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Piccione, Donald (2018) An exploratory study of the key factors driving hotel booking behaviour among consumers living in Ireland. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.
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Abstract
With the increasing availability of low-cost flights all-the-year round in Irish airports, and the wide choices of online hotel booking portals (Morosan and Jeong, 2008), going on holiday abroad has become part of everyday life.
The Central Statist Office (2018) reported from the period of January 2018 to June 2018 that 3.8 million of Irish residents went overseas for holidays. An Increase of 4.3% year to year.
From a marketing perspective, it is important to understand what key factors are contributing to consumer decisions when they select a hotel room online. This way, marketers can improve their strategy and hoteliers can provide a better cost effective approach to help consumers with their room selection, driving more bookings.
The purpose of this study was to explore what the key factors are that influence consumer behaviour among the population living in Ireland who book a hotel room online to go on holiday. The author was interested in carrying out this study because there is a gap in the current academic literature on consumer behaviour for the population of Ireland related to hotel booking. Six main objectives were defined for this research: to examine what relationship social proof, scarcity tactics, pricing psychology, loyalty program, location, and brand image have towards online booking behaviour.
The research methodology used in this study followed the Research Onion model proposed by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2015). A qualitative method was used to collect primary data, in the form of two focus groups, with 6 participants each, in order to gather insights, opinions, and consumer experience using open ended and semi-structured questions.
Research findings denote that hotel location is a top key factor in influencing online consumer behaviour, followed by price psychology, social proof, scarcity, and brand name.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > Marketing > Consumer Behaviour H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Specific Industries > Hospitality Industry |
| Divisions: | School of Business > Master of Science in Marketing |
| Depositing User: | Caoimhe Ní Mhaicín |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Nov 2018 15:11 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2018 15:11 |
| URI: | https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/3400 |
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