benchmarks of web site design and marketing by

Information Technology & Tourism, Vol. 5 pp. 73–89 1098-3058/02 $20.00 + .00Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2002 Cognizant Comm. Corp.

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73

Address correspondence to Roland Schegg, Lausanne Institute for Hospitality Research (LIHR), Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL),Le Chalet-à-Gobet, 1000 Lausanne 25, Switzerland. Tel: 0041 21 785 13 24; Fax: 0041 21 785 13 25; E-mail: [email protected]

BENCHMARKS OF WEB SITE DESIGN AND

MARKETING BY SWISS HOTELS

ROLAND SCHEGG,* THOMAS STEINER,† SUSANNE FREY,‡ and JAMIE MURPHY§

*Lausanne Institute for Hospitality Research (LIHR), Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL),Le Chalet-à-Gobet, 1000 Lausanne 25, Switzerland

†Competence Center ISnet-VS, University of Applied Sciences Valais,Technopôle 3, 3960 Sierre, Switzerland

‡Hotel Valuation Services HVS, 372 Willis Avenue, Mineola, NY 11501§University of Western Australia, Faculty of Business, Department of

Information Management and Marketing, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, Western Australia

This study explored a small slice of the soaring electronic travel marketplace: how a representativesample of 125 Swiss hotels used Web-based marketing tools. Software agents in conjunction withpersonal observations benchmarked and analyzed over 200 different Web site criteria (informationprovision, transaction/reservation functions, communication and customer service, use of advancedInternet technologies, etc.). Results of this study correspond with prior research: most hotel Web sitesbroadcast static information and provide limited transactional functions. The Web’s marketing poten-tial is in its early stages. Comparing the analyzed hotels, the research found significant differences inWeb site tools across hotel category and size, but no differences across geographic or linguistic re-gion.

Switzerland Hotels Web site analysis Internet Benchmarking

for example, can outsource their online reservationswith Swiss Destination Management (www.sdm.ch)for a 10% commission on each successful booking(Busch, personal communication, 2002).

Hailed as the perfect place to sell travel (Higley,1998), Web sites have moved into first place as theresearch tool of choice for leisure travelers, displac-ing friends, families, and travel agencies (Peppers

Introduction

With hotels spending up to 30% of their room rev-enues on reservation costs (Connolly, 1999a, p. 29),online reservations can be a valuable cost-saving strat-egy. This may be especially true for the small andmedium-sized hospitality enterprises (SMEs) that lacka larger property’s economies of scale. Swiss hotels,

74 SCHEGG ET AL.

and Rogers Group and PhoCus Wright, 2001). TheInternet also helps consumers exploit more trans-parent pricing. Travelers increasingly use the Internetto book a room and circumvent traditional hierar-chical distribution structures (McCole, 2000).

But this restricted view of the Internet as a stand-alone sales channel has disappointed many: numer-ous Web sites generate neither site traffic nor com-mercial revenue (Porter, 2001). In consequence,various industries are shifting their online strategiestowards one-to-one customer interaction and rela-tionship marketing (Gummesson, 1998; Newell,2000; Reichheld & Shefter, 2000). In this context,Jung and Butler (2000) argue for examining issuessuch as the Web’s marketing effectiveness, charac-teristics of a successful Web site, etc.

Switzerland has been described as the cradle ofmodern tourism; its long tradition for high-qualityservices in travel and tourism dates back to the 19thcentury. While consistent, efficient management hasbeen a formula for past success, global competitiondemands that hospitality industry practice encom-passes innovation and flexibility and respond totoday’s dynamic marketplace (Kunz & Johnson,2000). Thus, this study explores online marketingstrategies in the Swiss hospitality industry. The re-search uses both software agents and personal ob-servations to “benchmark” (Oertel, Thio, & Feil,2001) a tourist’s experience in a competitive, Web-based market.

The Importance of InternetMarketing for Swiss Hotels

Online travel in Europe should almost quadruplefrom US$2.9 billion in 2000 to over US$10.9 bil-lion in 2002 (PhoCusWright, 2000). A slightly lowerestimate has European online sales of US$2.2 bil-lion in 2000—1.2% of the market, up from 0.45%in 1999—nearly doubling to US$4 billion or 2.1%of the market in 2001 (Marcussen, 2001). Exclud-ing packages, hotels snared almost one fifth of theseonline sales in 2000.

Switzerland shows similar Internet growth. In2001, about half the population or 3.4 million Swisswent online daily (Nielsen NetRatings, 2001). Asfor businesses, 57% of the Swiss SMEs had Websites or used e-mail in June 2000, double the num-ber in 1999 (Sieber, 2000). And about one of three

Swiss SMEs had a Web site in 2000, up from 13%in 1999 (Sieber, 2000).

With Internet usage at roughly 40% in 2000, how-ever, the Swiss hotel sector lags other industry sec-tors that have online usage rates up to 97% (Sieber,2000). Still, Swiss online hotel sales should run inthe tens of millions. Using West European onlinetravel market sales and estimating a 3% share of to-tal hotel rooms for Switzerland (Marcussen, 2001),online sales by Swiss hotels project to approximatelyUS$11 million for 2000 and US$20 million in 2001.

