CONTENT ANALYSIS OF HOTEL WEBSITES: CASE STUDY OF CROATIA

In the competitive hotel industry the content of hotel websites has an important role in achieving and maintaining business success and profitability. The purpose of this study is to analyze the websites of a selected group of hotels (three, four and five star) by applying content analysis by six dimensions (contact information, information about facilities, reservations and the surrounding area, as well as communication with customers and web-site functionality) and 22 characteristics. The aims of this study are: (1) theoretically explore the term of content analysis, (2) evaluate hotel websites in Croatia by applying Content analysis, (3) present the results of the descriptive statistical analysis, (4) comparative analysis of ranks by dimensions. Content analysis was used to evaluate hotel website characteristics. The content model was obtained and modified from an extensive literature review (Baloglu and Pekcan, 2006; Chung and Law, 2003; Schmidt et al., 2008). In order to achieve the goal of obtaining a structured list of criteria, descriptive statistical analyses were performed. It is particularly noteworthy that 90% of all three hotel categories have their own website. The findings of the comparative analysis indicate that hotels primarily focus on “Facility & Contact Information”. Hotels are not enough focused on “Communication with Customers” which represents the main factor in their business. This study is particularly aimed at hotel managers and researchers wishing to use it as a foundation for the further development of their hotel websites’ content.