Asian Journal of Economics, Business and Accounting

3(4): 1-13, 2017; Article no.AJEBA.35353

ISSN: 2456-639X

E-service Quality: A Study of Online Hotel Booking

Websites in Hong Kong
Kin Man Chow 1*
1
Caritas Institute of Higher Education, 18 Chui Ling Road, Tseung Kwan O, N.T., Hong Kong.

Author’s contribution

The sole author designed, analyzed and interpreted and prepared the manuscript.

Article Information

DOI: 10.9734/AJEBA/2017/35353
Editor(s):
(1) Chen Zhan-Ming, Associate Professor, Department of Energy Economics, School of Economics, Renmin University of
China, China.
Reviewers:
(1) Darmesh Krishanan, Management and Science University (MSU), Malaysia.
(2) Ng Kim Soon, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Malaysia.
(3) J. Ramola Premalatha, VIT University, India.
Complete Peer review History: http://www.sciencedomain.org/review-history/20262

th
Received 8 July 2017
Accepted 23rd July 2017
Original Research Article th
Published 28 July 2017

ABSTRACT

This paper aimed to examine how web design, responsiveness, reliability, enjoyment, ease of use,
security, and customization influence e-service quality of online hotel booking agencies in Hong
Kong. Quantitative approach was used to examine the relationships between each of the
dimensions and overall e-service quality. Based on findings in prior studies, current study extended
the framework to the dimensions of ease of use, security and customization in addition to the
dimensions of web design, responsiveness, reliability and enjoyment. An online survey website was
set up to collect responses from students of two higher education institutes in Hong Kong. 162 valid
responses were collected for analysis. Results found that web design (p = .002) and customization
(p <.001) positively influenced e-service quality of online hotel booking agencies. Online hotel
booking companies can concentrate their resources to these identified dimensions, in particularly
through web design and customization, to achieve the desired level of e-service quality. This study
has practical implications to online hotel booking agencies on how to enhance their e-services
quality. It conceptualized and tested a multiple-item scale for measuring the e-service quality
delivered by online hotel booking intermediaries. Moreover, it examined the proposed framework
with three additional dimensions ease of use, security, and customization included. This paper
concludes by discussing the findings of this study and highlighting areas for future research in the
realm of e-service quality.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Corresponding author: E-mail: cchow@cihe.edu.hk;


Keywords: E-service quality; online hotel booking; hotel intermediaries; web design; customization.
1. INTRODUCTION
With recent advancement and popularity of
internet and web technologies, most of the
corporations have developed their websites for
the sake of reaching a wider level of customers.
The emergence of internet applications has had
an unprecedented impact on general business.
There is no exception in the hotel business,
particularly the roles of hotel booking
intermediaries. Rather than disintermediation, in
which intermediaries are being eliminated or
replaced in the supply chain, reintermediation
takes place. New intermediaries have added
values in the sales process and developed new
markets. As more intermediaries follow the trend,
competition in this sector becomes more vigorous.
Traditionally, travel agencies focused on the
business through services such as arrangement
for transportation, hotels, insurance, and special-
interest activities. Travel agencies used to exist
as intermediaries between service providers and
customers. Unlike other intermediaries, travel
agencies do not provide physical products but
services. Disintermediation refers to “the removal
of intermediaries such as distributors or brokers
that formerly linked a company to its customers”
[1, p.45]. A decade ago, there was still a common
belief that hotel industry tended to sell directly to
customers. Studies like Buick [2], Garcés,
Gorgemans, Sanchez, and Perez [3], Tse [4],
and Vich-i-Martorell [5] fell light on the potential
trend for hotels selling directly to their customers
through the internet technology. With the growing
popularity of e-business, disintermediaries enable
consumers to bypass the middleman in the
supply chain and interact directly with the
product/service providers.
With the emergence of internet, customers can
bypass the travel agencies and make their
bookings directly with the service providers.
These changes altered the roles of travel
agencies to a more active role by providing
information and advice. While disintermediation is
not a universal solution for all, reintermediation
has its place. Reintermediation is defined as “the
creation of new intermediaries between
customers and suppliers providing services such
as supplier search and product evaluation” [1,
p.46). As Cheung and Lam [6] pointed out that
traditional travel agencies needed to consider
reintermediation so as to sustain their positions
in the market. Thus, reintermediation was
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Chow; AJEBA, 3(4): 1-13, 2017; Article no.AJEBA.35353
considered as one of the solutions for traditional
travel agencies to sustain their positions in the
marketplace.
Searching for airlines and buying air-tickets
online are comparatively simple as the number of
airlines offered for a particular route is limited.
However, there are usually a huge number of
choices in the case of hotel booking. As a result,
there exists a role for travel agencies to serve as
intermediaries in providing advice and hotel
booking services. Even though Carroll and
Siguaw [7] commented that adoption of the
merchant model would reduce hotel profitability
and make them too dependent on intermediaries
in long run, popular intermediaries are
dominating quite a bit in the hotel booking
market. Some popular hotel booking intermediary
websites in Hong Kong include Agoda.com,
Booking.com, Expedia.com, Hotels.com,
Trivago.com, Hotelscombine.hk and Zuji.com.
Prior studies tended to explain the situations
where market dynamics would favour direct
buyer-seller transactions. In the hotel business,
traditional intermediaries tended to differentiate
themselves and re-emerge in the electronic
marketplace through reintermediation, some
even created a new market in the role of
cybermediation through service of price
comparison. To understand the changing role of
intermediaries, O’Connor and Murphy [8] found
that there was desperate need for research on
the consumer side to investigate how distribution
channels could use attributes such as price,
convenience, website design and website
contents to motivate consumers to make
purchases online. Yang, Jun and Peterson [9]
examined several dimensions leading to online
service quality in the online banking industry. It
was found that privacy and security mattered to
most online customers concerned. Similar to
online banking services, nowadays many hotel
booking operations involve sensitive customer
information such as credit card numbers and
other personal details. Therefore privacy and
security are of great concerns for hotel booking
intermediary websites. Apart from privacy and
security, the review of Yarimoglu [10] highlighted
the importance of establishing an industry-
specific service quality index since every industry
has its different unique characteristics. Doesn’t
like the banking services, hotel booking agencies
consolidate hotel information and help customers
to search for their desired choices.

