Page 307 - MARSIUM'21 COMP OF PAPER

FYP

AHIBS UTM SKUDAI JANUARY 2022

THE EVALUATION ON THE HOTEL WEBSITE PERFORMANCE TOWARDS
CUSTOMERS RESERVATION

INTAN YUSNIZA, ASSOC.PROF.DR. NOOR HAZARINA BINTI HASHIM

Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru

*Corresponding author: Yusniza@graduate.utm.my

Abstract
This study focuses on the relationship between website quality, functionality, and usability website design, trust and even the
importance of website dimension and features in influencing internet booking. Because the internet market is growing and raising the
competition, hotels' websites are an efficient strategy to keep customers making reservations directly through the hotel's own website, such
as by offering the lowest confirmed rates, boosting loyalty, and partnering with online agents. There's no denying that hotel distribution has
shifted substantially since the internet's inception. Online travel agencies (OTAs) and hotel websites have gained in popularity in order to
reach a wider range of customers and increase revenue. This study enables hotel industry practitioners in better positioning their own
websites by exposing and comparing the key aspects that influence customers' impressions of booking channels online.

Keywords: website quality, website functionality, website usability, Online travel agency, customer trust.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The internet and websites have had a significant impact on every aspect of our lives. It has given us the ability to obtain information
fast and nearly for free from anywhere. Travellers re-booked hotel reservations by phone (direct to the customer services) , fax, and
travel agents in the early 1990s. Academic scholars began to support the necessity of ordering travel reservation through online
platforms, such as hotel booking websites, in the mid-1990s, in order to improve service quality and profitability (Bonn et al, 1998;
Walle, 1996; Weber and Roehl, 1999). The internet has transformed the hospitality business by assisting hotels and consumers in
arranging, promoting, and marketing tourism products and services, as well as facilitating communication, online transactions, and
distribution systems for hoteliers and consumers (Buhalis & Law, 2008). As a result, hotels began to create their own websites in order
to serve customers from all over the world by providing them with online access to hotel information. This enhancement attempts to
improve customer service by personalising it and streamlining the reservation process (Baloglu and Pekcan, 2006). The internet has
caused corporations to change how they function and communicate to this extent. Hotels are finding it more difficult to attract tourists
as the number of websites grows. Some hotels have a lot of information on their websites, but they don't include useful information or
organise it in a logical way. Hotel managers must assess such facilities in order to improve, modify, or adapt them on websites to meet
the needs of visitors. Hoteliers would also like to respond to the growing demand to match the style of their websites to the needs of
their customers. In the tourism industry, e-commerce has a favourable impact. In this industry, web technology is broadening the range
of transactions available to online travelers (Dedeke, 2016). Industry of tourism and hospitality. To compete today, people need a
competitive advantage; one approach to establish a competitive edge is to employ information technology (Law et al., 2009). In the
hospitality industry, the Internet has become an integral aspect of hotel operations as well as a source of market research and surveys.
A website can highlight an organization's strengths and flaws (Herrero et al., 2015). In the tourism business, further research on website
information and design, as well as its impact on purchase intent, is required (Dedeke, 2016). The overall excellence or efficacy of a
website in transmitting messages intended for audiences and viewers is referred to as website quality (Wang et al., 2015).

According to the study, the information about the hotel website facility, reservation information, contact information, and
information regarding incentives and privileges are the most regularly discovered information on many hotel websites. Hotel managers
can raise sales volumes, improve brand image, and improve the overall effect of their marketing efforts by building a website. Customer
satisfaction is most likely the key reason a hotel website is created and updated throughout time. According to Law and Chaung (2003)
a hotel website should have information on facilities, customer contact, reservations, information on the surrounding region, and
information about the website's administration. Users should be able to access functions on the hotel's website. So, the goal of all of this
study is to create an ideal website that can attract tourists or customers while also ensuring their privacy and security when making
reservations.

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