An evaluation of Spanish hotel websites: Informational vs. relational strategies

Abstract

The websites of many hotels are beginning to incorporate new online tools such as social media in order to maintain closer relationships with clients and, possibly, investors. The objectives of this study are to identify the strategies pursued by Spanish hotel websites and to analyze the relationship between the size of the hotel and website strategy. The results show that Spanish hotel websites are primarily built for customers and that the information oriented toward investors is relatively scarce. Further, there is a significant positive relationship between the size of the hotel and the information provided in two of the perspectives studied, those of the investor and presence on social media. Lastly, significant relationships were identified between the customer, marketing, Web 2.0 and social media categories. However, significant relationships were not identified between the investor perspective and any of the other four categories investigated.