Assessing the Visibility of Hotels On Smartphones:A Case Study of Hotels in Hong Kong

ENTER 2014 Research Track Slide Number 1

Assessing the Visibility of Hotels On Smartphones:A Case Study of Hotels in Hong Kong

Daniel LEUNG 1, Hee Andy LEE 2 , Lawrence FONG 3, & Rob LAW 3

1 Department of Tourism and Service Management,MODUL University Vienna, Austria

2 School of Tourism,The University of Queensland, Australia

3 School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong


Agenda

• Introduction

• Literature review

• Research method

• Results

• Discussions

• Limitations and future research

• Questions and answers


Introduction

• Smartphones have been increasingly used to research and purchase tourism products

Nearly one-sixth of traffic to hotel websites came from smartphones and tablets (eMarketer, 2012c)

Number of consumers booking travel on smartphones and tablets would increase from 16 million in 2012 to 36.7 million in 2016 (eMarketer, 2012d)


Research gap (1)

• Increasing number of studies on: The extent of travel-related capabilities

(Lashkari, Parhizkar, & Mohamedali, 2010) The impact of travellers’ touristic experience

(Wang, Park, & Fesenmaier, 2012) The level of adoption by tourism suppliers

(Liu & Law, 2013)

• Empirical studies in the hotel industry is scarce Dominant in the travel domain (Dickinson et al., 2012;

Liu & Law, 2013; Wang et al., 2012; Wang & Xiang, 2012)


Research gap (2)• Online consumers use their smartphones

to connect with brands via both company websites and/or smartphone apps

• Attention towards mobile websites is scant Focus on smartphone apps only (Dickinson et al., 2012;

Liu & Law, 2013; Wang et al., 2012; Wang & Xiang, 2012)

The readiness of the hotel industry to the mobile consumerism era has not been fully examined

How visible are hotels in the smartphone era?


Research objectives• To examine the visibility of all Hong Kong hotel

websites on smartphones using different operating systems

• To examine the availability of smartphone apps developed by all Hong Kong hotels in different smartphone application stores

• To highlight the association between: Visibility of hotels on smartphones & Star ratings Visibility of hotels on smartphones & Brand affiliation


Smartphone in H&T• Tourism is an information intensive industry in which

people search for a large amount of information, particularly in unfamiliar environments (Kurata, 2012)

• Smartphones with increased capacity in communication and connectivity provide a wide range of support for: Routine travel activities (e.g., planning and reservation) Detailed travel activities (e.g., locating tourist spots)


Smartphone appsAdvantages• Smartphone apps are more responsive

and convenient than websites from user experience perspective (Wisniewski, 2011)

Disadvantages• The platform-specific nature and time-

consuming cyclical update of smartphone apps make some users prefer visiting company websites via the pre-installed browsers (Wisniewski, 2011)


Mobile websitesPotential problem• Due to the relatively small screen size,

smartphones are limited in some features and unable to display some information which is available on desktop computers (Lobo, Kaskaloglu, Kim, & Herbert, 2011)

• If a website is not user-friendly, travellers are less likely to form a good impression about a destination which, in turn, negatively influences their decision making process (Han & Mills, 2006)


• The rating system indicates a tangible commitment made by firms to particular levels of service provision and quality (Abrate, Capriello, & Fraquelli, 2011)

• Higher star ratings relate positively to enhanced physical attributes and higher quality in all aspects

Hotels with higher star ratings may offer more comprehensive service and better online experience for consumers in order to maintain their service standard and reputation

& Star ratings?VisibilityAvailability


& Brand affiliation?

• A brand name implies the creation of a standardized product or production process (Klein & Saft, 1985)

• Chain hotels have a better quality assurance policy and implementation scheme due to the advantages in financial and technical support (Barrows & Powers, 2008)

Chain hotels are believed to be able to outperform their independent counterparts in the development of smartphone apps and mobile websites

VisibilityAvailability


Research methodTarget sample• All 122 hotels in Hong Kong, which are members of the

Hong Kong Hotels Association, were analysed

Selected mobile operating systems (International Data Corporation, 2013)

• Android (79.3%)• iOS (13.2%)• Windows Phone (3.7%)


Research method• The visibility of the hotel websites were

then coded based on pre-determined trichotomous scales 1 = Convert to mobile website 2 = Convert to desktop website 3 = Invisible

• All coding results were cross-verified by multiple researchers to ensure their validity


