Consumers’ Perception on Hotel Websites: Implications for Operational Performance Uchenna Cyril Eze BNU-HKBU United International College Zhuhai, Guangdong, China uc_chinwe@hotmail.com Chew-Beng Tan Faculty of Business Multimedia University cbtan23@hotmail.com Siang-Ling Loh Faculty of Business Multimedia University siangling_loh@hotmail.com ABSTRACT The hotel industry has been flourishing in recent years. Today, many firms including hotels use the Internet as a marketing tool, which has increased the number of e- commerce websites. Unsurprisingly, many hotels established official websites in order to explore the possibility of marketing their services on a global scale. Prior studies on hotel websites from individual consumers’ perspectives appear limited, and thus this research is intended to address this research paucity. This paper focused on hotel website and operational performance. Ideas from Relationship Marketing (RM) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) were used to support the arguments developed in this paper. This study addressed the influence of the following constructs content, status (of information), security, user friendliness, technology, interface design on hotel websites’ performance. The analysis was based on data from Malaysia. The findings of this research would benefit future researchers as a frame of reference. In addition, this paper would be useful to hotel operators, particularly s they plan to create functional and effective websites. Finally, the limitations of study and recommendations for future studies were advised. KEYWORDS E-Commerce; Hotel Website; Operation Performance; Web Design, Consumers’ Perspective 1 INTRODUCTION The hotel industry commonly referred to as the hospitality industry is an industry that offers accommodations for rent, and often food and drink to overnight guests for business and leisure purposes [1]. For travelers, finding a comfortable accommodation, generally, is an important consideration. According to Search and Go [2], a star-based system was created to rate the diversity of hotels. From economic to extravagant categories, there are budget hotels, business hotels, and luxury hotels. A basic hotel room’s facilities typically consist of a bed, a cupboard, a table and an attached bathroom [3]. Luxury hotels often provide five-star restaurants, excellent chefs, ballrooms, in-house bars, pools, beauty centers and some latest sport facilities [4]. Many countries develop their tourism industries aggressively as tourism can generate great opportunities for revenue and minimize the incidence of unemployment [5]. As the industry keeps expanding, for instance in the food or handcraft industries, job opportunities are created to meet demands from tourist, who may enjoy such leisure. Furthermore, special events such as Olympic Games will also provide a boast for the hotel industry. According to Zhang [6], hotel bookings were heavy during the preparation period for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, although the opening ceremony was still more than one year away. There was estimation that during that period, the number of hotels in Beijing would increase from 700 at the end of year 2006 to over 800 and the number of three-star to five-star hotel rooms would rise from 85,000 to 100,000 by mid 2008. In addition, it was anticipated that there would be another tremendous boast for the hotel industry in the London Olympic 2012. The hotel industry has flourished in recent years due to the rapidly developing tourism industry in many countries. Greenspan [7] indicated that two out of three Internet persons use the internet for trip planning and more than one-third of them had made transaction afterwards. Given the intense competition, it is important for a hotel to gain a competitive edge and maintain its service quality in order to satisfy its customers. With the advancement in technology, consumers can ISBN: 978-0-9891305-2-3 ©2013 SDIWC 255