According to China Internet Information Center
[11], the number of users of online travel booking
in China reached 259.6 million in 2015.
Increasing competition in hotel business has led
hotel booking intermediaries to consider service
quality as a strategic means in business
development. Service quality became one of the
antecedents of customer satisfaction [12].
Therefore, the present study provides marketers
a better understanding about determinants of e-
service quality for intermediary websites in the
online hotel booking business.
The purpose of this research is to extend the
research of Kim, Singh and Yoon [13] in studying
the factors of web design, responsiveness,
reliability, and enjoyment that influencing e-
service quality in online hotel booking with
additional consideration in the factors of ease of
use, security and customization.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Service quality and customer satisfaction have
long been subjects of great interest to
organizations and researchers. A conceptual
framework SERVQUAL, also known as the GAP
model, for measuring service quality was
developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry
[14] to capture consumer expectations. As
traditional service quality is revolutionized in the
era of e-commerce, various models have been
developed in measuring the perception of service
quality. The E-S-QUAL model proposed by
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Malhotra [15] aimed
to study how customers assess e-service quality
and its consequence. At a similar time, the
eTransQual framework developed by Bauer, Falk
and Hammerschmidt [16] was developed to
improve previous models with consideration of
both utilitarian and hedonic aspects. Recently,
the SERVQUAL was modified from previous
models to incorporate new dimensions and
business context. With the emergence of e-
commerce and the changing environments in the
hotel booking industry, there are still questions
about how e-service quality is influenced by
various dimensions in the hotel booking websites.
In the past decades, many studies have been
conducted on the theme of service quality of
traditional business. As e-business delivered
services to customers in a different manner from
traditional business, many studies argued that
determinants of service quality of online business
could be different. E-service quality is defined as
“the extent to which a web site facilitates efficient
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and effective shopping, purchasing, and delivery”
[15,p.217]. Studies like WebQual [17] and
eTransQual [16] served as generic instruments
for measuring service quality of online business.
In particular, recent studies of Kim et al. [13], and
Visansakon and Prougestaporn [18] examined
the key determinants of e-service quality and
investigated how e-service quality influenced e-
loyalty in the online hotel booking business.
Service quality is a key factor in product
differentiation and creation of competitive
advantage [19]. That is how organizations
compete on the service offerings around their
core products [20]. In the absence of sales staff
and physical elements, e-service takes place in a
totally different setting [21]. SERVQUAL is a
framework first developed by Parasuraman et al.
[14] to capture consumer expectations and
perceptions of a service. Ten primitive
dimensions were derived as the basic structure
of the service-quality domain. Afterwards,
Parasuraman et al. [12] further refined them to
five distinct attributes, namely tangibles, reliability,
responsibility, assurance, and empathy. Among
which, tangibles referred to appearance of a
service firm’s facilities, employees, equipment
and communication materials; reliability referred
to delivering the promised outputs at the stated
level; responsibility referred to providing prompt
service and help the customers; assurance
referred to ability of a service firm to inspire trust
and confidence in the firm through knowledge,
politeness and trustworthiness of the employees;
and empathy referred to willingness and
capability to give personalized attention to a
customer.
In line with the advancement and popularity of
internet applications, WebQual scale was
proposed by Barnes and Vidgen [17] using the
five key dimensions of SERVQUAL: tangibles,
reliability, responsiveness, assurance and
empathy to analysis online book trade. In
consideration of website usability, information
quality and service interaction quality, Barnes
and Vidgen [22] further developed a modified
version of WebQual which recommended
organizations to address these dimensions to
enhance website quality. At a similar time,
Barnes and Vidgen [17], Kuo [23], and Negash,
Ryan, and Igbaria [24] deployed the “SERVQUAL”
scale as measure of web service quality.
Since then, website quality is of great concern in
measuring perceptions of customers. Based on
the theory of reasoned action and the technology

