Title: Online travel agencies and hotels - an evaluation of their inter-organisational relationship success under the purview of agency theory

Authors: Arun Kumar

Addresses: Swami Vivekananda Government Degree College, Ghumarwin, Kalri, District- Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, 174021, India

Abstract: Travel intermediaries in the past worked as traditional agents to the hotels and they used to work under so-called 'principal-agent relationship' framework. Today, due to the latest technological advancements, travel agents prefer to become online travel agents and have risen to a strong entity in the supply chain. This research aims to analyse the current state of IOR between OTAs and hotels from the perspective of hoteliers in tourist hill stations in India. This study explores the relationship success taking into consideration trust, commitment, coordination, communication, and formalisation as constructs to assess the RS. The study is based on a sample size of 384 respondents, mostly hotel managers. The data analysis includes exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling. The results indicated that hotels have positive and satisfied inter-organisational relationship with OTAs. However, hotels do not experience complete trustworthiness and share weak coordination in their relationship.

Keywords: online travel agents; OTAs; hotels; inter-organisational relationship; IOR; agency theory; exploratory factor analysis; EFA; confirmatory factor analysis; CFA; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHEM.2026.154655

International Journal of Hospitality and Event Management, 2026 Vol.3 No.1, pp.1 - 29

Received: 20 Sep 2024
Accepted: 28 May 2025
Published online: 09 Jul 2026 *

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