| Perceived as a fast-growing business opportunity, the Internet has been adopted by many travel organizations as a new, competitive marketing tool in providing travelers not only with travel-related information but also with online transaction opportunities. Hotels have been making great effort to encourage travelers to reserve rooms directly on their Web sites while intermediaries have been positioned in a very competitive situation to encourage travelers to make reservations through their portals by offering discounted rates, rate comparison tools, and additional information about the property/destination. In this context, it is interesting to investigate why travelers make reservations online and what determines them to make reservations on hotel-owned versus intermediary Web sites. By adopting an extended technology acceptance model (TAM), this study aimed to explore travelers' room reservation behaviors on the Internet.; A sample of 1,119 respondents participated in this study and consisted predominantly of females (66.6 percent), between 19 and 21 years old (57 percent), with senior classification (35.2 percent). Respondents' comments indicated that the intermediary Web sites were excellent for rate comparison across multiple properties and very easy to use. Both hotel-owned and intermediary Web sites were perceived as not entirely secure. In general, both types of Web sites were good tools for those who wanted to find a good room rate on the Internet and make a reservation easily and effortlessly.; Overall, it was concluded that, consistent with the TAM literature, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived playfulness, impacted attitudes toward using reservation Web sites. Also, it was found that attitudes impacted respondents' intentions to use these sites for future reservations. Therefore, the TAM framework is valid in the hotel industry and can be used to predict travelers' online behavior. However, there were no significant differences between hotel-owned and intermediary Web sites in their Web site features. It also appeared that travelers preferred to use intermediary Web sites because they were perceived as superior to hotel-owned Web sites in their search for the best rate online. Thus, it was found that respondents showed stronger intentions to return to intermediary rather than hotel-owned Web sites. |