Hanson (2000, pp. 9–14) suggests that Web sitesevolve from a stage one publishing site, to includ-ing databases in stage two and personalization instage three. Given the growing importance of onlinesales as well as the evolution away from distribu-tion strategies and towards relationship marketing,what stage and how are Swiss hotels using Web sitesfor marketing?

Design of the Benchmarking Study

Sampling

The sampled hotels came from the Swiss FederalOffice for Statistics’ comprehensive list of 7655Swiss hospitality enterprises at year-end 2000. Arandom sample, stratified across geographic loca-tion (cantons) and linguistic regions (French, Ital-ian, and German), yielded 850 hotels for evaluatingInternet penetration rate. The benchmarking analy-sis used a random and representative subsample of125 hotels with a Web site.

Web Site Penetration Rate for Swiss Hotels

Three steps examined if each of the 850 hotels hada Web site. The first step used the hotel’s name andlocation to query www.switch.ch (the Swiss Academicand Research Network, which manages Switzerland’s“.ch” domain names) for the hotel’s URL. The sec-ond step queried the online hotel guide of the SwissHotel Association (www.swisshotels.ch), which in-cludes nearly half of all Swiss hotels. As most Websurfers use search engines to find sites (Thelwall,2000), the third step used the hotel name and locationto query two major search engines (www.google.comand www.altavista.com). For practical reasons, onlythe first two pages of search engine results were con-sidered.

BENCHMARKS OF WEB SITE DESIGN AND MARKETING BY SWISS HOTELS 75

Benchmarking Approach

The benchmarking approach combined severalconcepts in order to evaluate the quality, technologi-cal standards, and Web site strategies of the hotel

sites (Frey, 2001; Gilbert, Powell-Perry, & Widijoso,1999; Misic & Johnson, 1999; Oertel et al., 2001;Standing & Vasudan, 1999). Using over 200 differ-

Table 1

Web Site Benchmarking Criteria for the Service ProcessDimension (Not Exhaustive)

Access & NavigationPresence of introEntry pageLanguage selectionOption for different browser versionsDifferentiation according to seasonLanguage selectionSearch functionSearch function with drop-down menuSitemapBack-button worksForward-button worksMain contents as list or buttonsOption for different browser versionsDifferentiation according to seasonNetscape 4 CompatibilityNetscape 3 CompatibilityMS Explorer 4 CompatibilityMS Explorer 3 Compatibility

EntertainmentMultimedia hotel presentationDownload virtual tours

Online BookingContact e-mailService hotlinePhysical addressService hotlineDynamic search of vacanciesVacancy search results as listingOnline booking request (form)Confirmed online booking (credit card)Online booking via hotelOnline booking via third partyOnline booking via destination organization (SDM)Online booking via GDSOnline cancellation

Payment OptionsCredit card offlineCredit card online without secured transferCredit card without information on secured transaction protocolCredit card with SSLCredit card with SETBank transferIncassoBill

Rate InformationStatic price information (table)Dynamic price information (database with search function)Last minuteSpecial offerPrices in EuroPrices in other European currencies

Table 1 Continued

General InformationPeople in the hotelOrganizationof the hotelCharacterization of hotel with photoLocationof hotel with mapsClassification of hotel visibleOpening periodsShort description/history of hotelNiche/positioning/distinctionPrintablesPrintables as pdfGuided tourTickerNewsPress reportsFAQHistory

Service InformationIs information on services existing?Information on services presented as a listService information databaseRoom service informationInformation on restaurant servicesInformation on business center servicesInformation on congress/seminar servicesInformation on shoppingInformation on wellness facilitiesInformation on sport facilitiesServices for childrenCleaning servicesInformation on shuttle bus servicesInformationon excursions/toursTextual description of servicesConditions for use of servicesPhotos illustrating servicesWebcam illustrating servicespdf file illustrating servicesVideo illustrating services

Room InformationRoom information availableRoom information multilingualClassification (according to price and quality)Photo of roomPhoto of bathroomDescription of room (text)Technical infrastructure (TV, Internet connection, etc.)WebcamDownload of pdfVideoQuicktime

Information for Special Customer SegmentsHandicapedChildrenPetsGroup bookingNonsmoker

76 SCHEGG ET AL.

ent criteria, the Web research classified features onfive dimensions, listed in Tables 1–5.

Service Processes. This includes everythingfrom the time guests begin buying services to thetime that guests leave the property. Translating thisconcept into cyberspace, the customer has to beable to order and purchase goods or services, makedetailed inquiries, receive responses, and performother activities. Web features relating to serviceprocesses include navigation and design, site us-ability, information provided on the hotel, presen-tation of room offers and prices, and reservationprocedures.

Customer Relationships. Database managementand communication lets firms track guest preferencesand subsequently give them superior value via cus-tomized service. Database management and relation-ship marketing’s forebearer—direct marketing—re-lies upon customer information (Newell, 2000).Given that a Web site provides additional contactbetween the firm and customers, hotels can employWeb technologies to enhance their customer data-base. Examples of online relationship marketing in-clude offering a personal profile based on customertravel preferences, inviting comments via a guestbook (Gilbert et al., 1999) and requesting informa-tion via an interactive form (Murphy, Forrest,Wotring, & Brymer, 1996).

