount of information; Study two: 2 choice sizes × 2 presentation of information), each with a sample of 242 participants, have been conducted to test the effect of choice size on perceived overload. The results find the choice overload effects and the associated internal mechanism, as well as the moderating effects of amount of information and presentation of information.

DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING IN ONLINE HOTEL BOOKING: A CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE

In the era of glitz and glitter, advertising is that gravitational force which attracts the consumer. Every sector has to advertise its products or services to entice the consumers, may it be food industry, cosmetic industry, travel and tourism industry, etc. So is the case with the hospitality industry, which is gaining momentum in the tertiary sector of India. In this era of globalization and digitalization, the travel and tourism industry in India is going through the phase of evolution as well as revolution. Today’s consumer, due to paucity of time, and availability of more convenient medium often relies on the online means to book a hotel rather than relying on the traditional methods which were used previously. Online hotel bookings have become a necessity rather than luxury in today’s time. Consumers while booking hotels online often get misled due to various deceptive offers, misleading advertisements and algorithms. This research article deals with the following problems faced by Consumers in online booking of hotels in India particularly regarding: -1. The authenticity and fairness in the reviews posted on various online platforms.2. The reliability of pictorial representation regarding services and rooms provided by the hotels in terms of ambience, size and facilities.3. The algorithms on which online platforms work in reflecting availability of rooms.This paper will analyze the adequacy of existing legal framework in India particularly with respect to online hotel booking with reference to Consumer Protection Act, 2019. It would further explore the implications of the recently issued guidelines to regulate online consumer reviews which will be applicable to every online platform publishing consumer reviews. The authors will focus on understanding consumer perspective through doctrinal study and suggest reforms for effective consumer protection in online hotel booking in India.

A fusion multi-criteria collaborative filtering algorithm for hotel recommendations

Recommender systems employ information filtering techniques to mitigate the problem of generating personalised recommendations in a digital world that is heavily overloaded with information. Recently, the tourism industry becomes more and more popular and the number of online hotel booking sites with search engines has been growing. However, using such sites can be time consuming and burdensome for potential travellers. Accordingly, this paper proposes a fusion multi-criteria user-item collaborative filtering (MC-UICF) recommendation algorithm that exploits the multi-criteria ratings of users and integrates MC user-based CF and MC item-based CF techniques to produce personalised hotel recommendations. Experimental results on two real-world multi-criteria datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by outperforming other baseline single-criteria and multi-criteria CF recommendation approaches in terms of recommendation accuracy and coverage, in particular, when dealing with sparse datasets.

What Determines Consumers’ Intention for Hotel Bookings through Smartphone Apps?

In the emerging market, the usage of smartphone apps are playing an imperative role and supporting travelers in their online hotel bookings. This study aims to examine the various determinants that affect travelers’ behavioral intention regarding hotel booking through smartphone apps. Data was collected from 379 hotel guests who used smartphone apps for hotel bookings. The respondents for this study are taken from Delhi. Further, the hypotheses of this study were validated with the help of structural equation modeling (SEM) using partial least squares (PLS). The results of this study found all dimensions significant except for effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and habits. A newly added dimension, perceived trust was also found a significant predictor of consumer’s behavioral intentions for hotel booking through smartphone apps. The study provides implications for hotel managers that the information provided on apps must be accurate, up-to-date and reliable regarding hotel services. By incorporating relevant information in the system, travelers’ will feel the hotels are trustworthy and thus their tendency to use smartphone apps for hotel bookings will increase. As well as hotel apps must be easy to operate which reduce travelers extra efforts and time while using it.

The role of key online reviews in affecting online hotel booking: an empirical investigation

Purpose The importance of online reviews on online hotel booking has been widely acknowledged. However, not all online reviews affect consumers equally. Compared with common online reviews, key online reviews (KORs) have a greater influence on consumers' decisions and online hotel booking. This study takes the first step to investigate the factors affecting the identification of KORs and the role of KORs in online hotel booking.Design/methodology/approach To test the research hypotheses, this study develops a crawler to obtain 551,600 online reviews of 650 hotels in ten representative large cities in China. This study first uses a binary logistic regression to identify KORs by combining review content quality and reviewer characteristics and then uses a log-regression model to investigate the role of KORs in online hotel booking.Findings This study mined the factors affecting the identification of KORs by analyzing review contents and reviewer characteristics. Our results revealed that KORs play a mediating role in the effects of review content and reviewer characteristics on online hotel booking.Originality/value This study focuses on KORs, which have received limited attention in research but are important to practitioners. Specifically, this study investigates the antecedents and consequences of KORs. Our results enable hotel managers to manage online reviews effectively, particularly KORs.

