Determinants of response to customer e-mail enquiries to hotels: evidence from Austria

The hotels' efficient use of the Internet becomes increasingly important. Proper reaction to online inquiries influences both booking behaviour and guest satisfaction. The objectives of the survey presented in this paper are to empirically test response behaviour to Internet enquiries and to analyse the role of size, classification (star rating) and location of the hotels. In particular, response rate, response time and information quality of answers (information depth) were studied. Significant differences were identified for all of the variables. It was also found that response behaviour is better off-season than during high season.