Value-Added Services. Value-added strategiesincrease the relationship’s long-term value, givingrepeat and occasional customers greater benefitson both current and future transactions. Service re-covery strategies can alleviate lapses in service

Table 2

Website Benchmarking Criteria for the Customer Relation-ship Dimension (Not Exhaustive)

Database ManagementOrder brochureGuestbookData collection for user profilingUse of cookies

CommunicationNewsletterSend a friend (virtual postcards)Virtual community/forumPermission marketingCommentsComplaintsPraiseSuggestionsFeedback for Web siteContact emailService hotlinePhysical address

Table 3

Website Benchmarking Criteria for the Value Creation Di-mension (Not Exhaustive)

External Links (Added Value)To other hotel of the same chain/same ownerTo affiliationTo industry organizationTo other local tourism providerTo local tourism organizationsTo regional tourism organizationTo national tourism organizationTo external search machinesTo local organizations (police, etc.)To local offer (movie, etc.)To regional organization (canton, etc.)To external service providerT intermediariesTo cultural organization

Added ValueButtons/features for specific customer segmentsSite in GermanSite in Frenchsite in ItalianSite in EnglishSite in SpanishSite in JapaneseCustomization/personalization optionsModification of user profileRestricted area for loyal guests

Information on Region (Added Value)Tips and tricksSites to see in the regionLocal sites to seeCultural offerEventsRestaurantsLeisure and sportExcursion/toursClimate/weatherSnowTime to travelMoney/currency converterGeneral information (doctors, etc.)MapsTransport meansTime tables for public transportSearch function for regional offerLivecam for regionVideo on region

Incentives & TriggersBonus/couponsCustomization of packagesOnline contestInternet-only offers


delivery with amendments and compensations forthe guest.

Creating Trust. The service marketing literaturewidely discusses trust’s role in creating and build-ing successful customer relationships and confirmsconsumer concerns about trusting the Internet (e.g.,Bauer, Grether, & Leach, 2001; Peppers et al., 2001;Wang, Head, & Archer, 2000). Elements such assafety, credibility, security, and continuity increasethe trust in the hotel, and thereby support and en-courage customer loyalty.

Cybermarketing. Having a Web site and evenoffering online reservations is but part of a success-ful online strategy. Potential cyber-guests must firstdiscover a specific hotel Web site amidst millions ofother sites (Thelwall, 2000). Without substantial sitetraffic, there will be little business activity. Promot-ing Web sites encompasses offline and online ac-tions such as using the Web site address on all col-lateral material, using meta-tags in the HTML sourcecode, search engine submission, listing in majornational and international travel portals, network-ing with business partners by reciprocal linking, etc.(Collins & Murphy, 2002).

Roland Schegg and Thomas Steiner evaluated the125 hotel Web sites between May and September2001. They first evaluated Web sites together to im-prove the reliability of the evaluation process. Post-

benchmarking analyses checked the consistency ofthe data. In addition to the site evaluation, the siteitself and hotel directories provided hotel informa-tion such as number of rooms, category, location,and affiliations.

Formal Benchmarking With Softbots

In addition to examining the sites from acustomer’s viewpoint, this benchmarking study gath-ered technical information such as the use of pro-gramming languages, scripts, and secure connec-tions. Because this analysis is near impossible tomanually perform, a softbot tackled the task withexploring and parsing techniques normally associ-ated with information-retrieving software agents(Lau, Lee, Lam, & Ho, 2001; Steiner, 1999; Wöber,Scharl, Natter, & Taudes, 2002). Over half a cen-tury old, softbots or software robots are widely usedin IT nowadays (Bradshaw, 1997).

The softbot processes all HTML pages that canbe statically or semidynamically accessed throughlinks starting from the top URL. Links hidden ingraphics or behind dynamic scripting techniqueshave not been taken into account. Search criteriawere specified within a text file, which was loadedon startup. Several formal criteria (use of meta-tags,

Table 4

Web Site Benchmarking Criteria for the Trust Creation Di-mension (Not Exhaustive)

ImplicitLogo/brandLast updateLogo/brand/corporate designWeb design byURL of Web designerAnnulation information during booking processSearch functionSearch function with drop-down menuNetscape 4 CompatibilityNetscape 3 CompatibilityMS Explorer 4 CompatibilityMS Explorer 3 CompatibilityOnline cancellation

ExplicitInformation on personal data privacy and securityExplicit statement on control of personal datahttps (SSL)Secure http: shttp

Table 5

Web Sites Used to Test Cybermarketing Success of a HotelWeb Site

Global Hotel and Travel Web Sitehttp://www.travelocity.com/http://www.expedia.com/http://www.itn.net/http://www.hotelguide.com/http://www.travelnow.com/

Global Search Enginehttp://www.google.com/http://www.yahoo.com/http://www.altavista.com/http://www.msn.com/http://www.alltheweb.com/

Swiss Hotel and Travel Web Sitehttp://int.myswitzerland.comhttp://www.tiscover.ch/http://www.travelscout24.ch/http://www.tourisline.ch/

Swiss Search Enginehttp://search.bluewin.ch/searchhttp://www.search.ch/http://www.swisssearch.com/

78 SCHEGG ET AL.

mail tags, use of frames, etc.) were used to analyzethe HTML pages. At the end of operation, the softbotgenerated a report containing the counts for each ofthe criteria, all sublinks visited, dead links, and glo-bal Web site statistics (Fig. 1).

