Blockchain Technologies' Influence on Hotel Bookings
Date: April 22nd 2019 Author(s) Marie Luise Krietemeyer Degree programme Degree Programme in Hospitality, Tourism and Experience Management Report/thesis title Blockchain Technologies' Influence on Hotel Bookings Number of pages and appendix pages 55 6 This research based thesis is aimed to get an understanding of the topic of blockchain hotel bookings platforms and their impact on the hotel booking environment in the eyes of professionals that work in channel management or related area of work. It is claimed by literature that blockchain booking platforms can replace intermediaries, especially Online Travel Agencies, by offering a similar booking environment without charging commission fees. However, it is often suggested that there is little to no space for new players in the online booking market. Therefore, the theoretical framework was designed based on the research question: Can blockchain technology remove intermediaries from the hotel booking process? The thesis firstly informs the reader about blockchain technology, the current booking market as well as the diffusion of innovation theory. This was relevant since all three topics are either touched on in the interview questions or they are used to discuss the research topic later on in the thesis. To research this subject, the qualitative research method was chosen and 11 semi structured interviews with hotel channel professionals in different European countries and Jordan were conducted. This method was chosen to gain an insight from different angles. This also allowed the researcher to generalize the findings in the results and discussion section. The research and writing of this paper took place between December 2018 and April 2019. The research came to the result that while blockchain hotel booking platforms could reduce commission fee payments for hotels significantly, it is unlikely that they will disrupt the hotel booking market soon since current players are too dominant. Especially OTAs and their parental firms exercises a lot of power over new players entering the market an may even buy up emerging new platforms. None the less, it should not be overseen that saving on commission costs would be a big benefit for hotels since as of today hotels are strongly affected by commission costs.