acceptance model, Loiacono, Watson and
Goodhue [25] refined WebQual to measure
websites quality with twelve dimensions, namely
informational fit to task, trust, interaction,
response time, intuitiveness, design, visual
appeal, innovativeness, flow-emotional appeal,
integrated communication, business processes,
and substitutability. On the other hand, with focus
on customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty,
Wolfinbarger and Gilly [26] developed the eTailQ
scale with four quality dimensions: fulfilment /
reliability, customer service, web design and
security/privacy. It was found that these
dimensions were strongly predictive of customer
judgments of quality and satisfaction, customer
loyalty, and attitudes toward the website. In
consideration of the nature of service provision,
Bauer et al. [16] proposed the Transaction
Process-based Framework (eTransQual) model
to address various aspects for customer's
assessment of service quality. It comprised five
quality dimensions, namely functionality/design,
reliability, process, responsiveness and
enjoyment. In this model, both utilitarian and
hedonic e-service quality elements were
integrated into one measurement scale. With the
enjoyment factor incorporated, it served as a
measuring for capturing e-service quality in
online shopping.
As more and more organizations migrated their
services online, e-service quality has become a
popular research topic. E-service quality can be
regarded as the overall evaluation and judgement
of the service quality offering in the virtual
marketplace [27]. It makes online companies
more effective and appealing, and thus achieves
higher levels of customer satisfaction and
retention [20]. With an attempt to derive a global
assessment of a website’s service quality,
Parasuraman et al. [15] empirically examined e-
service quality with E-S-QUAL from four
dimensions: efficiency, privacy, fulfilment and
availability. In considering that website design
and appearance are taking an critical role in the
evaluations of electronic service quality [15], Li
and Suomi [21] modified the SERVQUAL
instrument and proposed an eight-dimension
scale for measuring e-service quality as
website design, reliability, fulfilment, security,
responsiveness, personalization, information and
empathy. Not restricted to general online
transaction processing, Yang et al. [9] also
modified the SERVQUAL scale to assess service
quality in the banking industry. Six key online
service quality dimensions including reliability,
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responsiveness, competence, ease of use,
security, and product portfolio were developed.
Although the subjects were mainly online banking
customers, it is possibly that ease of use and
privacy/security are of great concerns to other
online business as well.
Since hospitality is a core business for Hong
Kong, while tourism is one of the four pillar
industries in Hong Kong, they drew attention to
the need for further research in the online hotel
booking business. Several studies have been
conducted recently. Kim et al. [13] attempted to
find out factors influencing e-service quality by
including the hedonic scales in addition to
the utilitarian dimensions for online hotel
booking. Study of Kim et al. [13] examined the
influences of a number of important factors to e-
service quality of booking websites. It was
found that process/reliability functionality/
design, responsiveness and enjoyment were
determinants of e-service quality. However, the
influence of enjoyment was comparatively low. It
revealed that utilitarian benefits were more
important than hedonic aspects in the case of
hotel booking services. In addition, it is also
highlighted that establishing the experience
interface with personalization, entertainment and
fun aspects might help in differentiating
them from their competitors, the influences
customization and personalization are worth to
be considered.
Along the development of e-commerce, ease of
use, security and customization are becoming
critical concerns for performing online
transactions. Tangible e-service quality such as
ease of use and intangible quality such as
security and customization have significant
effects on customer satisfaction and customer
loyalty [28]. In addition, guest profile entered
into online booking systems help understand
customers better and make revisiting process
simpler [29]. Based on information collected, web
customization reflected how the information or
services were customized to fit the needs of
individual visitors [18].
After all, through the literature review, it unveiled
that factors of web design, responsiveness,
reliability, enjoyment, ease of use, security, and
customization may influence the e-service quality
perception of the customers. The conceptual
model is depicted in Fig. 1. It illustrates the
relationship and the labelling of the
variables.

