Title: Hotels and online travel agencies: power or trust for a competitive long-term relationship

Authors: Antonio Iazzi; Oronzo Trio; Silvia Gravili

Addresses: Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics Department, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, c/o Ecotekne, 73100 Lecce, Italy ' Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics Department, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, c/o Ecotekne, 73100 Lecce, Italy ' Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics Department, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, c/o Ecotekne, 73100 Lecce, Italy

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyse the features of the relations between hotels and online travel agencies, with a particular regard to the issue of trust, which is widely recognised as a key factor for fostering customer-vendor relations and sustaining market share in socially distant relationships, such as online hotel booking. A multiple case study approach has been chosen, through 30 in-depth and semi-structured interviews to three, four and five-stars Italian hotel managers. In terms of results, four different kinds of relationships have been observed, depending on how information as a resource and contractual power may be balanced.

Keywords: marketing relationships; trust; hotels; online travel agencies; technology; customer engagement; Italy; e-tourism; electronic tourism; long-term relationships; customer-vendor relations; online hotel bookings; Italy; contractual power.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2017.083370

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2017 Vol.12 No.2, pp.115 - 126

Received: 04 Aug 2016
Accepted: 10 Aug 2016

Published online: 24 Mar 2017 *

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