Price or Convenience: What Is More Important for Online and Offline Bookings? A Study of a Five-Star Resort Hotel in Taiwan

Yi-Man Teng, Kun-Shan Wu and Che-Yi Chou
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Yi-Man Teng: College of Commerce, Yango University, Fuzhou 350015, China
Kun-Shan Wu: Department of Business Administration, Tamkang University, Taipei 25137, Taiwan
Che-Yi Chou: Department of Business Administration, Tamkang University, Taipei 25137, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Low price or convenience? What is more important for online and offline bookings? For the sustainable development of the hospitality industry, it is necessary to know the opinions of customers about their online/offline hotel booking experiences. This study aimed to predict the customers’ online/offline booking behavior toward a resort hotel in Taiwan by adapting the marketing mix elements. We first designed and executed a detailed questionnaire involving approximately 300 respondents from a five-star hotel in Taiwan, used hypothesis testing to extract important factors from the data, and finally used logistic regression of these factors to predict the customer choices effectively. The study results show that the majority of the customers believe that booking hotel services online provides for a broader choice, offers more discounts and more privacy than available while booking offline, and is cheaper, faster, and more reliable and convenient. The outcomes of logistic regression confirm that “broad choice,” but not “low price” has the most significant impact on the customers booking a resort accommodation online or offline. Furthermore, the results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) show that the younger customers (under the age of 45) and those with university degrees are significantly more likely to make the reservations online for a resort. The findings and the recommendations can provide valuable inputs to the resort industry practitioners in Taiwan for improving the online booking services.

Keywords: resort hotel; 7Ps marketing mix elements; logistic regression; ANOVA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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