Fig. 1. Proposed conceptual framework
As Yarimoglu [10] highlighted that e-service
quality should have a different set of
measurement in consideration of the
distinguished characteristics between service
and e-services. However, it is unclear if
these determinants of e-service quality
apply to intermediaries of online hotel booking
as well. Based on the Transaction Process-
based Framework (eTransQual) developed
by Bauer et al. [16], this study aimed to
examine the framework in the field of online
hotel booking intermediaries. Four of the
determinants were adopted from the studies of
Bauer et al. [16], while ease of use, security and
customization were based on the literature review
above. Thus, the following hypotheses are
proposed:
H1: Web design has a positive effect to
overall e-service quality of intermediaries in
online hotel booking.
H2: Responsiveness has a positive effect to
overall e-service quality of intermediaries in
online hotel booking.
H3: Reliability has a positive effect to overall
e-service quality of intermediaries in online
hotel booking.
H4: Enjoyment has a positive effect to overall
e-service quality of intermediaries in online
hotel booking.
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The present research extended the dimensions in
the framework as developed by Bauer et al. [16]
and referenced in the study of Kim et al. [13] to
examine additional determinants of ease of use,
privacy/security and customization. Ease of use
and perceived usefulness were found to have
significant effect on customer repurchase
intentions [30]. Thus, the following hypothesis is
proposed:
H5: Ease of use has a positive effect to
overall e-service quality of intermediaries in
online hotel booking.
Privacy and security are main concerns for
internet users [26,31]. Thus, the following
hypothesis is proposed:
H6: Security has a positive effect to overall e-
service quality of intermediaries in online
hotel booking.
A recent study found that customization was one
of the determinants of e-service quality for online
hotel booking in addition to web design, reliability,
privacy and responsiveness [18]. Thus, the
following hypothesis is proposed:
H7: Customization has a positive effect to
overall e-service quality of intermediaries in
online hotel booking.

3. RESEARCH DESIGN
To address the research questions, an online
survey website was set up to collect data through
anonymous questionnaire. This study employed a
quantitative approach to measure the perception
of users towards service quality provided by the
online hotel booking websites. Convenience
sampling was employed in this study because
this method suits the exploratory survey and is
often used in small-scale surveys. Similar to Kim
et al. [13], undergraduate college students were
the main target of this study. Students of higher
diploma, associate degree and degree levels
from two institutes formed the target sample
frame. A total of 400 students have been invited
to participate in the survey.
3.1 Sample and Data Collection
Data was collected from college students enrolled
in two higher education institutes in Hong Kong,
namely the Caritas Institute of Higher Education
(CIHE) and the Caritas Bianchi College of
Careers (CBCC). A total of 167 students
responded to the web-based survey. Of those,
five incomplete responses were identified and
deleted during data pre-screening. The sample
screening procedure resulted in a final sample of
162 college students, representing 97% of the
167 survey respondents, who enrolled in the
institutes above and had experience of using
online hotel booking services from any of the
online hotel booking intermediaries. Most
respondents were young adults aged 18 to 25.
Among the samples, 67 (41.4%) of the
respondents were male while 95 (58.6%) of the
respondents were female.
3.2 Measurement
The measuring instrument for the perceived
service quality was mainly adopted from
constructs in previous studies. The proposed
model was evaluated using multiple item
measures. All measures were modified to reflect
the context of online hotel booking services.
Among the seven dimensions of e-service quality
in the proposed conceptual framework, web
design, responsiveness, reliability and enjoyment
were adopted from the study of Bauer et al. [16],
ease of use and security were adopted from the
study of Yang et al. [9], while customization was
adopted from the study of Srinivasan, Anderson
and Ponnavolu [32]. Lastly, the overall e-service
quality was measured by two items, as proposed
by Yang et al. [9]. All items were evaluated using
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Chow; AJEBA, 3(4): 1-13, 2017; Article no.AJEBA.35353
a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly
disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).
Data were collected by survey questionnaire
posted on a public survey website. A designated
home page for online survey served to gather
responses through an online system, which
provided more convenience to the participants
and the researcher. With consideration of privacy,
anonymous survey was used, and no private or
sensitive information have been collected.
Invitation e-mail with a link to the online survey
site located at the end of a participant information
statement was sent to students in two institutes.
A total of 400 invitations were sent to students
throughout the period from February to June,
2017. The 40-item questionnaire consisted of two
sections. The first section collected general
demographic information of the subjects including
gender, age, disciplines of study, internet usage
intensity and desired hotel booking website, while
the second section collected the user perception
in seven quality dimensions and the overall
service quality.
The measuring instrument for perceived service
quality was adopted from prior studies, some
minor modifications have been made to fit the
context of hotel booking services. The first four
dimensions were adopted from the measurement
proposed by Bauer et al. [16] with modifications
from Kim et al. [13]. The web design dimension
comprised seven items, it incorporated clarity of
the website, professional design, visual appeal,
efficiency of navigation, accessibility of relevant
content, relevance of information, and timeliness
of information of the online hotel booking web
sites. The responsiveness dimension comprised
four items, it incorporated availability of
alternative communication channels, return policy,
availability of service personnel, and promptness
of reactions to requests. The reliability dimension
adopted five out of eight items from Kim et al. [13],
it incorporated transaction accuracy, order
processing efficiency, transaction processing time,
website response time, and breadth of product
range. Two items related to data security and one
item not applicable to hotel booking agency were
removed. The enjoyment dimension adopted
three of the four items, it incorporated the
offerings of entertainment, fun, and excitement
when shopping online in the website, while item
concerning personalization was excluded here.
The next two dimensions were adopted from
Yang et al. [9]. The ease of use dimension
comprised five items, it referred to ease of

