Hotel Mobile Apps as a Marketing Tool: The Case of Five-Star Hotels in Crete

Abstract

The huge increase in the use of smartphones and other mobile devices has created new marketing opportunities for tourism businesses and organizations. The aim of this chapter is, focusing on the island of Crete as a case study, to examine the extent to which 5-star hotels have developed applications for mobile devices, as well as the characteristics and the degree of use of these applications. In order to achieve this aim, two research approaches were adopted. Initially, 33 five-star hotel mobile applications were analyzed in terms of their content and characteristics. Subsequently, 10 semi-structured in-depth interviews with hotel managers were conducted. The results showed that these applications offer a variety of features to their users, while the main reason for their development is interactive communication with customers in an innovative way. It is also confirmed that in the post-COVID-19 era, the trend for contactless transactions is increasing, so applications will be more accepted and used by customers.