Online visibility as a source of competitive advantage for small- and medium-sized tourism accommodation enterprises

This study examines the importance of the Internet as a distribution channel for medium-sized and small accommodation enterprises, identifying the characteristics that could make the Internet a source of competitive advantage. From the resource-based view, online visibility is considered a differentiating factor in the accommodation business, able to produce superior organisational performance through the capture of new clients and by increasing the occupancy rate. The hypotheses are evaluated using regression models with data from small- and medium-sized hotels in Spain available in the public database SABI. The results show a positive effect of online visibility on organisational performance, although explaining only 10% of performance variance. However, online visibility is a determinant for the percentage of reservations made via the Internet.