Does personalization trigger privacy concerns? The moderating role of hotel brand perception

While personalization has become increasingly prevalent in the hospitality industry, its potential impact on privacy concerns remains a critical yet underexplored issue. This study investigates the conditions under which personalization affects customers’ privacy concerns and subsequent behaviors. Drawing on the communication privacy management theory, we conducted a mixed-method study comprising semistructured interviews with 15 participants to explore contextual factors influencing privacy concerns, followed by a two (personalization: personalized service vs. nonpersonalized service) by two (brand perception: warmth vs. competence) between-subjects experiment with 253 participants. The results reveal that while personalization alone does not directly trigger privacy concerns, its effect is significantly moderated by brand perception. Specifically, personalization increases privacy concerns and reduces customers’ willingness to pay and booking intention only when a hotel is perceived as warm rather than competent. This study extends communication privacy management theory to the hospitality context and provides practical insights for hotels to better balance personalization and privacy protection based on their brand perception.