Track: E-Business/E-Service

Abstract

Online booking sites operate like any other e-commerce platform. Travel agencies buy rooms from hotels and sell them to customers, which are the travellers. As customer satisfaction is one of the main goals of the hospitality industry, it is vital to know the implications of what satisfies a traveller using an online booking site. Though studies on online booking sites are limited, the study would investigate this research gap. Thus, the research study aims to explore the importance of online booking and its implications on customer satisfaction and on the hospitality industry, particularly the hotel industry. To do this, the researcher assessed three online booking sites, mainly: Agoda, Booking, and Hotels. A questionnaire was conducted to survey 165 respondents who had experiences in online booking. Using the data from the survey, the three online booking sites and the survey data undergone assessment of their current systems, ANOVA test, Correlation analysis, Multiple Regression analysis, Risk assessment, and benchmarking. It was found out that the three online booking sites have their similarities and differences in the factors identified in the research study. These subfactors that are under hotel rental price, hotel rating, hotel location, e-service quality, and interface prove to be important.Online booking sites operate like any other e-commerce platform. Travel agencies buy rooms from hotels and sell them to customers, which are the travellers. As customer satisfaction is one of the main goals of the hospitality industry, it is vital to know the implications of what satisfies a traveller using an online booking site. Though studies on online booking sites are limited, the study would investigate this research gap. Thus, the research study aims to explore the importance of online booking and its implications on customer satisfaction and on the hospitality industry, particularly the hotel industry. To do this, the researcher assessed three online booking sites, mainly: Agoda, Booking, and Hotels. A questionnaire was conducted to survey 165 respondents who had experiences in online booking. Using the data from the survey, the three online booking sites and the survey data undergone assessment of their current systems, ANOVA test, Correlation analysis, Multiple Regression analysis, Risk assessment, and benchmarking. It was found out that the three online booking sites have their similarities and differences in the factors identified in the research study. These subfactors that are under hotel rental price, hotel rating, hotel location, e-service quality, and interface prove to be important.