Determinants of consumers’ choices in hotel online searches: A comparison of consideration and booking stages

Using a stated choice experiment, this study uncovers how hotel review- and price-related attributes affect consumers’ formation of consideration sets and hotel bookings based on online search results alongside a two-stage model of consideration and choice. Empirical findings indicate that consumers’ evaluations of certain attributes vary across these stages. During the consideration stage, the listed hotel price, promotional discount, overall rating, review volume, and booking popularity are significant attributes for prospective guests, whereas price disparities across websites are not. Insignificant interaction effects among these determinants imply that in this stage, consumers employ fast-frugal heuristics and a noncompensatory strategy. During the booking stage, listed price, promotional discount, overall rating, and review volume inform consumers’ booking decisions. Furthermore, the interaction effects point to consumers’ adoption of a compensatory strategy in making a final booking decision. Finally, this study concludes with implications for hotel pricing and system optimization of online platforms.     

The impact of online reviews on hotel booking intentions and perception of trust

A growing reliance on the Internet as an information source when making choices about tourism products raises the need for more research into electronic word of mouth. Within a hotel context, this study explores the role of four key factors that influence perceptions of trust and consumer choice. An experimental design is used to investigate four independent variables: the target of the review (core or interpersonal); overall valence of a set of reviews (positive or negative); framing of reviews (what comes first: negative or positive information); and whether or not a consumer generated numerical rating is provided together with the written text. Consumers seem to be more influenced by early negative information, especially when the overall set of reviews is negative. However, positively framed information together with numerical rating details increases both booking intentions and consumer trust. The results suggest that consumers tend to rely on easy-to-process information, when evaluating a hotel based upon reviews. Higher levels of trust are also evident when a positively framed set of reviews focused on interpersonal service.     

BayesRec: Personalize search ranking with customer attribute-level willingness-to-pay using heterogeneous booking choice data

The ongoing travel restrictions owing to the COVID-19 shutdown continue to impact the hospitality sector. This pause on travel has led to a bigger regime shift in the customer's preferences for hotel selection. Therefore, this study aims to help understand customers’ evolving preferences by assessing the customers’ attribute-level willingness-to-pay (WTP) to tailor the booking experience. Furthermore, the study accounts for customers’ behavioral heterogeneity and decision choices while estimating WTP. The proposed approach utilizes multi-stage online modeling: (i) Segmentation to create behavioral customer cohorts; (ii) Hierarchical Bayesian modeling to estimate customer-level WTP; and (iii) Multi-criteria decision optimization to rank-optimize the hotel alternatives by leveraging the assessed attribute-level WTP. This continuous assessment provides personalized hotel recommendations and enhances customer’s booking experience, thereby allowing hotels to accelerate revenue recovery and aid in proactive demand generation for the next wave of travelers in a post-COVID economy.     

Booking now or later: Do online peer reviews matter?

Consumers always face a tradeoff between making a purchase decision now and continuing information searching with delayed purchase decision. This study extends extant literature by empirically investigating the effects of online peer reviews on consumers’ timing of booking a restaurant using a merged data set of online peer reviews and consumer reservation records. The results show that the rating valence, rating variation, and review content richness of online peer reviews positively motivate potential consumers to book a restaurant earlier, while the time interval between successive reviews hinders consumers’ booking decision. It is also found that the effects of rating valence on timing of restaurant booking depend on the different levels of rating variation and review content richness. The findings of this study help practitioners better understand consumers’ purchase decision process and improve marketing strategies.     

Strategic consumer behavior in online hotel booking

This study investigates strategic consumer behavior in online hotel booking. Free cancellation policies enable consumers to rebook the hotel room at a later time should the price drop prior to the date of stay. A discrete choice experiment is used to infer consumer preferences for free cancellation and non-refundable rates under different scenarios. The study also examines the moderating role of the risk attitude of consumers. Risk-seeking consumers show preference for a free cancellation rate that increases with the availability of an automatic rebooking service. Although a higher booking window increases the utility of the free cancellation rate, such impact decreases as risk propensity increases. The identification of four distinct consumer segments provides clear implications for industry practitioners.     

The effect of online reviews on hotel booking intention: The role of reader-reviewer similarity

Due to the experiential nature of travel-related products, online reviews have become an increasingly popular information source in travel planning and have a profound effect on consumers’ buying decisions, particularly in hotel booking. On the basis of homophily and similarity-attraction theory, we posit that review valence is positively related to consumers’ hotel booking intentions, and expect this relationship to be moderated by surface- (demographic) and deep-level (preference) similarities. The findings from two experiments conducted in Germany and Macau indicate that review valence significantly affects hotel booking intention, and that reader-reviewer demographic similarity moderates this effect. This three-way interaction reveals a substituting moderation effect between demographic similarity and preference similarity. One practical implication is that travel websites should find methods of exposing users to reviews written by those with either similar demographic characteristics or preferences, which facilitate travelers’ decision-making processes.     

