eService by Swiss and Austrian Hotels: Does Language Matter?

This paper examines e-mail responses, from 195 three- and four-star hotels in four Swiss and Austrian regions, to room queries from a potential guest, and shows significant differences in quality aspects between the replies to emails sent in two languages.

Abstract

This paper examines e-mail responses, from 195 three- and four-star hotels in four Swiss and Austrian regions, to room queries from a potential guest. Whereas the response rates in this research resembled earlier studies, replies arrived faster; the average response time was under 10h compared to over 20h in previous studies. Similar to earlier research, organisational characteristics — hotel size and hotel category — showed few significant relationships to responsiveness but did relate to response quality. The results also show significant differences in quality aspects between the replies to emails sent in two languages: German e-mails were answered with a higher quality and with a higher probability, but in about the same time as English e-mails. To some extent, language related to the hotels' email responses.