operation, ease of completing a transaction,
minimal effort required to navigate the website,
ease to log on account, and no traffic jam
encountered in information searching. The
security dimension comprised four items, it
measured how well the provider safeguarding the
customer information and enforcing a safety
transaction. The customization dimensions
comprised five items adopted from the study of
Srinivasan et al. [32], it referred to the degree to
which information or service is made to meet the
needs of the individual visitor. Finally, the overall
service quality comprised two items adopted from
Yang et al. [9], which measured the excellence of
the online agency and how good it met the
customer expectations.
Throughout the questionnaire, 5-point Likert scale
was used to represent the responses, with “5”
representing “Strongly agree”, “1” representing
“Strongly disagree”, and “3” representing
“Undecided”. Measures of major dimensions are
shown in Appendix-A.
A pre-test of the questionnaire was conducted to
assess the content validity of the measurement
scales. After reviewing by two academics who
specialize in service marketing and e-commerce,
some items were reworded, added or deleted
based on their feedbacks. In addition, the
instrument has been piloted in a group of 12
students to assure reliability and validity. The link
of questionnaire was forwarded through e-mail to
the users. The e-mail outlined the purposes of
this study and requested the participants to
answer, review and critique the attached
questionnaire. A total of 10 respondents replied
with useful suggestions. Minor corrections, mainly
on wordings of the questions in questionnaire,
have been made to improve clarity. Based on
their feedbacks, the questionnaire was further
revised and finalized. Appendix A illustrates all
the scale items used in the survey questionnaire.
3.3 Data Analysis
In the data analysis stage, IBM SPSS 24
package was used. Collected responses were
prepared for the following analyses. Firstly,
descriptive statistics were used to understand
characteristics of respondents. Secondly,
composite reliability test and multicollinearity test
were used to justify suitability of data. Throughout
the process, correlation analysis and regression
analysis were used to examine the relationships
between the seven service quality dimensions
and the overall e-service quality.
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4. RESULTS
Results are presented in three sections. The first
section provides descriptive statistics about the
characteristics of the respondents. The second
section looks into the results of reliability and
multicollinearity tests. The third section reports
the results of correlation analysis and regression
analysis between each of the service quality
dimensions and the overall e-service quality.
4.1 Descriptive Statistics about
Respondents
Among the 400 invitations sent out from February
2017 to June 2017, 167 responses were received.
The response rate was 41%. During data
preparation, five responses with more than half of
the entries empty were considered invalid. Finally,
there were 162 valid responses to be used for the
analysis.
Descriptive statistics were used to review the
socio-demographic characteristics of the
respondents. There were totally 162 valid
responses collected from the two institutes
participated in the present study. As shown in
Table 1, 67 (41.4%) of respondents were male
while 95 (58.6%) of them were female. Most of
them were in the age group of 18-20 (42.6%),
followed by the group of 21-23 (26.5%), and
then 24-26 (15.4%). Regarding internet usage
intensity, most of them spent more than 20 hours
a day (35.8%) on internet, while the other groups
distributed evenly between 15% and 16%. The
respondents came from different disciplines. Most
of the respondents were studying Nursing
(30.2%), followed by Business Administration
(25.4%) and Social Sciences (17.3%). Regarding
online hotel booking websites, most of them used
Expedia.com (22.8%), then Trivago.com (19.8%),
Agoda.com (14.8%), Hotel.com (13.6%), and
Booking.com (8.0%). Apart from that, there were
21% of respondents using other online booking
websites.
4.2 Composite Reliability Testing
The scales of variables used in the present study
were adopted from or modified scales of prior
studies. Since modification was involved, the
reliability of the scales might be affected.
Therefore reliability tests have been conducted to
ensure good reliability among the scales.
Findings of the reliability test as shown in Table 2
indicate that scales were reliable with Cronbach’s
alpha coefficients ranging from .705 to .846. As
 Chow; AJEBA, 3(4): 1-13, 2017; Article no.AJEBA.35353

