Gender difference in restaurant online booking timing and the moderating effects of sell-out risk and information type

Abstract

This study investigates a rarely studied topic on gender difference in restaurant online booking timing, and the impact of sell-out risk and online review rating and review text on restaurant booking among males and females. The data were collected from Xiaomishu.com, a leading restaurant reservation website in China. A total of 719,812 reservations for 4,359 restaurants in Shanghai, China, were included in the analysis. The empirical results demonstrate that (1) females tend to make a restaurant booking further in advance than males, and this gender difference is more salient under the condition of high sell-out risk (i.e., big dining group size or weekend meals); (2) general review information (proxied by online average rating) and specific review information (proxied by online review texts) have a positive impact on restaurant online booking; (3) males are more likely to be affected by general review information, whereas females tend to pay more attention to specific review information. These findings shed light on gender differences in the timing of restaurant online booking and provide insights into restaurant booking policy.