The Relative Impact of Wi-Fi Service on Young Consumers’ Hotel Booking Online

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relative impact of Wi-Fi on consumers’ hotel bookings. It investigates two dimensions of Wi-Fi (price and reviews) in relation to overall hotel ratings, brand, and price per night. A scenario was arranged whereby participants (n = 120) booked a hotel room online. The results (r = .991, p = .000) of a conjoint analysis show that Wi-Fi price and Wi-Fi reviews affect the consumers’ booking, but not as much as hotel ratings and price per night. When looking only at Wi-Fi, results show that previous guests’ Wi-Fi reviews have a higher impact on booking than Wi-Fi price. Further analysis shows that Wi-Fi can be a “deal breaker” in a competitive and/or undifferentiated market. We propose that the impact of Wi-Fi can be understood as rule-governed behavior. Consequently, behavioral understanding of the impact of Wi-Fi could aid hotel managers in developing more effective marketing strategies.