Table 1. Respondent demographics

Demographics Response Frequency Percentage (%)

Gender Male 67 41.4
Female 95 58.6
Total 162 100
Missing 0 0
Age 18-20 69 42.6
21-23 43 26.5
24-26 25 15.4
27-29 13 8.0
30 or above 12 7.4
Total 162 100
Missing 0 0
Internet Usage Intensity Less than five hours 27 16.7
6-10 hours 26 16.0
11-15 hours 26 16.0
16-20 hours 25 15.4
More than 20 hours 58 35.8
Total 162 100
Mission 0 0
Discipline of Study Business Administration 41 25.4
Hospitality Management 13 8.0
Pharmaceutical Dispensing 26 16.0
Social Sciences 28 17.3
Nursing 49 30.2
Others 5 3.1
Total 162 100
Missing 0 0
Used Agoda.com 24 14.8
Website Booking.com 13 8.0
Expedia.com 37 22.8
Hotels.com 22 13.6
Trivago.com 32 19.8
Others 34 21.0
Total 162 100
Missing 0 0

all of the Cronbach’s alpha values were greater 4.3 Multicollinearity

than .700, it indicates that the variable items were
measuring the same concept in the construct. In addition, variance inflation factor (VIF) and
condition index (CI) were used for
Table 2. Reliability of key variables multicollinearity detection among the key
variables. Results in Table 3 show that they fell in
Variables No. of Cronbach’s the range between 1.776 and 2.796, and they
items alpha were all below the value of 3.0, indicating that the
Web Design 7 .795 multicollinearity problem was insignificant. Apart
Responsiveness 4 .776 from VIFs, CI was also used for detecting
Reliability 5 .780 multicollinearity. In general, CI greater than 30 is
Enjoyment 3 .705 considered to be indicative of multicollinearity.
Ease of Use 5 .748 Results in Table 4 show that the condition index
Security 4 .846 rose up to 23.67 only, which aligned with the
Customization 5 .750 findings that the effect of multicollinearity was not
e-Service Quality 2 .769 significant.

8
 Chow; AJEBA, 3(4): 1-13, 2017; Article no.AJEBA.35353

Table 3. Variances inflation factors among the among key variables are summarised in the
variables correlation matrix. It revealed that no variables
were highly inter-correlated. The correlation
Variables Collinearity statistics between reliability and ease of use was the
Tolerance VIF
highest, r(160) = .756, p < .001. The second one
Web Design .459 2.180 was the correlation between web design and
Responsiveness .563 1.776
reliability, r(159) = .669, p < .001. The other
Reliability .367 2.727
correlation values were comparatively low,
Enjoyment .528 1.893
Ease of Use .358 2.796 ranging from .413 to .658.
Security .535 1.869
Customization .445 2.249 4.5 Multiple Regression Analysis
Table 4. Condition index of the variables To address the research questions, regression
Dimension Eigenvalue Condition index analysis was used to examine the seven major
1 7.808 1.000 hypotheses in this study. Regression analysis
2 .046 13.029 was used to examine the associations of each of
3 .037 14.597 the seven dimensions about online hotel booking
4 .032 15.715 websites with overall e-service quality. Missing
5 .030 16.131 values were handled by the “exclude cases
6 .018 20.564 pairwise” option, which computed for correlation
7 .016 22.368 only if there were complete data for the pair of
8 .014 23.670 constructs.
4.4 Correlation Analysis Table 6 presents the results of multiple
Pearson correlation between these two sets of regression analysis with seven factors
scores was used to assess the relation between simultaneously. Among the seven factors, only
them. The higher the value of the correlation web design (B = .291, p = .002) and
coefficient, the more consistent is the measure. Customization (B = .366, p < .001) were
Table 5 calculates the discriminant validity of significant while the other factors became
seven factors. Based on Kline [33], the nonsignificant. It was also found that 54.8% of
correlation between each factor should not variation of e-service quality could be explained
exceed 0.85. Results show that the construct of by the variations of these factors, R2 = .548, F(7,
these factors are not highly correlated. Relations 151) = 26.152.

