Evaluating the Impact of App Quality, Product Attributes, and Customer Relationships on Hotel-Booking App Purchases: Insights from Malaysian Users

Traditional hotel bookings have declined due to changes in travel patterns and evolving consumer preferences. Understanding factors driving the surge in booking-app usage is crucial for hotel businesses to adapt and capitalise on the growing demand for digital booking platforms. This study investigates the factors influencing consumer purchase decisions on these apps, utilising an online questionnaire as a primary method of data collection, which conveniently inviting Malaysian hotel-app users to respond. The findings indicate that app quality, product-related attributes, and customer relationships significantly impact customer purchase decisions. Inferentially, Consumer-Relationship Factor (CRF) shows a medium, positive correlation, indicating that Malaysians highly value customer relationships and past experiences within the app, which have significantly impacted their purchase decisions. Simultaneously, this study also indicates a strong influence of customer relationships on hotel-booking app usage. Hence, the study may suggest that hotel operators enhance customer relationships by conducting satisfaction surveys, providing employee training, and utilising customer-relationship management tools to foster business growth. This is because prioritising customer relationships can lead to increased loyalty, repeat business, and positive reviews, which contribute to success in the hospitality industry.