Reconnoitering enablers of travelers' online hotel booking intention: moderation of service affordability and perceived pandemic risk

PurposeThe meddling of foreign players into the Indian hotel industry has triggered fervent competitiveness, and therefore, consumers' attitude, intention and behavior have been the epicenter of all activities. This study endeavors to explicate enablers of online hotel booking intention (OHBI) in the Indian hospitality industry.Design/methodology/approachThe study examined OHBI of 560 travelers during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India using structural equation modeling and an extended technology acceptance model. Direct and indirect associations were explored using mediation and moderation.FindingsThe results manifest that hotel website credibility, perceived website interactivity and perceived ease of use (PEU) aggrandize perceived usefulness (PU), which, in turn, considerably magnifies travelers' OHBI. PEU and PU partially mediate the relationship in the model. Into the bargain, service affordability reinforces the relationship, while perceived pandemic risk enfeebles the relationship between PU and OHBI.Research limitations/implicationsThe study unfurls pressing determinants of PEU, PU and OHBI that may facilitate hoteliers to lure travelers and enhance profitability.Originality/valueThere is a paucity of literature on “hotel website credibility” and “perceived pandemic risk” in the hospitality industry. Hence, the study enriches literature by assimilating underlying constructs through an epigrammatic conceptual model. The study is distinctive because it unearths the possibilities of mediation and moderation amongst the aforementioned constructs and posits the calamitous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism and hospitality sector.

Impact of Website Interface on Customer Experience and Engagement Intention in Online Hotel Booking

This study aims to examine the impacts of a website interface on customer experience and engagement intention in online hotel booking services. A research model was proposed to discuss the interrelationships among website interface attributes, online customer experience, and customer engagement intention. The moderating effects of self-efficacy were also included. A quantitative approach of collecting 608 usable online questionnaires was conducted, and SPSS and AMOS were used to analyze the measurement model and proposed hypotheses. The results demonstrated that customer experience was affected by the information attributes, service attributes, and technical attributes of the booking website interface. Furthermore, customer experience was found to be positively related to customer engagement intention on booking websites. Moderating effects of web self-efficacy on these relationships were suggested.

The Impact of Online Consumer Reviews on Online Hotel Booking Intention

Purpose – The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of Online Consumer Reviews (OCRs) on consumers’ online hotel booking intention in the hospitality sector in Turkey. Design / Methodology / Approach - This study utilizes quantitative research techniques. A self-administrated, 5 point Likert scale type online questionnaire was conducted in order to collect data. A total of 204 volunteer participants who were interested in online shopping, have participated in the survey. The research model consists of 7 independent and 2 dependent variables. While Review Source, Review Quality, Review Consistency, Review Volume, Review Recency, Negative Reviews and Positive Reviews are independent variables; Perceived Credibility of Online Consumer Reviews and Online Hotel Booking Intention are dependent variables. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equational Model (SEM) were utilized while analyzing the research model of the study. Findings – According to findings of the research, both positive and negative OCRs affect the perceived credibility of OCRs. However, there is no statistically significant impact found that review source, review recency, review consistency and review quality affect perceived credibility of OCRs. In addition, as per findings of the research, review volume and perceived credibility of OCRs have statistically significant impact on consumers’ online hotel booking intention. Discussion – People take into account other individuals’ opinions and comments when shopping online. This is particularly prominent in service sectors such as hotels that do not sell a tangible product. This study has investigated that the characteristics of OCRs influencing perceived credibility of OCRs and consumers’ online hotel booking intention. Perceived credibility was found to have a mediator role between characteristics of the OCR and online hotel booking intention. Findings of the study can be implemented by hotel brands in order to enhance customers’ online booking experience.

Effects of Visual Information and Argument Concreteness on Purchase Intention of Consumers Towards Online Hotel Booking

Online consumer reviews impact the traveller’s decision to book hotel online. The study examines the role of visual information and argument concreteness on the credibility of reviews and consequently on purchase intention. The study examines the effect of trust and perceived risk as mediators on the relationship of review credibility and purchase intention. An online survey was conducted on 310 travellers above 18 years. The data was analysed using PLS-SEM. Travellers believed visual information and argument concreteness of review enhances the review credibility. Traveller’s purchase intentions were influenced by the credibility of reviews. This relationship was partially mediated by trust but not by perceived risk. The research suggests that the elaborate travel reviews with visual elements that describe the location and surroundings of the hotel are considered to be more credible and develop a positive intention towards booking the hotel.

