Hotel Websites and Booking Engines: A Challenging Relationship

This study analyses the relationship between corporate hotel websites and corporate hotel booking engines. These two systems are critical in the hospitality sector: the hotel website is an important means for online hospitality marketing, while the hotel booking engine represents the possibility of conversion without intermediation fees for the hoteliers. In light of a case study of one of the major Italian hotel chains, this paper explores a possible way to analyze the activities performed on the two systems by exploring different possible correlations to assess the importance of inter-system communication. The case study shows, on one hand, that the more visits a hotel website receive, the more bookings are made on the corporate booking engine. Conversely, the time spent on the website does not have any influence on actual bookings.