The effects of choice set size and information filtering mechanisms on online hotel booking

Abstract

Online booking is one of the most popular ways of making reservations for hotel guests. Thus, hoteliers are paying increasing attention to hotel website information presentation and design. The purpose of this study, then, is to examine the joint influence of choice set size and information filtering mechanisms on consumers’ decision confidence towards online hotel booking. Choice set size was operationalized through 3-, 9-, and 30-hotel room choice sets. Through experimental design, this study shows that the presence of an information filtering mechanism reduces consumers’ perceptions of choice overload with a large number of choices (30 choices), whereas its impact is attenuated with smaller choice sets (3 and 9 choices). In addition, choice overload mediates the impact of choice set size on decision confidence. Theoretical contribution and managerial implications are also discussed.