An Effective Hotel Recommendation System through Processing Heterogeneous Data

Recommendation systems have recently gained a lot of popularity in various industries such as entertainment and tourism. They can act as filters of information by providing relevant suggestions to the users through processing heterogeneous data from different networks. Many travelers and tourists routinely rely on textual reviews, numerical ratings, and points of interest to select hotels in cities worldwide. To attract more customers, online hotel booking systems typically rank their hotels based on the recommendations from their customers. In this paper, we present a framework that can rank hotels by analyzing hotels’ customer reviews and nearby amenities. In addition, a framework is presented that combines the scores generated from user reviews and surrounding facilities. We perform experiments using datasets from online hotel booking platforms such as TripAdvisor and Booking to evaluate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed framework. We first store the keywords extracted from reviews and assign weights to each considered unigram and bigram keywords and, then, we give a numerical score to each considered keyword. Finally, our proposed system aggregates the scores generated from the reviews and surrounding environments from different categories of the facilities. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed recommendation framework.

Determinants of online hotel booking intentions: website quality, social presence, affective commitment, and e-trust

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effect of hotel website quality, social presence, affective commitment, and e-trust on travelers’ online hotel booking intentions. Smart-PLS software was applied to test the hypotheses. The results of this study explain how hotel website quality, social presence, affective commitment, and e-trust have a significant relationship with online hotel booking intentions. This study identifies how hotel website quality is a critical driver in developing affective commitment, e-trust, and online hotel booking intentions. Travelers who enjoy the social experience with the hotel website platform are more motivated to book a room at that hotel. This study confirms the vital role of social presence in enhancing e-trust and online hotel booking intentions and provides evidence of the importance of the holistic model in understanding travelers’ decision-making processes, especially when booking a hotel room.

Trusting Online Reviews Enhances Intention to Book Online: The Perks of Seeking Information?

Research aims: This study aims to analyze factors affecting consumer intention to book hotels from social media and online travel agencies. Specifically, we examine the direct effects of social media usage and electronic word of mouth (e-WoM) and the indirect effect through the mediation of trust in booking intention.Design/Methodology/Approach: Purposively sampled respondents resulted in 409 responses that met the predefined criteria: aged 18-34, active on their social media accounts, and had accessed online booking sites. Regression with mediating analysis was conducted on valid data.Research findings: Analysis results showed that social media usage and e-WoM had a direct, positive, and significant impact on booking intention. It has also proven to have an indirect effect on consumer booking intention mediated by trust. Social media usage and e-WoM directly affected booking intention and had higher valence when mediated by trust.Theoretical contribution/Originality: Information on social media positively influenced consumer purchase intention on online hotel booking due to its completeness. Further, this study is among the few that applied the e-WOM concept to the hospitality sector.Practitioner/Policy implication: The implication for managers is to improve the online booking management system by increasing promptness in response to reviews, especially the negatives.Research limitation/Implication: This study focused on consumers who have social media accounts and accessed online hotel booking sites, limiting its generalizability.

WHAT ARE THE DETERMINANTS OF CONSUMERS' ONLINE REVIEWS ADOPTION FOR HOTEL BOOKINGS: A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING APPROACH

Experienced travelers share their reviews regarding hotel services which serve as a testimony for novice travelers and help them to make their decision whether to book that hotel or not. The current study aims to identify the various factors affecting the intentions of travelers for online hotel bookings. Data was collected from 419 respondents who adopt online reviews published on online travel aggregators for online hotel bookings. The respondents for this study are taken from Delhi. Further, the hypotheses of this study were validated with the help of structural equation modeling (SEM) using partial least squares (PLS). The paper found Information quality; Source credibility, Information sidedness, and Information consistency are the significant predictor of traveler’s Information usefulness for hotel bookings. Further, the relationship between Information usefulness and online hotel bookings intentions was also found statically significant. This study has provided implications for hotel managers that hotel managers should continue to monitor the negative reviews and take some necessary actions to overcome these issues. As well as they should focus on their service quality which helps them to make their customers happy and encourage them to upload positive reviews. This study analyzed the travelers’ adoption of user[1]generated reviews from online travel aggregators for online hotel bookings by using an information adoption model with additional constructs.

