Submitted on:

Tuesday October 31, 2022

By: Yaorui Ma

Student Number: 747137

Word Count: 1084

Submit to: Erik Pravica

7HO733 Hospitality Industry Operations & Trends

[1] Wong, E. et al. (2020) Using online travel agent platforms to determine factors influencing hotel guest satisfaction. Journal of hospitality and tourism technology. [Online] 11 (3), 425–445.

Purpose of this study: This study aims to analyze data from online travel agency (OTA) platform TripAdvisor to explore the relationship between service quality, perceived value and hotel guest satisfaction. The study also analyzed the moderating effect of hotel star rating in all direct and indirect relationships, as well as investigated the mediating effect of perceived value on the relationship between service quality and satisfaction.

Innovations and limitations of this paper:

Innovation: It is well known that the bulk of data from convenience hotels to premium hotels is collected by OTA platforms, but few use OTA platform data to explore predetermined conceptual frameworks developed from the literature. Therefore, this paper provides a very convenient methodology for the research of tourism and hotel industry.

Limitations: This paper only cites data from one OTA platform, and the fact that TripAdvisor's customer base is largely limited to English language users, as well as hotels located in Kuala Lumpur, limits the generality of the findings.

What this paper does for me: The emergence of OTA platform facilitates practitioners and managers in the tourism and hotel industry to have a more direct understanding of customer satisfaction, service quality, and aspects that need to be improved. These data also reflect from the side that customer satisfaction is crucial for hotels.

[2] Inversini, A. & Masiero, L. (2014) Selling rooms online: the use of social media and online travel agents. International journal of contemporary hospitality management. [Online] 26 (2), 272–292.

The research purpose of this paper: By analyzing two logical models and based on the survey of many hotels in Swiss tourist areas, this paper studies the importance of social media and OTA (such as booking.com) for hotel online sales. It also focuses on the reasons why hoteliers choose OTA and social media websites for publicity and sales in order to achieve sales goals. To help us understand the major role that OTAs and social media sites play in the hotel industry, and to understand the interaction between hotel websites and OTAs and social media sites.

Innovation of this paper: Despite the growing literature in this area, there is no research focused on the overall impact of social media and OTAs on online hotel sales, with particular focus on online platform selection criteria, online sales channel management, human resource engagement, and hotel characteristics

The help of this paper for me: This paper proves that the hotel industry in social media and online travel agencies need to keep effective influence, in order to toward creating a new social reservation technology direction, to improve its popularity and sales, on the contrary, hotel operators if you can't handle with OTA and the relationship between social media sites, the hotel's sales will also receive itself.

[3] MENZIES, D., 1999, May 01. Agents of doom Online travel agents are fast, cheap and convenient. Where does that leave their human counterparts?: [National Edition]. National Post, 49. ISSN 14868008.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the data of Jupiter Communications, a new media research firm based in New York, to predict the development of traditional travel agencies and OTAs in the early days of OTA. It also compares the differences between traditional travel agencies and OTAs in terms of price and service content.

Innovation in this article: This article is from the National Post in 1999. From the perspective of the time, the author was extremely forward looking, predicting part of the OTA evolution.

Help of this paper for me: I think the price advantage and convenient service of OTA can enable customers to travel with low cost and high efficiency when they are in urgent need of travel or do not want to plan their own travel schedule. The demand for OTAs has been growing since 1999, but I think the hotel and travel industry should agree on the right commission rate with OTAs so that both sides can win.

[4]DE MENESES, DANIELA BEATRIZ BARROS GONÇALVES, 2020. Distribuição em Hotelaria: A Influência das 0RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2Online Travel Agencies1RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2 nas Unidades de Alojamento, Instituto Politecnico do Porto (Portugal).

Purpose of this paper: The main purpose of this paper is to study the impact of OTA on high-star hotels in ports and northern cities of Portugal. A questionnaire was used and 55 out of 150 hotels responded. It also recognizes the importance of the OTA market in the hotel's online distribution strategy.

The innovation of this paper: specifically study the Portugal port and the northern city of the high star hotel situation, very useful for reference.

Limitations of this paper: This paper was written in 2020. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many hotels in the survey area closed or closed, and the customer flow of the remaining hotels also decreased significantly.

What this paper does for me: It further confirms the importance of OTA for hotels. I think OTA is crucial for maximizing occupancy and revenue, and it is a very critical way to increase passenger flow.

[5] Zhang, L. et al. (2015) Online Travel Agents-Hotels’ Foe or Friend? A Case Study of Mainland China. Journal of China tourism research. [Online] 11 (4), 349–370.

Research purpose of this paper: This paper studies the operation of OTA in China's emerging hotel market, and analyzes the relationship between OTA and hotel from the perspective of agency cooperation.

Limitations of this paper: The main limitation of this study is that it focuses on the emerging hotel market in China, and the time span is limited.

The help of this paper for me: I think this article is very meaningful to me, as a Chinese, I can be observed from the perspective of a more open China's domestic hotel industry and the relationship between the OTA, and I found that China's OTA in towards the world, at the same time, international otas are also walks into China, OTA can strengthen the international hotel industry and the relationship between different parts of the world customer. And while the OTA takes a significant amount of commission from the hotel's agent orders, the increased traffic and revenue for the hotel is also a benefit.