The power of design: How does design affect consumers’ online hotel booking?

Emphasizing experiential appeals to consumers through design is most notable in the emerging lifestyle hotel segment of the lodging industry. This study identifies which lodging design mechanisms evoke consumer responses and provides a novel understanding of the relationships among consumer perception of hotel product/service design and booking intention by incorporating consumer emotional arousal and quality expectations in a theoretical model. The findings of this study suggest that aesthetics and symbolism in hotel design shape booking intention through emotional arousal and quality expectation. The functional dimension of design affects booking intention only through quality expectation. The findings will be particularly meaningful to the lodging industry because online booking requires both emotional and cognitive responses on the part of consumers.     

How do hotel managers react to rating fluctuation?

Rating fluctuation is inevitable for hotels listed on hotel booking platforms, which induces potential consumers’ perception of uncertainty and risk. Managerial response is expected to be effective in enhancing the interaction between hotels and consumers. However, how hotel managers react to rating fluctuation remains unclear. In order to fill this gap in the literature, we collect customer reviews and managerial responses from a leading hotel booking platform and build a panel dataset (hotel*month). The empirical results suggest that (1) rating fluctuation induces more managerial responses and requires more response time; (2) upscale hotels are more likely to conduct frequent and timely responses when facing rating fluctuation; and (3) hotels tend to respond more frequent and timely once rating fluctuation is observed by a larger audience. This study concludes by presenting theoretical contributions to the literature and practical implications for operators of hotel booking platforms and hotel managers.     

Confused by too many choices? Choice overload in tourism

Traditional economic and psychological theories suggest that having more options is beneficial to decision makers. However, according to the choice overload concept too many choices can sometimes cause contradictory results, such as consumers making ‘no choice’ or experiencing increased perceived regret. Considering that tourism suppliers offer an extensive variety of products, the primary objective of this study was to identify whether the choice overload phenomenon exists for tourism products. Using a scenario method, respondents were randomly assigned to one of ten different scenarios (2_{destination types} × 5_{choice sets}). The results of this study showed that having more than 22 choices increased the likelihood of making ‘no choice,’ regardless of destination type, suggesting that choice overload exists in the tourism industry. This study also demonstrated that when fewer than 22 choices were provided participants who made a choice perceived less regret than those who made ‘no choice’. However, the opposite results were found when tourists were provided with too many choices. Further discussion and implications are provided in the main body of this paper.     

The moderating role of context in the effects of choice attributes on hotel choice: A discrete choice experiment

This study used discrete choice modeling to identify the moderating role of context in the effects of cognitive, affective, and sensory attributes on hotel choice. To evaluate a hotel consumer's choice for attributes in a different choice context (leisure vs. business), a stated preference experiment based on D-optimal design was conducted using both a multinomial logit (MNL) model and a random parameter logit (RPL) model. The results show that while leisure travelers' choices for family vacation trips were more influenced by price and overall atmosphere than were business travelers', business travelers put an emphasis on room quality and comfort when on a business trip alone. The study demonstrates the trade-offs made by leisure and business travelers when choosing a hotel through discrete choice modeling. The findings provide hotel managers with important insights and implications in terms of target segmentation, product development, and marketing communication strategy.     

Impact of hotel website quality on online booking intentions: eTrust as a mediator

Growing competitiveness in the marketplace pushes hoteliers to fully take advantage of their websites as a marketing tool. This study proposed that a trusting relationship with customers could be developed by investing in hotel website development. A research model that incorporates hotel website quality, eTrust, and online booking intentions was put forward. The software AMOS 20.0 was adopted to analyze the proposed inter-variable relationships. Statistical results demonstrated that hotel website quality is a strong predictor of eTrust which then also mediates the relationship between website quality and consumers’ online booking intentions. Implications were offered for practitioners based on the results.     

Egyptians’ Hotel Booking Behavior on the Internet

The expansion of booking hotel rooms online has changed the booking process in the hotel market environment. This investigation evaluates Egyptians’ attitude as an overall inclination towards booking hotel rooms online. It consists of two phases: a focus group phase and a survey phase. Initially, focus groups were formed for the purpose of identifying general perceptions of Egyptians with respect to the use of hotel booking websites. Information generated from the focus group study contributed toward questionnaire (survey) development. Results suggest that Egyptians generally show positive attitudes towards booking hotel rooms online. The implication for hotel brands is that they should focus on making the experience of online booking safer in order to convert non-bookers to bookers. This is important because the safety features of online booking (secure transactions, privacy of information, and online fraud) appear to be more important than the usability features (convenience, usefulness, ease of use, and efficiency) for nonbookers.     

