The Internet has been found a powerful tool bringing about many opportunities but also threats for nearly every industry. The new and complex variety of online distribution channels that have emerged in the last years poses a challenge for the tourism industry. Moreover, the ability of handling and choosing among them effectively has become a critical success factor for hotels. The distribution of services on online auction platforms, such as eBay, is already utilised professionally in the field of tourism. Low entry and exit barriers as well as low distribution costs are major incentives for using this distribution channel. Sales on a larger scale, however, entail increased administrative efforts. For this reason online auction tools have been developed with the aim of facilitating auction management for sellers. For this study 1,074 auctions of Austrian accommodation offers on eBay, being sold by 68 different hotels from all over Austria, have been analysed in order to identify the most important success factors for selling hotel offers via this distribution channel.

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