An Alternative to Online Travel Agencies for Retention of Hotel Customers

Authors

  • Riccardo Bonazzi University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais/Wallis)
  • Roland Schegg University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais/Wallis)

Keywords:

online travel agency, hotel, business model innovation, tourism

Abstract

This paper describes a service that allows hotels to reduce their dependency form online travel agencies, such as Booking.com or Expedia. Online travel agencies are extremely helpful to increase the number of new reservations of most hotels, but they seem to be less effective for niche hotels that seek for recurring customers. By following the guidelines for design research, we seek to develop a new online service, which combines existing solutions to (1) acquire new clients, (2) book a room on the website of the hotel and (3) retain the customer after service delivery. We illustrate a case study of a hotel, which has reduced the number of clients obtained via Booking.com by following our guidelines.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

References

Ali, R. (2015), “Top Travel Trends for 2015: New Skift Magazine”, Skift, 13 January, available at: http://skift.com/2015/01/13/new-skift-magazine-megatrends-defining-travel-in-2015/ (24/1/2016)

Boutique Hotel Awards (2015), “Sustainability - Boutique Hotel Awards”, available at: http://www.boutiquehotelawards.com/hotel-experiences/sustainability-2015/ (1/3/2016)

Hospitality Awards (2015), “Best innovation in hotel concept”, available at: http://hospitalityawards.com/en/the-categories/hospitality-awards/2015/best-innovation-in-hotel-concept/ (1/3/2016)

Larpin, B., Délétroz, N., Schegg, R. (2015), “Hébergement touristique: rénover, mais pour qui ? Analyse stratégique, attentes des hôtes et conséquences pour le secteur - HES SO Valais publications - Aigaion 2.0”, Salon de l’Habitat et de La Rénovation, available at: http://publications.hevs.ch/index.php/publications/show/1940 (25/6/2016)

Rhône FM (2015), “Rhône FM - Chiffre d’affaire plus que doublé pour Booking-Valais en 2014”, available at: http://www.rhonefm.ch/fr/news/chiffre-d-affaire-plus-que-double-pour-booking-valais-en-2014-282757 (25/6/2016)

Scaglione, M., Schegg, R. (2015), “The Impact of Attribute Preferences on Adoption Timing of Hotel Distribution Channels: Are OTAs Winning the Customer Race?”, Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015, Springer, pp. 681–693.

Schegg, R., Stangl, B., Fux, M., Inversini, A. (2013), “Distribution channels and management in the Swiss hotel sector”, Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2013, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 554–565.

Downloads

Published

2016-10-31

How to Cite

Bonazzi, R., & Schegg, R. (2016). An Alternative to Online Travel Agencies for Retention of Hotel Customers. ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion, 2(1), 219–224. Retrieved from https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/entrenova/article/view/14216

Issue

Section

Industrial Organization