Discussion of the Results

Internet Penetration

Of the initial 850 hotels, 320 or 38% had theirown Web site. This penetration rate is low comparedwith a 57% Web presence of hotels in London(Louvieris, Jung, & Pandazis, 2001). This study,however, included all Swiss areas (i.e., alpine andrural regions). These results suggest that competi-tive Swiss touristic regions (such as Graubünden,Zürich, Berner Oberland, and Geneva) have higherpenetration rates (Fig. 2). As a comparison, one ofthree small and medium-sized enterprises in Swit-zerland had a Web site in June 2000 (Sieber, 2000).

Providing a Customer-Centered Service Process

Although providing certain navigational ease, theresults suggest that most Swiss hotel Web sites wereelectronic brochures or stage one publishing sites(Hanson, 2000). Furthermore, it seemed that someoperators rushed their brochures to the electronicprinter as one out of five hotels failed to put the physi-cal as well as the e-mail address on its site (Fig. 3).

Few sites provided advanced features such asguided tours, search functions, or seasonal versions.Room information (Fig. 4) was basic in most cases,with a short text description or in-room photo. Viewsout of the window or from other parts of the room(e.g., bathroom) were less popular. Just three hotelsprovided moving pictures via Webcams or videos.

Figure 1. Sample fragment of formal benchmarking report.

Figure 2. Hotel Web site penetration rates by touristic region based on the analysis of a sampleof 850 hotels (September 2001).


Figure 3. Evaluation of service process features on the home page (in percentof hotels where those features were observed).

Figure 4. Room description features (in percent of hotels where those featureswere observed).

evaluation of home page

1.6%

5.6%

81.5%

83.9%

19.4%

8.9%

12.9%

79.8%

83.9%

61.3%

41.9%

20.2%

32.3%

23.4%

24.2%

4.0%

14.5%

6.5%

12.1%

4.8%

4.0%

37.9%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

language selection

search function

search drop-down menu

conatct e-mail

physical address

people

organisation

sitemap

main contents

charact. of hotel with photo

location of hotel with maps

classification of hotel visible

opening periods

short description of hotel

niche/positioning

printables

printables as pdf

eyecatcher

option browser versions

seasonal differentiation

service hotline

guided tour

room description features

47.6%

86.3%

11.3%

73.4%

12.9%

62.1%

66.1%

0.8%

0.8%

0.0%

2.4%

0.0

%

10.

0%

20.

0%

30.

0%

40.

0%

50.

0%

60.

0%

70.

0%

80.

0%

90.

0%

100

.0%

classification (according to price and

quality)

photos present?

view out of the room

in-room photos

photos bathroom

description of room (text)

info on technical infrastructur

webcam

download of pdf

video

quicktime

80 SCHEGG ET AL.

In most hotels (79%), room rates were simple, statictables. Few hotels offered dynamic content such asdatabase-driven rate information (3%), last-minuteoffers (3%), or rates in other currencies (18%). Swisshotels have ample room to exploit the Web’s poten-tial to disseminate current, accurate, and interactiveinformation.

Although online guests demand a convenient andefficient booking process (O’Connor, 2001), a ma-jority of Swiss hotels offered restricted functional-ity (Fig. 5). The results found that nearly one of twoSwiss hotels offered room bookings via a simplereservation form (with 11% guaranteeing the roomby credit card). Stage two sites (Hanson, 2000) thatoffered real-time bookings (checking room availabil-ity) via a third party provider (10%) or a tourist des-tination organization (10%) were less frequent.

Customer Relationships

Customer information, the foundation of database-driven relationship marketing (Blattberg & Deighton,1991), creates value by tailoring messages and of-fers with the customers’ individual needs. This rec-ognition and personal service influences customersto develop an emotional attachment with the com-pany (Wang et al., 2000). Automatically recording

information in digital form helps collect, analyze,and use customer data (Moon, 1999; Petets, 1997;Wang et al., 2000).

Obtrusive and unobtrusive data-gathering featuresby the analyzed Web sites, however, were minimal(Fig. 6): use of cookies, personal profile option,online guest book, and brochure request. These lowfrequencies suggest that Swiss hotels have yet toemploy the Web’s unique opportunities to enhancecustomer relations.

The Internet, which differs from other media,gives hotels nonstop and inexpensive global expo-sure. Unlike traditional media that intrusively pushmessages at a passive audience, online marketersbenefit from a customer-controlled pull approach;users participate in the communication process. Yet,these results suggest that this communication capa-bility is also underdeveloped (Fig. 6). Most sitesoffered feedback via email and about one of threehotels provided general comment forms but very fewsites provided complaint forms, Web site feedbackforms, and virtual client forums.

Less than 1 out of 10 hotels offered online news-letters and just 1 out of 50 implemented viral mar-keting tools such as virtual postcards (Fig. 6). Whileover 8 of 10 sites included their email address—hence inviting two-way communication—a recent

Figure 5. Analysis of booking features (in percent of hotels where those fea-tures were observed).

booking procedures

46.8%

11.3%

0.8%

10.5%

9.7%

0.0%

20.2%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

online booking request (form)

confirmed booking request (credit card)

realtime booking through hotel

realtime booking through third party

realtime booking through destination

organisation (SDM)

realtime booking through GDS

online cancellation options


study on 200 Swiss hotels showed that half of themfailed to answer a customer’s reservation request inunder 24 hours (Frey, Schegg, & Murphy, 2002).

