Identifying the level of importance of the factors influencing the decision to book hotels online

• Main Authors: Arejola, Michael Jeffrey M., Florogo, Aivee E., Jalbuena, Louis Noel Vincent R., Koo, Kathryn Anne Camille Y.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/14772
• Institution: De La Salle University

The realization of the game-changing effects and advantages of buying and selling through the Internet has actually been in existence for almost 40 years. Such use of electronically conducting business gave birth to the term e-commerce (Bill, n.d.). Hotels have realized such game-changing effects, and have maximized this new market channel. They are able to accommodate a wide range of customers without any physical or geographical barrier getting in their way. Still, it is not enough for an industry, such as the hotel industry to be content towards the current status of the opportunities they have generated online. It is important to continuously search for a ways to further improve such online capability by understanding the way people respond towards a hotel’s website. This could be understanding the factors that motivate the perception of an individual towards the intention of making the online booking. In this study, the researchers begin with focusing on the five factors proven to be attributed to purchase intention, namely: web security, time, information quality, empathy, and price level. With 384 completed survey questionnaires, the study made use of descriptive statistics to illustrate the influence of the five factors towards purchase decision. The researchers then made use of the Friedman test to understand the level of importance of the factors, as well as identifying the most influential factor. Results of the tests show that security ranked 1st ,with a median of 4,400. Price level, information quality, and time all had the same level of importance, with a median of 4,2000. Ranking last from among the five factors is empathy, with a median of 4.0000. The results of this study mat serve as a serve as a future reference for hoteliers to improve their website operations.