1. INVESTIGATING A CONCEPTUAL
MODEL FOR HOTEL WEB-
DESIGN EFFICIENCY
ESTRELLA DIAZ
CHRISTINA KOUTRA, Ph.D.

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
CONCLUSIONS
CONCLUSIONS OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVES
CONCEPTUAL
CONCEPTUAL
ETHICS
ETHICS FOUNDATIONS
FOUNDATIONS
METHODOLOGY
METHODOLOGY

3. INTRODUCTION I
 This study makes an attempt to establish a standard for evaluating the
design of hospitality websites through content analysis.
 The websites of leading luxury hotel in the world will be investigated and
a comparison both between hotels’ home websites and hotels’ home
websites (chain hotel website), as well as between countries/regions will
be made.
 The study is based on the conceptual web site design model which
identifies three features of websites: interactivity and communication,
netsurfing simplicity and content.

4. INTRODUCTION II
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HOTEL WEBSITE AND HOME WEBSITE
HOTEL WEBSITE HOME (CHAIN)
WEBSITE

5. OBJECTIVES
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The main objective of this research is to analyze the websites of leading
international hotels in order to decide which web design is more effective.
Hence, this analysis will evaluate whether web sites communicate and
interact with users satisfactorily in order to help tourism marketers
maximize the efficiency of their websites.
 OBJECTIVE 1: Which is the level of interactivity and communication of
each website? Are there any differences among home website (chain hotel
website) and specific hotel website?
 OBJECTIVE 2: Which is the importance of netsurfing simplicity inside of
each website? Are there any differences among home website and hotel
website?
 OBJECTIVE 3: Which is the presence of specific content available in each
website of the hotels analyzed here? Are there any differences among home
website and hotel website?

6. BACKGROUND I
TOURISM AND INTERNET
 Given the emergence of the Internet, the hospitality sector has found
critical to apply new and innovative strategies to make the hotels more
competitive (websites).
 However, the growing number of websites is making it more difficult for
organizations to attract visitors to their website and to convert visitors
into customers.
 In order to overcome this limitation, hotels redesign their websites in
order to increase their competitiveness in the marketplace. Well-designed
websites are becoming a crucial way for hotels to communicate with
customers, attract more business, and generate repeat business.

7. BACKGROUND II
WEB SITE DESIGN
Research studies have shown three features on the web site design
(Nielsen, 2000; Benbunan-Fich, 2001):
 Information content: quantity and variety of information.
 Surfing access (navigation features): how easy it is for users to visit
the site once and again. Access speed and Web site adequacy.
 Interactivity and communication: human bidirectional
conversations through a computer (human interactivity) or interface
between users and website (machine interactivity).

8. METHODOLOGY I
RESEARCH APPROACH
 The research approach used in this study is the quantitative analysis.
The goal of any quantitative analysis is to produce counts of key
categories, and measurements of the amounts of other variables (Edward,
1999).
 The method used in the research is content analysis. This method
involves doing a numerical process. A content analysis has as its goal a
numerically based summary of a chosen message set. It involves drawing
representative samples of content, training coders and measuring the
reliability of coders.
 Content analysis as a research method is consistent with the goals and
standards of survey research. However, the units of data collection are
different from those of the typical survey (i.e. messages rather than
people).

9. METHODOLOGY II
RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY
Quantitative tradition of content analysis is based on the positivism and
ontology premises.
 Positivism. In the research, content analysis analyzes an objective
reality or social facts (hotels websites) that can be observed,
measured and analyzed. Content analysis emphasizes objective data
collection in order to test the research questions.
 Ontology. This work examines the status of social reality. For
example, social relations, interactions or communication between
hotels and users through websites or internal social relations within
the organization (relations with investors).

10. METHODOLOGY III
RESEARCH STRATEGY
A Web content analysis procedure will be adopted for the research. Content analysis may be briefly
defined as the systematic, objective, quantitative analysis of message characteristics (Neuendorf, 2002) .
STEPS DESCRIPTION
THEORY AND RATIONALE What content will be examined, and why? Do you have research questions? Hypothesis?
CONCEPTUALIZATIONS What variables will be used in the study, and how do you define them conceptually (i.e. with
dictionary-type definitions)?
MEASURES The measures should match your conceptualizations (internal validity). What unit of data
collection will you use? A priory coding scheme describing all measures must be created.
Both validity and content validity may also be assessed at this point.
CODING SCHEMES - Codebook (with all variable measures fully explained)
- Coding form
SAMPLING Is a census of the content possible? How will you randomly sample a subset of the content?
TRAINING AND PILOT Training session in which coders work together and find out whether they can agree on the
RELIABILITY coding of variables. Then, in an independent coding test, note the reliability on each variable.
CODING Use at least two coders, to establish intercoder reliability. Coding should be done
independently, with at least 10% overlap for the reliability test.
FINAL RELIABILITY Calculate a reliability figure (percent agreement, Scott’s pi, Spearman’ s rho, or Pearson’s r,
for example) for each variable.
TABULATION AND REPORTING Figures and statistics may be reported one variable at a time (univariate), or variables may be
cross-tabulated in different ways (bivariate and multivariate techniques).

