Copy and Paste for Hotel Mobile Websites? Or: The Power of Screen Sizes

Abstract

The evolution of user experience and the growing popularity of mobile devices have changed the behaviour of today’s consumers. The hospitality industry faces several challenges adapting to these changes. By means of Responsive Website Design (RDW), the majority of website content has been tailored to different smart devices. Therefore, the aim of this exploratory study is to find out whether RWD is still considered a state-of-the art technology for hotel mobile websites in guaranteeing customer satisfaction. By means of a true experiment involving an eye-tracking study, think aloud protocols and semi-structured interviews, the findings of this research show that users navigating the same hotel website on different mobile devices exhibit great differences when it comes to usability and content perception. This implies that it is not sufficient to design only one website and adapt it through RWD but that there is a necessity to create variable website designs for variable devices.