Consumers' Perception on Hotel Websites: Implications for Operational Performance

The hotel industry has been flourishing in recent years. Today, many firms including hotels use the Internet as a marketing tool, which has increased the number of e-commerce websites. Unsurprisingly, many hotels established official websites in order to explore the possibility of marketing their services on a global scale. Prior studies on hotel websites from individual consumers’ perspectives appear limited, and thus this research is intended to address this research paucity. This paper focused on hotel website and operational performance. Ideas from Relationship Marketing (RM) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) were used to support the arguments developed in this paper. This study addressed the influence of the following constructs content, status (of information), security, user friendliness, technology, interface design on hotel websites’ performance. The analysis was based on data from Malaysia. The findings of this research would benefit future researchers as a frame of reference. In addition, this paper would be useful to hotel operators, particularly s they plan to create functional and effective websites. Finally, the limitations of study and recommendations for future studies were advised.