Brand consciousness as a mediator of hotel choice in digital India: A life-stage view

This study tests brand consciousness as a mediating mechanism linking digital information and consumer awareness to hotel selection decision in India’s metropolitan market. What is new is the combination: a brand-consciousness mediation model placed in a digitally driven, emerging-market hotel setting and examined across life-stage segments. Drawing on consumer decision-making theory, brand equity theory, and the Information Adoption Model, a cross-sectional survey collected 844 valid responses from guests at 18 three-star hotels across six major Indian cities - Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test direct, mediating, and demographic moderating effects. Results reveal that digital information exerts the strongest influence on the hotel selection decision (β = 0.326), followed by price (β = 0.236), awareness (β = 0.150), brand consciousness (β = 0.135), and variety-seeking (β = 0.121). Critically, brand consciousness partially mediates both the awareness–decision-making and digital information–decision-making relationships, revealing that peer-generated online content shapes not only the selection decision directly but also the attitudinal orientations through which travelers evaluate accommodation options. Multi-group analysis further demonstrates that younger and unmarried travelers rely more heavily on digital information to form brand perceptions, while older and married travelers prioritize brand recognition. These findings offer actionable guidance for hotel managers navigating India's rapidly growing and digitally transformed hospitality sector.