Understanding Digital Purchase Behaviour in Hospitality: Comparative Insights from Black Friday Sales Across Multiple Channels

The rapid digital transformation of the tourism sector has significantly altered the ways in which travellers search for information, compare alternatives and ultimately purchase accommodation or travel packages. In recent years, hotel-owned platforms, online travel agencies and digital marketplaces have become integral components of the consumer decision-making process, offering enhanced transparency, broad visibility and personalised promotional opportunities. Within this digitalised landscape, large-scale commercial events such as Black Friday play a strategic role for hospitality businesses by generating concentrated sales peaks and revealing distinct behavioural tendencies. The present study analyses purchasing data from the Black Friday campaigns of 2024 and 2025 for a four-hotel resort, covering both traditional and digital distribution channels. The comparative perspective allows the identification of emerging behavioural shifts, changes in channel effectiveness and variations in the average value of purchased packages. These insights contribute to understanding how digital ecosystems reshape demand patterns and how hotels can optimise their distribution and pricing strategies in an increasingly competitive digital environment.