Table 5. Correlations among variables and E-service quality

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 Web Design --
2 Responsiveness .526** --
3 Reliability .669** .512** --
4 Enjoyment .536** .502** .552** --
5 Ease of Use .652** .451** .756** .570** --
6 Security .413** .533** .434** .487** .485** --
7 Customization .558** .433** .560** .594** .612** .600** --
8 e-Service Quality .606** .466** .563** .442** .566** .525** .658** --

Table 6. Multiple regression of seven variables to E-service quality

Variables Unstandardised coefficients Std. Coeff t-values Sig.
B SE(B) β
Constant .060 .164 .384 .716
Web Design .291 .094 .251 3.104 .002
Responsiveness .063 .063 .073 1.003 .317
Reliability .115 .097 .107 1.181 .240
Enjoyment -.085 .063 -.102 -1.355 .177
Ease of Use .058 .092 .057 .623 .524
Security .093 .052 .134 1.793 .075
Customization .366 .081 .372 4.529 < .001
Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, *** p < .001, Dependent variable: e-Service Quality, R2 = .548; Adj R2 = .527

9

5. DISCUSSION
The main objective of this paper is to analyse
critical factors influencing perception of e-service
quality of online hotel booking intermediaries. It
has sought to examine the influences of web
design, responsiveness, reliability, enjoyment,
ease of use, security, and customization towards
perception of e-service quality to online hotel
booking intermediaries.
College students were selected as the subject for
this study because they are the largest segment
in e-business. A total of 162 valid responses were
collected from students in two higher education
institutes. In term of gender, there were slightly
more female respondents than the male ones.
That might be due to the fact that female were
more likely to participate than male [34].
Nevertheless, it aligned with the gender
proportion in the higher education population in
Hong Kong as denoted in Hong Kong Monthly
Digest of Statistics, 2014 [35]. Moreover, samples
were evenly distributed among different
disciplines of studies, while most of them fell in
the age group of 18 to 20 and more than half of
them were heavy internet users.
Based on multiple regression analysis, it was
found that web design and customization
significantly predict e-service quality.
Responsiveness, reliability, enjoyment, ease of
use and security were nonsignificant as
predictors of e-service quality in the presence of
web design and customization. Possibly, web
design and customization have stronger or more
direct effects, while responsiveness, reliability,
enjoyment, ease of use and security have weaker
or indirect effects in predicting e-service quality.
In order to compete effectively in the vigorous
market, online hotel booking intermediaries need
to be properly constructed. As suggested by the
results, one key factor to be considered is web
design. To a certain extent, it also relays the
effects of high reliability, sense of enjoyment,
ease of use, and high security to the result of e-
service quality. Possibly, customization may
serve to bring fast responsiveness and security in
user operations. With resources or technical
constraints taken into consideration, managers
and policy makers may allocate more resources
on enhancing e-service quality through better
web design and customization for customers.
This study unveiled the importance of web design
and customization in the contribution to e-service
10
Chow; AJEBA, 3(4): 1-13, 2017; Article no.AJEBA.35353
quality. In e-commerce, website serves as a
direct interface to customers, web design may
enhance the perception of reliability and
enjoyment offered by an agency. Taking the role
of intermediary, online hotel booking agencies
can hardly surpass their competitors through
product differentiation, they offer similar, if not
exactly the same, products to customers. Instead,
they need to attract or retain customers by other
effective means. Customization is probably one
of the ways that online hotel booking agencies
can offer customers the benefits through ease of
use and security.
6. LIMITATIONS
There are several limitations in this study. This
research attempted to measure the attitudinal
beliefs of college students in using online hotel
booking intermediary websites. The sampling
frame was restricted to a demographically
younger and educated population, the results
might not be generalized to the population of
general online consumers. In addition, this study
had geographical limitation that the data was
collected from two institutes in Hong Kong only.
Thus, it is believed that further research with a
broader and demographically heterogeneous
sample is a worthwhile extension of this study. In
addition, further research may look into the
mediating relationships among the factors so as
to capture a deeper understanding about how e-
service quality is affected.
7. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
7.1 Conclusion
This study addressed the critical issue about
what key factors influencing e-service quality and
provided a better understanding for the influences
of different dimensions of services offered by
online hotel booking agencies. As summarized in
Table 7, web design and customization are
significant predictors to the overall perception of
e-service quality.
Firstly, good web design goes hand in hand with
good user interface. Good website design also
facilitates users in accessing the features and
services. Thus, it affects how users perceive
service quality provided by websites. Secondly,
customization was also found to be a significant
factor to the overall perception of e-service
quality. Under the highly competitive environment,
online companies are competing for products and
services. Organizations providing differentiated

