When are vivid hotel photos effective? The moderating effects of resource scarcity and brand level

Despite the wide use of photos on brands’ social media accounts and hotel websites, limited attention has been paid to how color saturation levels of photos affect hotel consumers’ purchase decisions. Drawing on the congruency framework, the current research examines the interaction effect between color saturation level and consumers’ consumption goal on purchase intention. Specifically, this research uses consumers’ subjective level of resource scarcity and brand level as the moderators. Findings from three experimental studies demonstrate that hotel photos with high (vs. low) color saturation can enhance advertising trustworthiness when consumers perceive a low (vs. high) level of resource scarcity (Study 1) and when they are visiting a luxury (vs. mid-scale) hotel (Study 2A & 2B). Hotel marketers may optimize the color saturation level of their property photos based on the profile of their target consumers and mid-scale vs. luxury level.