Value-Added Services

Value-added services include, among other as-pects, customization/personalization features as wellas special online offers or incentives. But our re-sults show that only a minority of the Swiss hotelWeb sites include these types of features (Fig. 7)and therefore failed to offer a personalized, or stagethree (Hanson, 2000), Web experience for theirguests. For example, just 1 in 20 sites set cookies.

Although few Swiss sites provided personalizedservices for their visitors, many sites provided value-added information services (Fig. 8) such as locationmaps, information on regional and local tourist sites,sports and cultural events, as well as public trans-port information. The Swiss hotel sites left otherservices, such as currency converters or weather re-ports, largely untapped.

Creating Trust

Although ensuring an environment of online trustis critical (Bauer et al., 2000), this research foundfew explicit trust features. Only 1.6% of the sites

noted how they handled the client’s personal infor-mation and 5.6% revealed how the client can con-trol his personal data. All hotels offering real-timebooking used the secured transaction protocols SSLand gave security information.

Previous research (e.g., Cheskin Research, 1999)shows that explicit privacy promises, such as pri-vacy statements, inspire and maintain consumertrust. Furthermore, consumers hesitate to providecredit card details over the Internet, as they judge itrisky. Offering a secure (encrypted) method for trans-action via the Web can have a positive impact onconsumers’ willingness to disclose their credit cardinformation (Cheskin Research, 1999). Therefore,by ignoring these major trust concerns, Swiss ho-tels risk damaging customer relations.

Cybermarketing

A few indicators gauged the hotel sites’ onlinepromotion. Their presence in global travel portalssuch as expedia.com (16%) and travelocity.com (7%)was low, but the hotel-specific hotelguide.com listedmore (34%) Swiss hotels. The results were slightlybetter for Swiss travel portals such asmyswitzerland.ch (21%), tiscover.ch (44%), andtravelscout.ch (48%). However, the hotels showed a

Figure 6. Analysis of customer relationship features (in percent of hotels wherethose features were observed).

customer relationship features

10.5%

8.9%

2.4%

0.0%

18.5%

3.2%

4.8%

0.0%

37.1%

1.6%

2.4%

0.0%

3.2%

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00%

order brochure

newsletter

send a friend

virtual community/forum

guestbook

data collection for user profiling

use of cookies

permission marketing

comments

complaints

praise

suggestions

feedback for web site

82 SCHEGG ET AL.

Figure 7. Analysis of value-added service features (in percent of hotels where thosefeatures were observed).

Figure 8. Analysis of value-added service features: regional information provision(in percent of hotels where those features were observed).

features related to customisation/personalisation

options and special offers/incentives

6.5%

4.0%

7.3%

4.0%

4.8%

4.8%

12.9%

9.7%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

bonus/coupons

customization of packages

restricted area for loyal guests

customization / personalization

modification of user profile

contest

Internet only offers

buttons/features for specific customer

segments

regional information

34.7%

28.2%

20.2%

21.8%

18.5%

35.5%

16.9%

11.3%

4.8%

7.3%

3.2%

10.5%

62.1%

33.1%

16.9%

0.0%

3.2%

1.6%

0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0%

sites to see in the region

local sites to see

cultural offer

events

restaurants

leisure and sport

excursion / tours

climate/ wheather

snow

time to travel

money / currency converter

general information (doctors, etc.)

maps

transport means

time tables for public transport

search function

livecam for region

video on region


stronger presence in international [google.com(96%), yahoo.com (86%), altavista.com (86%), andmsn.com (79%)] and national [bluewin.ch (85%) andswisssearch.ch (72%)] search engines.

Just 15 of the 125 hotels had links from more than10 other Web sites (based on an advanced feature ofthe Google search engine that counts hyperlinks toa specific Web site), suggesting an underdevelopednetworking strategy. Even though a potential clientmay find the hotel with a search engine, the weakpresence of Swiss hotels in international or nationaldestination travel portals reduces the potential todrive traffic to the hotels’ sites. Only 8 out of 125hotels were referenced in more than 14 of the 17assessed portals.

Formal Aspects

The technical analysis of the Swiss hotel sites witha commercial site evaluation tool provided byNetscape (websitegarage.netscape.com), which cal-culates download time based on a Web page’s totalfile size, revealed a disturbing number: an averagedownload time for the 125 sampled sites of 19 sec-onds over the typical 56K-modem. A Zona Researchstudy concluded that slow-loading pages accountedfor the majority of abandoned Web transactions(Zona Research, 2001). The study, which found thatdial-up users as well as broadband (much faster con-nection) users abandoned due to slow downloads,noted that an 18-second download was too time con-suming.

Almost four of five sites were compatible withMicrosoft’s Internet Explorer 4.0, but only three offive sites met Netscape 4.0 requirements. Backwardcompatibility was worse: 36% of the sites were fullycompatible with Internet Explorer 3.0 and 29% withNetscape 3.0.

Due to technical features such as dynamic links,applying the benchmarking softbot to all sites wasnot possible. Applying the sofbot to a subsample(50) of the Swiss hotel sites showed that 32% usemeta-tags to reference their contents with key-words. The softbot found an average of 32 pagesper hotel site and nine external links. Five sites haddead links, about three out of five sites used forms,and an equal number used an outdated and clunkynavigational feature known as frames (Nielsen,1996).

