Five-star quality at three-star prices? Opaque booking and hotel service expectations

ABSTRACT

While opaque products and distribution channels are increasingly popular, little is known about how customers perceive the quality of opaque hotel rooms. This study examined how price and star rating affect customers’ expectations when booking through opaque channels, and explored if different market segments vary in their expectations. An experimental design with six price and star-rating scenarios was employed. As predicted, expectations were significantly lower in opaque bookings. Moreover, customers were willing to compromise certain aspects of five-star service quality in exchange for opaque prices, such as room décor. Findings also revealed that customers who typically stayed at five-star hotels had the biggest gap in their expectations of three-star versus five-star hotel rooms of similar prices. As opaque selling is relatively new in Asia, this study is the first to explore customers’ perceptions of opaque booking from the perspective of young, Hong Kong consumers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

虽然不透明的产品和分销渠道越来越受欢迎，但很少有人知道顾客如何感知不透明的酒店房间的质量。本研究探讨了当客户通过不透明渠道预订时，价格和星级评级如何影响客户的期望，并探讨不同市场细分的服务期望是否不同。本研究采用了六个价格和星级评级方案的实验设计。正如预期，不透明预订的顾客期望明显降低。此外，客户愿意妥协五星级服务质量的某些方面，以换取较低的不透明价格，如房间装饰。调查结果还显示，通常住在五星级酒店的顾客，对同价格的三星级和五星级酒店房间的期望差距最大。不透明的销售在亚洲是比较新的，本研究率先探索亚州顾客对不透明的预订的看法，从年轻的香港消费者的角度。文末讨论了本研究的理论和实际意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Opaque selling
• opaque booking
• price
• service quality
• customer expectation