ICT adoption in hotels and electronic word-of-mouth

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in hotels contributes to satisfaction and loyalty from the consumer perspective, considering the online dimension of recommendations. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research based on a structured questionnaire and using a personal survey method was developed. Surveys were conducted on 386 guests from Spanish hotels. Causal methodology by testing structural equation model was applied. Findings Significant relationships are obtained in the sequence “ICT use perception – satisfaction with ICT – overall satisfaction with the hotel – dimensions of loyalty” and the mediating effect of positive electronic word-of-mouth intention between ICT satisfaction and general intention to recommend the hotel is confirmed. Research limitations/implications Future research can replicate these relationships in other tourist services and employ multidimensional scales to measure word-of-mouth behaviour. Originality/value The novelty of this work is that it studies the relationships between ICT, satisfaction and loyalty in hotel services, paying particular attention to positive word-of-mouth behaviour, both conventional and online.

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