Theoretical Interpretation of Results

Diffusion of Innovation

Diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 1995) describestechnology adoption and helps explain Web site useby Swiss hoteliers. As individuals and organizationsadopt innovations over time, effective hotel Web sitesare in the early stage. Innovation characteristics,adopter characteristics, and social influences shapethe innovation’s speed of adoption by individuals.

Rogers (1995) and others (Abrahamson, 1991;Fichman, 2000) have subsequently applied thismodel to organizations, noting that it is less appli-cable. While individuals often make optional inno-vation decisions, organizations decide authoritativelyor collectively. Such factors as individual (leader)characteristics and internal/external structure influ-ence organizational innovativeness (Rogers, 1995).

Most organizational research has focused on thestage of adoption or innovation itself, but these couldbe secondary compared to organizational character-istics. Researchers call for more investigation intoassimilating the innovation (Fichman, 2000), band-wagon effects (Abrahamson, 1991; Fichman, 2000),and organization characteristics related to adoptionincluding age, size, type, strategic orientation, andscope for innovation (Abrahamson, 1991; Rogers,1995; Sieber, 2000; Soutar, Allen, & Long, 2000;Wolfe, 1994). Hotel characteristics studied includelodging segment, location, hotel size, product type,and brand affiliation (Frey et al., 2002; Gherissi,Schegg, & Murphy, 2002; Siguaw, Enz, &Namiasivayam, 2000).

It should be noted that having many Web site fea-tures differs from having the right Web site featuresor using the features correctly. Organizational dif-fusion is a two-phased process, initiation followedby implementation—the mutual adaptation of theinnovation and the organization (Rogers, 1995;Wolfe, 1994). Differences between an organization’stechnology-sensing capability and technology-re-sponse capability, however, lead to an “assimilationgap”—the difference between acquisition and de-ployment of an innovation (Fichman & Kemerer,1999; Srinivasan, Lilen, & Rangaswamy, 2001).

This gap may be a “bandwagon effect,” wherebysocial emulation and competition pressure organi-zations to adopt new technologies for fear of beingdifferent or performing below average (Mansfield,

84 SCHEGG ET AL.

1968). This fear leads to generalized adoption ofinnovations even when profitability is uncertain(Abrahamson & Rosenkopf, 1993; Baptista, 1999).

Hypothesis Development

Frey et al. (2002) found that the quality of elec-tronic customer service by Swiss hotels differed byhotel size, hotel category, linguistic regions, andonline relationship marketing tools. This study useda representative sample of Swiss hotels to testRogers’ theory with respect to hotel size and cat-egory, and to explore geographic and linguistic lo-cation. The scores in each of the five benchmarkingdimensions and a sum of the individual dimensionsassessed overall Web site features. As noted earlier,this is a measure of a hotel’s initiation to Web sitefeatures, not implementation of Web site features.

Research has shown that organization size relatespositively to adoption, as economies of scale enhancethe feasibility of adoption and larger organizationshave a stronger need for strategic planning (Kim-berly & Evanisko, 1981; Rogers, 1995). Similarly,larger US hotels tended to adopt technology more(Siguaw et al., 2000) and larger Swiss and Tunisianhotels provided better electronic service (Frey et al.,2002; Gherissi et al., 2002).

Stiff competition and increasingly demandingcustomers have made US luxury-class and city ho-tels early adopters of technology (Siguaw et al.,2000). Swiss luxury-class hotels and hotels locatedin the city should therefore have more Web site fea-tures.

One in four Swiss small and medium-sized busi-nesses in the French region with Web sites comparedwith one of two in the German region (Salvisberg,Klarer, & Sacchi, 2001) illustrate research byATKearney (2000) suggesting that cultural factorsinfluence Internet adoption. This same cultural ef-fect should be found in the features on hotel Websites in different Swiss linguistic regions.

H1: Based on number of rooms, larger hotels willhave more Web site features than smaller ho-tels.

H2: Based on hotel category, higher rated hotels willhave more Web site features than lower ratedhotels.

H3: Based on geographic location, city hotels will

have more Web site features than hotels inmountain, lake, or other areas.

H4: Based on linguistic region, Web site features willdiffer.

Results of the Five-Dimensional BenchmarkingApproach. The average values for the variousbenchmarking dimensions in Table 6 show lowscores (mean values generally between 5% and 30%)for most sites.

Hypothesis Testing

One-way ANOVA and post hoc comparison testsusing Games-Howell’s method, well adapted forunequal variances and sample size (Toothacker,1993, p. 66), evaluated significant group differencesat p < 0.05. The groups were hotel size (1–40 and>40 rooms), hotel category (budget, mid-range, orluxury), geographic location (city, mountains, lake,or other), and linguistic region (German, French, orItalian). Table 7 presents the results.

Significant differences in all but one feature—customer relationships—across hotel size supportedhypothesis 1. Larger hotels had significantly morefeatures than smaller hotels. The results supportedhypothesis 2 on all features. Higher rated hotels hadsignificantly more features than lower rated hotels.

There was support for hypothesis 3, as city hotelshad significantly more cybermarketing features thanthe other geographic locations. Although the Frenchand German sites consistently had more features thanthe Italian sites, there were no statistically signifi-cant differences across linguistic region. This failsto support hypotheses 4.

