The Current State of Internet Marketing of UK-Based Multi-Unit Hotel Brands
Titel:
The Current State of Internet Marketing of UK-Based Multi-Unit Hotel Brands
Auteur:
Essawy, Mohamed
Verschenen in:
International journal of hospitality and tourism administration
Paginering:
Jaargang 8 (2007) nr. 2 pagina's 89-106
Jaar:
2007-04-03
Inhoud:
To support the emergence of a solid knowledge base for analysing the e-relationship marketing of hotels, a framework has been developed to analyse and categorise the online capabilities of UK-based multi-unit hotel brands to build customer relationships. The framework was based on the five progressive levels of relationship marketing implementation suggested by Kotler, Bowen, and Makens (2003). The study found that the exploitation of the Internet, as a relational tool, is in its early stages and most brands used the Internet to maintain the lowest (basic) level of relationships. On average, the Web sites of larger and most visible brands were significantly richer in terms of the number of features and more relational orientated. As opposed to previous studies, the managerial structure (ownership, management contract, franchising) of the investigated brands did not prevent the exploitation of the advanced levels of relationship marketing. Since the Web sites of brands that operate hotels under different managerial structures (management contract, franchise) were significantly richer at the proactive level. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.
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