Daily deal distribution and local destination characteristics: Data-driven analysis of upmarket Italian hotel online sales practices

This paper examines hotels’ use of niche daily deal websites (flash sales) through the lens of external, destination characteristics, aiming to establish relationships between the two. Extant research indicates that both internal and external factors influence the decision-making processes of hotel businesses, yet, to date, this popular practice has been examined only from an internal business perspective. Using web scraping techniques, spatial and census data combined with quantitative analysis, the paper analyses 2741 niche daily deal offerings of 4-and 5-star Italian hotels against destination characteristics. The paper evidences the destination market structure impact on the conduct of hotels related to daily deal use. It shows that destination seasonality, economic tourist reliance, local competition and tourism demand are correlated with the volume and/or depth of discount of hotel offers featured via daily deal websites. This study contributes to the pricing research by empirically evidencing and comprehensively mapping a relationship between localised destination characteristics and hotel discounting behaviour.