An Importance Performance Analysis of smartphone applications for hotel chains

• “Reservation Information” and “Hotel Information” are commonly available and rated high in both importance and performance.
• “At Hotel Functions” are not commonly available, but are rated important by customers.
• “At Hotel Functions” provide specific, exclusive opportunities for hotels to engage with customers during their stay.
• The lack of “At Hotel Functions” could indicate that the property-level operational and IT support are missing.
• IPA is a useful framework to model customer satisfaction as a function of importance.
• The Spillover effect suggests that hotel apps should not replicate the features and functions available on popular apps.

The proliferation of smartphone ownership and mobile travel bookings has persuaded hoteliers to develop mobile strategies and develop applications (apps). To investigate the customer perception of these apps, a two-stage methodology was applied that identifies the available features and functions on 20 hotel chain apps. Next, the importance and performance of these 51 identified features and functions are then rated and analysed using the Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) framework. Most of the features and functions under “Reservation Information” and “Hotel Information” are commonly available, and are rated high in importance and performance, which is located in Quadrant two, “Keep up the good work”. “At Hotel Functions” are not commonly available, but rated important by customers, thus placed in Quadrant one, “Concentrate here”. Thus, IPA highlights specific, exclusive opportunities for hotels to engage via apps with customers during their stay.