酒店顾客满意度评价体系研究——基于tripadvisor.cn的杭州高星级酒店评论数据

随着移动互联网的飞速发展和普及,越来越多的在线平台为了更好的满足消费者需求,为消费者提供了对产品进行自由、匿名的评价模式。基于此,各大线上平台已拥有大量的产品评价信息,对此类信息数据的研究和分析能够为企业的运营和管理服务带来新的价值。文章以tripadvisor.cn第三方平台中杭州高星级酒店的点评信息为研究数据基础,采用贝叶斯网络构建各维度和对应因素之间的相互关系,确定顾客满意度影响因素,并建立相应的杭州高星级酒店顾客满意度评价体系。研究表明,基于在线评论文本构建的顾客满意度评价体系较传统的方式更为精准、科学,更有利于酒店对顾客满意度做出准确的评价。     

eWOM effects on hotel booking intentions,attitudes, trust,and website perceptions

The objective of the study is to examine the effect of comments generated on Facebook on the choice of a hotel. More specifically, it focuses on the study of the influence of comments written by Facebook friends on the intentions of booking a hotel, the trust in the hotel, the attitude toward the hotel, and the perception of its website. The research also examines the moderator role of Internet users’ trust in those comments on these relations. To test these effects, an experimental design was created by manipulating the valence of the comments (positive vs. negative). A survey among 800 university students has confirmed all the hypotheses of the study on the influence of comments generated on Facebook in the users’ decision-making process.     

Do online hotel rating schemes influence booking behaviors?

Travelers’ hotel booking behaviors increasingly depend on peers' opinions and online ratings. This study investigates the effects of online hotel ratings on travelers' attitudes toward the hotel and booking intentions, using a 2 × 2 experimental research design. The results suggest that online rating lists are more useful and credible when published by well-known online travel communities (e.g., TripAdvisor). More favorable attitudes toward a hotel and higher booking intentions emerge when the hotel appears in best hotels lists. Finally, for the entries on best hotels lists, better attitudes and higher booking intentions result if the list is published on a well-known online travel community (Tripadvisor), whereas for entries on a worst hotel list, attitudes and booking intentions decrease even further if the list appears on TripAdvisor.     

Booking on-line or not: A decision rule approach

Internet technology has become a prominent distribution channel in the tourism industry. Any insight into decision making behavior in the online environment could be critical to business success. We explore the behavior of Iranian tourists in the online environment to specify how different factors affect tourists' decision to use online hotel booking websites. We use a Dominance-based rough set (DRS) in order to model tourists' choice. Besides the novelty of the model being used, this paper is one of the first to explore Iranian tourists' on-line behavior and it also deepens our general understanding of on-line decision making.     

Effects of hotel website photograph size and human images on perceived transportation and behavioral intentions

Travelers have been shown to use the Internet as their primary source of information for locating and booking hotel accommodation, while various website dimensions have been known to influence consumer behavior. Yet, there is no consistency in the way that hotels display their website photographs, especially in relation to photograph size and content, and few studies have investigated this important domain. This study examines the influence of hotel websites’ pictorial information (i.e., photograph sizes and human images) on perceived transportation, booking intentions and willingness to pay more. Analyzing 247 responses with structural equation modeling, large photographs increase transportation, which, in turn, increases booking intention and willingness to pay more. Large photographs are most effective when human presence is absent, while the effect of small photographs is improved with human presence. This study extends transportation theory by demonstrating that transportation can occur in non-narrative scenarios, specifically through photographic images.     

Consumers’ responses to ambivalent online hotel reviews: The role of perceived source credibility and pre-decisional disposition

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is prevalent in today's lodging market and has potential to influence consumers’ decision making. This study investigated how the presence of online reviewers’ personal identifying information (PII) may affect consumers’ processing of ambivalent online hotel reviews and hotel booking intentions. The results of an experiment with a sample of 274 undergraduate students indicate that the presence of PII positively affects the perceived credibility of the online reviews. When coupled with ambivalent online reviews, the presence of PII significantly lowers consumers’ hotel booking intentions.     

The impact of hotel CSR for strategic philanthropy on booking behavior and hotel performance during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some hotels have engaged in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to help overcome the crisis. Given that most existing research examines the impact of hotel CSR on a single stakeholder, how hotel CSR activities in a crisis are perceived by multiple stakeholders is unknown. Drawing on the concept of strategic philanthropy, this study examines the impact of hotel CSR activities during the pandemic, such as providing accommodations to healthcare workers, on hotel firms' market value and prospective hotel customers’ booking behavior. Adopting mixed-methods approach, this study finds negative impacts of hotel CSR for strategic philanthropy on firm market value and customer booking behavior. The study result indicates that the value of hotel CSR depends on the nature and environmental contexts of CSR. Specific theoretical and practical implications are provided.