The role of regulatory focus disposition and trust in hotel booking decisions across different online review websites

Purposes This study aims to examine how customers’ regulatory focus disposition (RFD) and attitudes toward online review websites (ORWs) influence multi-dimensional trust beliefs (ability, benevolence, integrity and informativeness) and hotel booking intention. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted among users of transaction-based (Expedia) and community-based (TripAdvisor) ORWs. Partial least squares (PLS)-structural equation modeling with multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA) was used to assess how RFD and ORW attitudes influence trust and booking intention across platform types. Findings Promotion-oriented RFD positively influenced attitudes and all trust belief dimensions, whereas prevention-oriented RFD showed limited effects. Benevolence, integrity and informativeness significantly predicted booking intention, while ability was not significant. PLS-MGA results showed that prevention-oriented RFD had no significant effects across platforms. In contrast, promotion-oriented RFD effects varied, with a significant relationship with booking intention in community-based ORWs and stronger informativeness effects in transaction-based ORWs. Attitudes strengthened trust, particularly among community-based ORW users. Originality/value This study extends regulatory focus theory by showing that RFD shapes multidimensional trust beliefs and booking intention in ORWs as a stable individual difference. It advances ORW research by distinguishing between community- and transaction-based platforms, demonstrating that platform architecture structures trust formation and the translation of motivation into behavioral intention. It further shows that these relationships vary across platform types, highlighting that online travel decision-making is jointly shaped by individual motivation and platform context.