Table 7. Summary of hypothesis testing
Hypotheses Relations
H1 Web Design and e-Service Quality
H2 Responsiveness and e-Service Quality
H3 Reliability and e-Service Quality
H4 Enjoyment and e-Service Quality
H5 Ease of Use and e-Service Quality
H6 Security and e-Service Quality
H7 Customization and e-Service Quality
services are definitely taking advantages to their 2.
rivals. Customization is one of the features that
distinguish one service provider from the others.
Well-developed customization features are more
likely to retain customers and enhance customer 3.
loyalty.
7.2 Implications
This study has practical implications to online 4.
hotel booking intermediaries on how to
enhance their e-services quality. The findings
confirm the results of several previous
researches [13,16,18] in the web design 5.
dimension. Hotel booking intermediaries need to
have deeper understanding about their industrial
characteristics so as to improve their service
quality and enhance their competitive advantage. 6.
This study extends the measurement scales from
general service quality to e-service quality for
online hotel booking websites. Online hotel
7.
booking companies can concentrate their
resources to these identified dimensions, in
particularly through web design and
customization, to achieve the desired level of e-
service quality. These findings help mangers and
8.
marketers focus their resources on areas that
have greatest impact on their customer
perceptions about the e-service quality. As the
customers of online hotel booking proliferate,
9.
understanding how the key factors influence the
perceptions of their customers toward e-service
quality help online hotel booking intermediaries
enhance their levels of services in attracting and
retaining customers.
10.
COMPETING INTERESTS
Author has declared that no competing interests
exist.
11.
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APPENDIX A

Constructions and measurement items

Construct Measurement items

Web design The information at this website is clearly presented.
The content at this website is well designed.
The content at this website is visually appealing.
I can easily navigate the content at this website.
This website provides access to relevant information.
The information presented at this website is relevant.
The information presented at this site is current.
Responsiveness This website offers visitors the opportunity to connect to an online
representative for a live chat session.
This website responds promptly to inquiries.
This website provides alternate channels of communication.
This website provides simplistic procedures for returning visitors.
Responsibility Transactions are accurately processed at this website.
Order processing at this website is handled efficiently.
Transaction processing time at this website is impressive.
Website response time is reasonable.
There is a variety of hotel room types available at this website.
Enjoyment The content at this website is entertaining.
The content at this website is fun.
I get excited when I successfully make an online hotel reservation.
Ease of Use The organization and structure of online content is easy to follow.
It is easy for me to complete a transaction through the website.
Using the website does not require a lot of effort.
I can easily log on to my account.
I don’t encounter online jam in searching for information.
Security The company will not misuse my personal information.
I feel safe in my online transactions.
I feel secure in providing sensitive information (e.g. credit card number) for
online transactions.
I feel the risk associated with online transactions is low.
Customization This website makes purchase recommendations that match my needs.
This website enables me to order products that are tailor-made for me.
The advertisements and promotions that this website sends to me are tailored
to my situation.
This website makes me feel that I am a unique customer.
I believe that this website is customized to my needs.
E-service quality Overall, the service quality of the online agency is excellent.
Overall, the online agency comes up to my expectations of what makes a good
hotel agent.
_________________________________________________________________________________
© 2017 Chow; This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

Peer-review history:
The peer review history for this paper can be accessed here:
http://sciencedomain.org/review-history/20262

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