This study aims to systematically review research on consumer perceived fairness in dynamic pricing (DP) within the hospitality industry. While revenue management (RM) research has predominantly emphasized financial optimization, comparatively less attention has been devoted to clarifying how consumers form fairness perceptions and how these judgments shape relational and behavioral responses. Addressing this imbalance, the review synthesizes fragmented evidence and advances an attribution-informed model of fairness perception formation in DP contexts.
Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic review of peer-reviewed journal articles was conducted. DP was conceptualized broadly to include algorithmic and managerial price adjustments based on demand fluctuations, booking timing, customer segmentation and distribution channels. The final corpus was examined through structured thematic synthesis to identify dominant theoretical foundations, recurring empirical patterns and conceptual inconsistencies in construct positioning.
The review reveals that fairness perceptions under DP are formed through the interaction of individual interpretive predispositions, contextual and communicational pricing cues and attributional reasoning processes. Perceived fairness emerges as a structured evaluative judgment that occupies a distinct position within the consumer response sequence, mediating the relationship between pricing practices and subsequent marketplace responses such as trust, satisfaction, booking intentions and loyalty. Transparency and justificatory framing mitigate adverse reactions, whereas opaque or highly personalized pricing intensifies legitimacy, moral and privacy concerns. Despite growing scholarly attention, the field remains theoretically fragmented, with fairness inconsistently positioned across empirical models and frequently conflated with its behavioral consequences, while methodological approaches remain heavily dominated by experimental designs.
This study provides the first systematic synthesis specifically examining perceived fairness in hospitality DP. By integrating fragmented research streams into an attribution-informed process model that clarifies how fairness perceptions are formed and positioned within broader consumer response sequences, the review strengthens cumulative theory building in consumer-centered RM research.
