Online accommodation booking: what information matters the most to users?

Abstract

One of the key things travellers do when planning a trip is to go online to search for and book the right accommodation. Accommodation booking websites such as Agoda, Booking.com, and Expedia provide a range of accommodation options and relevant information, such as rates, star ratings, customer review ratings, reviewers’ comments, reservation policies, facilities, and so on. This study examined what and how information provided by accommodation providers on accommodation booking websites influences travellers in their decision-making before they make an actual booking. This study developed a model, based on Walther and Parks’ (Handbook of interpersonal communication. Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp 529–563, 2002) Warranting Theory, and McKnight et al.’s (J Strateg Inf Syst 11:297–323, 2002a) Web Trust Model, to examine how the warranting value of accommodation information affected travellers’ trusting intentions, and how these trusting intentions affected their trust-related behaviours. An online questionnaire survey collected responses from travellers who had previously booked accommodation using an accommodation booking website. Partial least squares analyses of 94 responses showed that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between warranting value of accommodation information and trusting intentions, as well as between trusting intentions and trust-related behaviours. However, trusting intentions had negligible and insignificant mediating effect between warranting value of accommodation information and trust-related behaviours. The findings of this study can help online accommodation booking websites and accommodation providers to understand what and how they can leverage information to sufficiently influence travellers’ trusting intentions and eventually entice travellers to make an actual booking.