Hotel Website Quality Versus Star Level: The Case of Macau Hotel Websites

How can Macau’s hotels keep pace with consumer expectations? This study incorporates fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) into a functionality assessment of Macau hotel websites. Research participants were asked to rate the importance of website functionality attributes, and rate the functionality of the websites in terms of how well they presented these attributes, by means of linguistic terms. An overall percentage score was then assigned to the hotels, allowing them to be ranked in order of website performance. Although hotels with the highest star ratings (5 star deluxe) received the highest average scores for their websites, the website performance of hotels ranging from budget accommodation to 5 star did not consistently reflect their star rating. The variations are attributed to such factors as a superfluity of information (wherein the most desired features are not sufficiently accessible), a lack of interactive features, and the hotel’s mismanagement of online feedback, including an unawareness of perceptions posted on independent, user-review sites. The research findings represent a preliminary attempt to assess the interactivity of Macau hotel websites in light of consumer preferences and a web 2.0 design format.