Investigating User Experience of Websites of Luxury Hotel Brands: A Comparison between Chinese and American Consumers

This study investigates the differences between Chinese and American consumers in terms of their preferences of design factors of websites of luxury hotel brands, their user experiences of websites, and the relationship between these factors and user satisfaction and behavioral intention. Existing human-computer interaction studies have found the effects of design factors on user experience of websites, while researchers in the hospitality context have not studied this issue with a sophisticated approach from a consumer\u27s perspective. In addition, the differences between Chinese and American cultures should be acknowledged and investigated in a hotel website setting. An online conjoint analysis was conducted to test the differences between Chinese and American\u27s preferences of six existing websites that represent six unique combinations of design factors. The result confirms the relationship between design factor preferences, user experience, and satisfaction and behavioral intention. In addition, the result reveals both general trend and cross-national differences between Chinese and American groups. This study proposes a design protocol of websites of luxury hotel brands, and serves as the starting point for further investigation about a complete profile of hotel website design framework. The possibility of online cultural convergence in Generation Y, and the role of website design in integrated marketing communication of hotel brands are also discussed in this research