Investigating antecedents and outcome of telepresence on a hotel’s website

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationships among sensory, emotional and cognitive attributes on a hotel’s website, customers’ telepresence, their attitudes toward the hotel’s website, brand attitudes and their behavioral intentions, based on telepresence and parasocial interaction theories as theoretical backgrounds. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional, online, self-administered survey was conducted to examine the proposed framework from previous hotel guests in the USA, who booked the hotel via its website within the previous 12 months. Findings Results identified sensory and emotional attributes influenced customers’ telepresence; however, cognitive attributes did not affect telepresence on the hotel’s website. Telepresence then influenced customers’ attitudes toward the hotel’s website and their behavioral intentions. Both attitudes toward the hotel’s website and brand attitudes influenced customers’ behavioral intentions. Originality/value This study was the first study to propose the telepresence model in the hotel website context, investigating antecedents and outcomes of the telepresence.

Website design in tourism and hospitality: A multilevel review

“…Interactivity is the most popular social feature of websites being studied, whereas customer relationship (Liu & Zhang, 2014) and cultural cues (Tigre Moura et al, 2015) have rarely been studied. Last, hedonic design refers to website attributes that trigger users' emotions and feelings (S. Lee, 2018). Three types of hedonic design features have been identified from the existing literature, including entertainment ( n = 11), innovative cues ( n = 4), and unpleasantness ( n = 1).…”

“…Emotional responses and perceptions have been relatively less explored. For instance, information quality, assurance, structure, and overall appearance of the website will affect users' adoption of the website for information search and purchases (e.g., Herrero & San Martín, 2012; H. Jeon et al, 2018; S. Lee, 2018). Whether the website can be personalized on the basis of users' preferences and contain entertaining features will also influence users' intention to revisit the website (e.g., Bilgihan et al, 2015; Bilgihan & Bujisic, 2015; M. M. Jeon & Jeong, 2017).…”

“…Whether the website can be personalized on the basis of users' preferences and contain entertaining features will also influence users' intention to revisit the website (e.g., Bilgihan et al, 2015; Bilgihan & Bujisic, 2015; M. M. Jeon & Jeong, 2017). Moreover, the responsiveness of the website and its overall appearance will determine whether users will recommend the website to others (e.g., Abou‐Shouk & Khalifa, 2017; S. Lee, 2018). The interactivity of a website will generate various consumer perceptions on the website, including perceived social interaction (Aluri et al, 2015), perceived service quality of the website (Hahn et al, 2017), and intention to revisit the website (e.g., Sreejesh & Ponnam, 2017).…”

Attraction, Social Presence, Sociability, and Booking Intentions: The Moderating Role of Homophily

“…While lodging literature has previously linked behavioral intentions to several constructs (S. A. Lee, 2018;Park et al, 2019), scant research has examined consumers' sociability and behavioral intentions. Of the few studies that have researched such relationships, D.-H. Shin (2013) assessed how humans interact with social television systems and demonstrated that there is an indirect association between sociability and behavioral intentions through perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitude.…”

“…In Ajzen and Fishbein’s (1969) behavioral intentions model, consumers’ attitudes resulting from their interactions with a product were shown to predict future behavior. While lodging literature has previously linked behavioral intentions to several constructs (S. A. Lee, 2018; Park et al, 2019), scant research has examined consumers’ sociability and behavioral intentions.…”