Research method• The availability of the smartphone apps

was recorded based on the written instruction 1 = Smartphone app is available 2 = Smartphone app is unavailable

• Another round of searching was conducted on the website versions of those three application stores


Visibility (Mobile websites)Star ratings3-star (n=40)

4-star (n=46)

5-star (n=31) χ 2

iOS smartphones

Mobile 23 (57.5%) 22 (47.8%) 23 (74.2%) 8.98

Desktop 17 (42.5%) 24 (52.2%) 7 (22.6%) (p < 0.1)

Invisible 1 (3.2%)

Android smartphones

Mobile 22 (55.0%) 22 (47.8%) 23 (74.2%) 6.58

Desktop 18 (45.0%) 23 (50.0%) 8 (25.8%) (n.s.)

Invisible 1 (2.2%)

Windows Phone smartphones

Mobile 15 (37.5%) 18 (39.1%) 19 (61.3%) 11.92

Desktop 25 (62.5%) 28 (60.9%) 10 (32.3%) (p < 0.05)

Invisible 2 (6.5%)

Brand affiliation

Chain (n=96)

Indp. (n=21) χ 2

58 (60.4%) 10 (47.6%) 1.51

37 (38.5%) 11 (52.4%) (n.s.)

1 (1.0%) 0 (0.0%)

57 (59.4%) 10 (47.6%) 1.31

38 (39.6%) 11 (52.4%) (n.s.)

1 (1.0%) 0 (0.0%)

46 (47.9%) 6 (28.6%) 3.36

48 (50.0%) 15 (71.4%) (n.s.)

2 (2.1%) 0 (0.0%)


Availability (Smartphone apps)Star ratings3-star (n=40)

4-star (n=46)

5-star (n=31) χ 2

iOS smartphones

Available 10 (25.0%) 12 (26.1%) 21 (67.7%) 17.44

Unavailable 30 (75.0%) 34 (73.9%) 10 (32.3%) (p < 0.01)

Android smartphones

Available 10 (25.0%) 10 (21.7%) 15 (48.4%) 6.97

Unavailable 30 (75.0%) 36 (78.3%) 16 (51.6%) (p < 0.05)

Windows Phone smartphones

Available 2 (5.0%) 0 (0.0%) 3 (9.7%) 4.32

Unavailable 38 (95.0%) 46 (100%) 28 (90.3%)

Brand affiliation

Chain (n=96)

Indp. (n=21) χ 2

40 (41.7%) 3 (14.3%) 5.56

56 (58.3%) 18 (85.7%) (p < 0.05)

33 (34.4%) 2 (9.5%) 5.076

63 (65.6%) 19 (90.5%) (p < 0.05)

5 (5.2%) 0 (0.0%) 1.143

91 (94.8%) 21 (100%)


Discussions (Mobile websites)

• Hotels in Hong Kong generally acknowledge and adapt to the smartphone wave by developing mobile websites for connecting with consumers on different platforms

• A “user-unfriendly” website would discount consumers’ interest to view, purchase and re-enter it (Hasan & Abuelrub, 2011)

• Hoteliers are necessary to assure that their websites are smartphone-friendly and thereby able to accessible to a much larger audience


• The trend of developing smartphone apps in Hong Kong ‘s hotel industry is relatively less eminent

• Smartphone users’ preference is strongly in favour of smartphone apps over mobile websites owing to their high usability (Moth, 2013)

• Hotels are encouraged to develop their smartphone apps for distributing products to and creating a close connection with current and potential customers

Discussions (Smartphone apps)


• Brand affiliation plays a tremendous role on: Hotel’s inclination towards technology adoption (Siguaw et al., 2000)

Hotel website design quality (Au Yeung & Law, 2004)

Hotel website information quality (Leung, Sun, & Fong, 2013)

Visibility of hotels on smartphones (Leung, Lee, Fong, & Law, 2014)

• Difference in financial and technical support ???

Discussions


Limitations• Only member hotels of the Hong Kong Hotels Association were

examined and cross-sectional data collected in July 2013 were analysed

• Other mobile operating systems (e.g., BlackBerry OS by BlackBerry and Symbian by Nokia) were excluded

Future research• To analyse hotels in other countries and different types of mobile

devices

• To examine the quality of mobile websites and smartphone apps owned and managed by hotel companies

Limitations & Future research


Thank YouThank YouQuestions & AnswersQuestions & Answers

Assessing the Visibility of Hotels On Smartphones:A Case Study of Hotels in Hong Kong

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