An experience-based taxonomy of branded hotel mobile application features

Increasing ownership of smartphones and availability of mobile travel solutions have driven the hotel industry to respond with creating mobile applications (apps). Research on mobile applications in the hotel context is relatively limited and a theory-based taxonomy related to hotel mobile application features is lacking. Taxonomies of hotel app features can provide a framework to comparatively analyze features and identify important gaps. This study examined the features available in a sample of 24 North American branded hotel mobile applications. The taxonomy developed in this research identifies 11 hotel app feature categories mapped onto four levels of technology integration and experience co-creation. The taxonomy provides insight into the current and future development of features and demonstrates opportunities where hotels can differentiate their guest service. It also highlights potential difficulties in implementing higher-level features and draws attention to differences in feature implementation across the family brand, brand and hotel property-levels.