E‐CRM: customer relationship marketing in the hotel industry

Abstract

Explores the degree to which UK based hotel groups had exploited the medium of electronic customer relationship marketing (E‐CRM). Research is incorporated that investigated their use of the Internet to verify whether customer relationship marketing was being implemented within online operations or whether their Internet presence merely revolved around the basic functions of “providing information” and “hotel reservations”. The findings and subsequent discussion showed that on the Internet, hotel groups used their relationship with customers to provide rather than gather information. The majority of the hotel groups had only embraced a few elements of E‐CRM and even indicated that they had no intention of being led online by the concept. Although the findings of the questionnaire indicated that hotel groups were generally aware of the potential of Web technologies and strategies, they also showed that companies were not putting this knowledge into practice when it came to implementing E‐CRM. Primary research concluded that hotel groups based in the UK were failing to take advantage of the many opportunities identified through the secondary research.

Citation

Luck, D. and Lancaster, G. (2003), "E‐CRM: customer relationship marketing in the hotel industry", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 213-231. https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900310469961