Conclusions

Analyzing hotel Web sites from a relationshipmarketing perspective implicitly assumes that ho-tels have taken their online presence through boththe initiation and implementation stages of organi-zational diffusion. The use of certain Web featuresand characteristics might occur, however, withoutthe strategic intention to develop relationship mar-keting. Furthermore, this research method failed toexamine the integration of Web site marketing ac-tivities with the hotel’s overall marketing strategy(if applicable) and with other business functions. Assuch, the discussion of underlying reasons for these


Table 6

Overall Benchmarking Scores of Subdimensions and Dimensions

Overall

Min. Max. Mean Min. Max. Mean

Service Process 3.5% 44.2% 23.0%Access & navigation 5.6% 61.1% 35.1%Entertainment 0.0% 50.0% 8.1%Information 0.0% 53.3% 22.5%Online booking 3.2% 41.9% 18.7%

Customer Relationships 0.0% 44.4% 15.7%Communication 0.0% 50.0% 17.6%Database mgt. 0.0% 75.0% 9.3%

Value Creations 0.0% 54.7% 15.5%Added value services 0.0% 60.4% 16.5%Incentives & triggers 0.0% 75.0% 6.5%

Trust 4.8% 57.1% 24.8%Implicit trust feature 6.3% 62.5% 29.5%Explicit trust feature 0.0% 80.0% 9.8%

Cybermarketing 0.0% 89.5% 49.4%

Values in percent of theoretical maximal score for each dimension or subdimension.

Table 7

ANOVA Test for Independent Variables, Benchmarking Dimensions

Customer Service Value TotalRelationships Trust Cybermarketing Process Creation Features

CategoryBudget 12.3% 20.2% 43.8% 18.0% 12.7% 17.6%Middle class 15.7% 24.1% 46.9% 21.9% 14.6% 21.5%High class 19.4% 30.9% 60.1% 30.2% 20.0% 29.9%F 5.774 9.228 10.613 20.971 3.466 20.512Significance 0.004 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.034 0.000

LocationCity 15.2% 27.6% 62.1% 26.6% 20.4% 27.7%Lake zone 15.4% 25.1% 46.4% 22.8% 16.4% 22.4%Mountain resort 16.3% 25.7% 50.3% 22.9% 14.9% 22.5%Other 15.2% 21.2% 43.5% 21.4% 13.0% 20.1%F 0.138 1.561 4.963 1.107 1.354 2.355Significance 0.937 0.202 0.003 0.349 0.260 0.075

Linguistic RegionGerman 16.1% 25.2% 49.8% 22.8% 15.8% 22.7%French 14.7% 25.5% 49.9% 24.9% 16.8% 24.0%Italian 12.0% 15.9% 42.1% 20.2% 6.3% 16.9%F 0.787 2.280 0.620 0.717 1.973 1.411Significance 0.457 0.107 0.539 0.490 0.144 0.248

Size1–40 rooms 15.4% 22.4% 45.2% 20.7% 13.2% 20.0%>40 rooms 16.3% 29.4% 57.4% 27.2% 19.8% 27.5%F 0.276 13.199 17.781 16.622 9.118 22.449Significance 0.6 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.003 0.000

Bold figures indicate statistically significant differences.

86 SCHEGG ET AL.

findings—such as staffing issues, cost, and time,etc.—remain hypothetical.

Given the rapid pace of Internet technology evo-lution, new features will fit into the proposedbenchmarking model, and others, identified in thepresent study, are likely to become obsolete. Thus,the applied checklist provides neither an exhaustivenor a definitive list of such marketing features. Mar-keting is also about making promises. While the iden-tified dimensions are critical to a successful Internetpresence, they do not make up for poor fulfillment,poor customer relationship management, or poorservice in the offline world.

This study explored current Web technologiesused by Swiss hotels. While only applicable to Swit-zerland and subject to the difficulties of Web sitecontent analysis (McMillan, 2000), these results areconsistent with prior research: Hotel sites primarilybroadcast static information and provide limitedtransactional functions (Gilbert et al., 1999; Murphyet al., 1996). This format corresponds to the first ofthree stages—publishing sites, databases/forms, andpersonalization—of Web site evolution (Hanson,2000).

These findings may result from the predominant“me too” strategies underlying Web site develop-ments during the “Internet hype” of the past fewyears (Connolly, 1999b). Consistent with previousresearch on bandwagon effects (Abrahamson &Rosenkopf, 1993; Baptista, 1999; Mansfield, 1968)and assimilation gaps (Fichman & Kemerer, 1999;Srinivasan et al., 2001), Grönroos (2000) found thatcareful planning rarely preceded the establishmentof a Web site. Being on the Internet is more impor-tant than a justification for being there.

A portfolio approach (Louvieris et al., 2001)—strategically including the site on a chain Web siteand other third-party sites—to Web presence is astarting solution for improving Web sites. Anotheroption is affiliating with an online booking system.Swiss Destination Management (www.sdm.ch), aSwiss market leader, provides access to their reser-vation system in exchange for a 10% commissionon each successful booking (Busch, personal com-munication, 2002). This commission compares fa-vorably with the 8–10% that travel agencies normallycharge (O’Connor, 2001).

