Understanding of online hotel booking process: A multiple method approach

With the development of information technology, online travel agency has become an important information and communication source in the hospitality industry. The previous studies assessing the online hotel decision-making behaviours, however, mainly focused on behavioural intentions as well as identifying factors that directly influence the transactional behaviours, which rely on a static approach rather than employing the holistic viewpoints. Thus, this research adopted the choice-set model as a theoretical lens to explore online hotel booking behaviours by using multiple methods (i.e. observation and survey methods). The findings of this research shed light on the dynamic patterns of online hotel decision-making process and identify important factors (i.e. internal and external information sources) across sequential stages of the choice-set model. Therefore, this research provides useful implications to online hospitality marketers.