Unpacking conflicting evaluations and ambivalence in online hotel booking: The moderating role of perceived enjoyment in user retention

Abstract

The online travel industry, particularly hotel booking platforms, operates in a highly competitive environment where user retention is crucial for reducing acquisition costs and ensuring long-term profitability. While ambivalence toward technology has been linked to unfavorable outcomes, its antecedents and associations with user retention in the context of online hotel booking platforms remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap by examining how key platform features—perceived security risk, effort, usefulness, and enjoyment—are associated with user ambivalence and retention. Using structural equation modeling with survey data from 387 participants, the findings reveal that perceived usefulness and enjoyment are negatively associated with ambivalence, whereas perceived effort and security risk are positively associated with it. Ambivalence, in turn, is negatively associated with user retention. Additionally, perceived enjoyment moderates this relationship by weakening the negative association between ambivalence and retention. Mediation analyses suggest that ambivalence partially mediates the relationships between perceived usefulness and enjoyment with retention, while fully mediating the associations between perceived effort and security risk with retention. These findings highlight the importance of addressing user ambivalence and provide actionable insights for enhancing user retention. Strategies such as improving enjoyable features and addressing perceived effort and security concerns may contribute to increased engagement and competitiveness in online hotel booking platforms.