More widespread quality standards and aggres-sive marketing may explain the better performance

of Web sites of larger and higher class hotels.Pechlaner, Rienzner, Matzler, and Osti (2002) foundthat management’s attitude towards the Internet playsan important role in using this technology in a ho-tel. Their stronger links to the globalized economy,financial resources and management, and market-ing expertise helps larger and higher class hotelsrecognize the Internet’s strategic importance andimplement strategies.

Today’s hotel managers consider maintaining Websites as too time consuming (Connolly, 1999b) andfew managers using technology have attended ITcourses in the last years (Main, 2001). Undoubtedly,their Web sites reflect such attitudes and behavior.The small, often family-run budget hotels typicallylack resources and advanced management and mar-keting skills (Marvel, 2001). This also suggests thattypical Swiss SME hotels have overlooked the req-uisite planning and subsequently face implementa-tion problems (Wildemuth, 1992).

Online customers rarely distinguish betweenphysical and Web-based transactions: both are ele-ments of their total experience with the company(Sindell, 2000). An unsatisfactory Web site encoun-ter may influence a hotel’s brand image and exist-ing customer relations (Peppers et al., 2001). Asthe travel industry represents one of the most com-petitive eBusiness arenas, reluctant attitudes couldprovoke outsiders into the market. Third partieshave begun to dominate how hotel products are soldonline (O’Connor, 2001), and hotel managersshould pay more attention to online distribution andthe needs of both their clients and channel part-ners. To stand still risks being surpassed by com-petitors.

At the same time, Web site features cost moneyand require maintenance. Effective email use mayprove to offer a better return on technology invest-ments than added Web site features (Frey et al., 2002;Gherissi et al., 2002). Operators must distinguishbetween adding every possible feature and strategi-cally planning their sites to meet online customerdemands. Log file analysis (Murphy, Hofacker, &Bennett, 2001) helps show how customers behaveon a site.

Similar to Gherissi et al. (2002) and Frey et al.(2002), who found that the quality of electronic cus-tomer service by Tunisian and Swiss hoteliers, re-spectively, related to organizational characteristics


(i.e., hotel size and hotel category), these same char-acteristics relate to Web site features. A study ofSwiss Internet use by 2353 small and medium-sizedenterprises showed similar patterns (Sieber, 2000).Internet diffusion correlated positively with enter-prise size as in this study. This complements researchof US hotels by Siguaw et al. (2000), who foundthat hotel characteristics influenced technologyadoption.

Further Research

In addition to benchmarking hotel Web sites inother countries and longitudinal studies in Switzer-land, future research could explore what featurescustomers seek in a hotel Web site. Given the con-sumers’ preferences, what features give the betterreturns for investments in time and money?

As hotels continue to upgrade their Web sites,future research could explore possible relationshipsbetween Web site features and electronic customerservice or eService. Do automated email reply sys-tems or customer relationship management toolsenhance eService? Future research could also ex-plore hotels’ current eService: how do hotels respondto email from guests?

Another promising aspect to address is possiblesynergies from joint marketing activities with part-ner hotels in the same chain, same destination, orsame affiliation. What benefits could stem fromInternet-based consortia, including increased trafficon the site?

This study examined, among other aspects, usingWeb sites for relationships with consumers. Futureresearch could examine how hotels use their Website as an internal marketing tool to build long-termrelationships with their employees or to developlong-term relationships with channel members andother business partners.

On a formal level, the implementation techniquesfor Web sites change rapidly. If formal aspects areto be analyzed by software agents, the latter mustevolve with the emergence of new tools, such as flashtechniques, dynamic scripting, XML streams, etc.However, specific links “hidden” (e.g., in graphicsor generated on the fly by server-side scripts) willalways be hard to handle for a softbot. Artificial in-telligence techniques will probably be needed toaddress these issues.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the University ofApplied Sciences of Western Switzerland (HES-SO)for the research grant and the Swiss Federal Statisti-cal Office as well as the Swiss Hotel Association forproviding data.

Roland Schegg is research associate at the Lausanne Insti-tute for Hospitality Research (LIHR). He earned his B.S.from the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Zürichand his Ph.D. from the University of Geneva. His main re-search interests are the influence of new technologies on thehospitality industry.

Thomas Steiner finished his Ph.D. in Business InformationSystems at the University of Lausanne in 1999 on Distrib-uted Software Agents for WWW-based Destination Infor-mation Systems. Since 2000 he has worked for the Univer-sity of Applied Sciences Valais (Switzerland) where heteaches “Distributed Databases” and “Object Oriented Pro-gramming” and gives seminar lectures for “IntelligentAgents,” “Mobile Code,” as well as “Benchmarking & BestPractice Networks.”

Susanne Frey finished her B.S. at the Ecole Hôtelière deLausanne, where she participated in Lausanne Institute forHospitality Research projects. After her June 2001 gradua-tion, she moved to New York and works now as an associateconsultant for HVS International (Hotel Valuation Services).

Jamie Murphy, an Associate Professor at the University ofWestern Australia’s Department of Information Managementand Marketing, is interested in researching effective use ofthe Internet. He earned an M.S. and Ph.D. from Florida StateUniversity along with a University of Florida B.A. and Michi-gan State University M.B.A. His background includes teach-ing and marketing experience in Australia, Canada, China,Switzerland, and the US. He also lectures annually at theEcole Hôtelière de Lausanne.

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