11. METHODOLOGY IV
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
 Population/Sample: leading international hotels. The sample for the
analysis will be randomly selected.
 Unit of analysis: hotel website
 Secondary data review: Several virtual magazines and tourism websites
were analyzed: “Travel and Leisure”, “Leading Hotels in the World”,
“Top Hotels”, “Conde Nast Traveler’s”, “Virtuoso Collection”, “Relaix
and Chateaux”,..

12. METHODOLOGY V
SAMPLE SIZE
 In order to select a population for study, luxury variable is identified. A
total of 300 different hotels are identified through secondary sources
review. The sample size for finite population (e =2%) is 267. A total of
260-270 hotels’ websites will be analyzed.
 The number of home websites (chain website) is different. A total of
110 chains were identified. The sample size for finite population
(e=2%) is 105. A total of 100-110 chains’ websites will be analyzed.
CHAIN WEBSITES HOTEL WEBSITES
STAGES
First Analysis: Comparison 100-110 100-110
between hotels’ websites and
chains’ websites
Second Analysis: Analysis of 260-270
hotels’ websites
TOTAL SAMPLE SIZE 100-110 260-270

13. METHODOLOGY VI
ANALYSIS PROCESS: CODING SCHEME
 Before the final content analysis was conducted, a series of initial pre-
tests were used to develop a coding scheme. These pre-tests were
primarily aimed at identifying ways to measure the type of websites
analyzed and the depth of detail each section contained.
 The first step of this research consisted of establishing a coding scheme
for analyzing content, navigation simplicity and interactivity. The coders
were trained to identify and code the presence of the categories in each
website.
 Measurement was achieved using a nominal scale as to the existence of
each category. Vales of “1” or “0” were assigned depending on the
presence or absence of the category in the website (Neuendorf, 2002;
Robbins and Stylianou, 2003).

14. METHODOLOGY VII
ANALYSIS PROCESS: CODING SCHEME
 A questionnaire with three dimensions (content, navigation and
interactivity/communication) and 50 attributes was developed.
 The questionnaire was designed taking into account measurement scales
used in previous works, although their content was adapted to the specific
context of the research.
 Content: 31 items
 Navigation simplicity: 6 items
 Interactivity and communication: 13 items

15. METHODOLOGY VIII
ANALYSIS PROCESS: CODING SCHEME
CONSTRUCT ITEMS
FACILITIES INFORMATION
General description, hotel facilities, room facilities, activities/entertainment, dinning,
conference meetings facilities, gift cards, rent a car online.
RESERVATION/PRICE INFORMATION
Online availability, book online, packages/promotion, price information, members special,
trip rewards points, availability to track/amend/cancel reservations.
CONTENT
SURROUNDING AREA INFORMATION
General description of the area/activities, map, ways of transportation, availability of
value-adding features, weather.
MANAGEMENT OF THE WEBSITE
Terms of use.
COMPANY PROFILE
About us/Brand, employment, history, corporate social responsibility, press, commercial
area, branch location, updated, languages.
NAVIGATION Navigation simplicity, Web map, search tool, downloading time, size and font, links.
INTERACTIVITY Suggestions box, feedback, e-mail, contact phone, address, forum, news, newsletter, login,
AND transaction security, share the page, social network, photos and videos, virtual tour.
COMMUNICATION

16. METHODOLOGY X
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF DATA
 A complete codebook was developed to ensure the validity of data. The
codebook is a complete set of codes, with definitions of each item
analyzed in the website.
 To ensure the reliability of the content analysis, the websites will be
analyzed by two independent coders.
 Later, Intercoder Agreement was calculated using a reliability index
(percent agreement, Holsti’s method, Scott’s pi, Cohen’s Kappa or
Krippendorff’s alpha).

17. ETHICS
Ethical considerations have been identified in the context of online research:
 Research will ensure integrity, quality and transparency.
 The researches will exploit public domain. They will analyze the accessible
information provided by the website.
 The research will assure the anonymity of organizations analyzed. That is, all
identifying characteristics of organization should be removed from the
research in the course of data collection.
 The study will contribute to establish quality of services and information,
privacy and security or availability to amend or cancel reservations offered
by hospitality organizations.
 The research will promote the relations of mutual profits between
organizations and potential customers. The research will increase the
reputation and market competitiveness of an organization.

18. CONCLUSION
 This research will provide evidence of current hotels’ web sites
effectiveness and advice for its improvement in a specific luxury hotel
sector.
 Specifically, the study will contribute to improve the effectiveness of
luxury hotels’ websites bidirectional communication with users,
enhancing a better exchange between organization and target audience.
 The findings from this study will provide useful insights to help internet
retailers better understand their customers’ information needs and also to
provide a self-assessment tool that can be used by internet retailers to
assess their current performance in terms of satisfying consumer needs for
relevant information.

20. INVESTIGATING A CONCEPTUAL
MODEL FOR HOTEL WEB-
DESIGN EFFICIENCY
ESTRELLA DIAZ
CHRISTINA KOUTRA, Ph.D.