Examining the impact of visual presentations and online reviews on hotel booking intentions

This study aims to examine the factors affecting the behavioural intentions toward online hotel booking. The study integrates visual presentations and online reviews with the technology acceptance model (TAM). Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the proposed hypotheses in this research. The results report that booking intentions are mainly determined by visual presentations and perceived usefulness. The statistical analysis supports the notion that visual presentations and online reviews have a positive impact on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. However, online reviews do not have any significant influence on booking intention directly. The study concludes that online consumers are more likely to book a hotel online if visual presentations and online reviews appear to be useful and easy to use. The findings contribute several implications for researchers and practitioners in the hospitality field.

The role of procedural, financial and relational switching costs in the Chinese online hotel booking market: antecedents and consequences

This study reveals the key facets of switching costs and their antecedents within the context of online hotel booking in China using mixed methods. Survey results based on 368 valid responses indicate significant antecedents stemming from the characteristics of the online booking market and the individual behavioural and experiential characteristics of customers. However, relational switching costs show a significant positive effect on customers’ intentions to continue with their current online booking service provider, while other switching costs do not. Qualitative research further explores the multi-dimensional nature of customer-perceived switching costs and shows that consumers’ habitual purchases with an online hotel booking service provider form trust, increasing the cost of brand relationship losses and preventing customers from switching. When the self-construal of consumers is different, the homogeneity of providers will have both a positive and negative impact on switching intentions. There are also some interesting findings regarding learning costs in the online hotel booking field. This study extends knowledge about customer retention in the competitive Chinese online booking market by incorporating different types of antecedents and testing their influences on different facets of switching costs as well as the consequences.

Facilitators of Online Hotel Booking through Third Party Aggregators: Measurement and Validation in the Indian Context

ABSTRACT The Indian hotel industry is likely to reach USD 2.3 billion by 2020 with 28% (up from 19% in 2018) of all bookings made online. The extant research in this field has been mainly focused on the technical and esthetic aspects of hotel websites. Drawing on information richness literature, we identify and develop customer-centric informative factors (named Facilitators of Online Booking or FOB) that might facilitate online hotel booking. We deployed a two-stage mixed-method study across major tourist destinations in India. In the first stage (n1 = 202), we developed an 18-item scale to measure FOB. In the second stage (n2 = 330), we tested the construct validity of FOB and found support for its relationships with e-trust (as a mediator) and purchase intention.

Price effects of search advertising restrictions

Some suppliers prohibit their distributors from advertising on search engines if the consumer searches for the supplier's brand name. Such restrictions are referred to as “non-brand bidding agreements” (NBBAs). This paper investigates the effect of NBBAs on retail prices in the Dutch hotel sector, where some hotels impose NBBAs on online hotel booking platforms. An NBBA may protect the hotel's own website against competition from hotels on booking platforms because booking platforms cannot target consumers searching for the hotel with a search ad. This may lead to higher prices on the hotel website. However, an NBBA may also generate ad savings, which may lead to lower prices. We use hotel prices from a meta-search site and data on NBBAs from two hotel booking platforms. To correct for unobserved heterogeneity between hotels with and without NBBA, we apply a trajectory balancing approach within a synthetic difference-in-differences framework. Compared to non-NBBA-hotels, NBBA-hotels charge higher prices on their website relative to the price on booking platforms, suggesting a price increase. We identify cases where it is unlikely that consumers benefit from passed-on ad savings.

The windfall gain effect: Using a surprise discount to stimulate add-on purchases

• This research evaluated factors that motivate consumers’ unplanned purchases. • A surprise discount and a hedonic product induce additional spending intentions. • A hedonic product is preferred when a low discount is provided. • Impulse buying traits enhance the surprise discount effect on add-on purchases. • With a medium discount, impulse buying increases hedonic product purchases. How can the business maximize revenue while providing discounts? This research suggests that hospitality operators may stimulate add-on purchases with the adoption of surprise discounts. Two experiments investigated factors that influence hospitality consumers’ ancillary spending. Study 1 tested the discount and product type effects on additional spending intentions for a cruise booking. Study 2 identified how the depth of surprise discount and add-on product type influence consumers' add-on purchase decisions for an online hotel booking. The findings indicate that a surprise discount and hedonic items induce consumers' unplanned purchases. A hedonic add-on item is preferred over a utilitarian item when a low discount is offered. Impulse buying mediates the effect of surprise discount and product type on unplanned purchase intentions. This research extends the traditional discount role, by demonstrating that a discount promotion can induce consumers' additional purchases. The findings provide guidance for effective pricing strategies and add-on marketing mix.