The impact of positioning on click-through-rates in hotel metasearch engines

The recent arrival of the metasearch as a distribution channel within the hotel industry has the potential to provide hotels less dependency on online travel agencies. Metasearch engines display different reservation options for the same hotel in the same interface, which might include online travel agencies and the official hotel website, establishing an apparent level playing field. In this context, it remains unclear if there will be a presentation-order effect of the different options when price and cancellation policy are the same due to two reasons. First, hotels compete against popular and trustworthy online travel agencies. Second, the minimalist and functional design of metasearch platforms might help consumers differentiate among the options, possibly impacting the decision-making process. Accordingly, the present study aims at investigating the relationship between a hotel's site position and a higher click-through rate in a metasearch whilst competing directly and on the same page with a well-known online travel agency. To this end, an experiment was conducted in which participants had to finish the booking process for a given hotel on a major metasearch engine, where they could choose between the hotel's official site and a leading online travel agency. The main finding implies that occupying the top position increases the click-through rate for unknown hotels, whilst hotels associated with well-known chains are not subject to this effect.