Food Delivery Applications Becoming Alligator of Hotel Supply Chain: An Empirical Analysis

Purpose: Online-To-Offline Food Delivery Services (O2O-FDS) is a new element in hotel supply chain that digitalizes traditional food delivery practices using new technologies. Targeting hotel guests, the present research is to explore the role of trust in the relationship between food delivery app on loyalty, price efficiency, and convenience. This new perspective is an essential value addition in the field of hotel marketing in relation to O2O-FDS. Research design, data and methodology: The present research conducted the mediator variable regression analysis as a main statistical methodology to identify the connections between three main constructs using total 244 South Korean participants that were recruited from the professional research company in Korea. Results: The statistical findings based on three steps of mediator regression approach strongly indicate that the trust of food delivery app in the hotel sector plays a moderating role in the relationship between price efficiency and convenience of food delivery app and customer loyalty of food delivery app in the hotel business. Conclusions: This research concludes that hotel practitioners must strive to provide adequate information on food delivery applications in order to increase price efficiency and convenience relative to traditional food and beverage services, influencing consumer trust in food delivery technology.