Where in the world versus what’s on the web: an examination of web- based locational information for selected firms in the hospitality sector

Abstract

Transactions between hospitality service providers and their customers are often facilitated by locational information obtained from web-based, map-serving business directories. This article reports the results of an examination of web-based locational information for a convenience sample of small hospitality service providers. To illustrate the transaction-jeopardizing potential of locational mis- information, the article juxtaposes assessments of the ‘importance of place’ with the state of web-based locational information for four of the service providers in the larger sample. Results suggest that directory-provided locational information often mis-informs and potentially mis-directs prospective customers.