Factors determining hotel selection: Online behaviour by leisure travellers

This paper reviews the considerable literature on hotel selection. It demonstrates that this body of literature has been developed, for the most part, outside of the context of a widely endorsed consumer decision-making model based on set formulation. It then reports on a study that uses an experimental design aimed at understanding hotel consumer consideration set formation and modification, rather than the previous traditional emphasis on choice sets and attributes. For a specific market segment selecting a hotel for a leisure stay the paper reports on the size of the consideration and choice set, and identifies the different factors that influence choice at these two stages in the process.