Generic dimensionality of hospitality in the hotel industry: A host–guest relationship perspective

The main objectives of this study are to identify the generic facets of hospitality for hotel services irrespective of their star rating, as well as to determine the impact of generic dimensionality on guest satisfaction. The responses of 305 local and foreign hotel guests in a questionnaire survey were analysed using a Structural Equation Modelling technique. The generic facets of hotel hospitality were identified as personalisation, comfort, and warm welcoming. Of the three, only personalisation and warm welcoming contributed significantly to predicting guest satisfaction. This study is aimed at adding to the body of related literature by sharing new insights on how the generic dimensionality of hospitality in its entirety differs from that of upscale hotel hospitality.     

How to enhance hotel guests’ acceptance and experience of smart hotel technology: An examination of visiting intentions

Smart hotel is a novel concept in the hospitality industry, and few studies have examined hotel consumers’ intentions to visit smart hotels. This study investigates the relationship between technology readiness (TR) and technology amenities (TA) as antecedents to visiting intentions, using an extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Based on an online survey with 648 valid responses, the results indicate that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are correlated with TA, but not with TR. Furthermore, TR affects intentions to visit smart hotels, but TA does not. The findings enrich the hospitality literature and have practical implications for hospitality marketers designing technology-related marketing strategies to maintain competitiveness. This study contributes to raising awareness of the importance of technological amenities and services for the future visiting intentions of hotel consumers.     

Evaluation of hotel brand competitiveness based on hotel features ratings

Understanding the competitiveness of hotel brands is important for hotel managers to shape their brands and initiate effective marketing strategies and business developments. However, evaluating hotel brand competitiveness is challenging due to the complexity of information involved. A hotel brand often comprises many hotels with different performances. Hotel brands are also evaluated against multiple hotel features, thereby making the application of traditional evaluation techniques impractical. This paper introduces a novel technique for automatically evaluating the competitiveness of hotel brands based on probability distribution and earth mover’s distance. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method by conducting a case study that involves major hotel brands in Hong Kong. The proposed method can be applied in various contexts and can help researchers and managers evaluate the competitiveness of hotels as well as other branded products in the hospitality and tourism sectors.     

Impacts of peer-to-peer accommodation on the hotel industry: Hoteliers’ perspectives

The sharing economy is a new phenomenon that has considerable implications for traditional industries in general and the hospitality sector in particular. Although some recent studies have investigated the effects of sharing economy on the hotel industry, they primarily focused on quantifying its effects which are not exploratory for a phenomenon. This study attempts to achieve two research objectives. First, an exploratory qualitative method via a semi-structured in-depth interview is employed to investigate the impacts of P2P accommodation on the industry from hoteliers’ perspectives in China. Second, the current study provides valuable insights about traditional hotel marketing and operations. A social science perspective is proposed because prior hospitality research, merely in its commercial sense, fails to capture the essence of hospitality. Results indicate that P2P accommodation has effects on the hotel industry in terms of host–guest interactions, product offerings, staff empowerment, and platform collaboration. The study also suggests that the extent to which P2P accommodation impacts the hotel industry is different in terms of hotel star ratings and operating model. P2P accommodation and the hotel industry in China have a supplementary relationship. This study contributes to social studies of the hospitality literature by gaining insights from hotel senior management level. It also has great implications for the hotel marketing and management practices within the sharing context.     

Do regional factors matter? Determinants of hotel industry performance in China

The hotel industry is deeply embedded in local regional conditions, though the influence of regional factors is seldom investigated. Three key hotel industry metrics, Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR), Average Room Rate (ARR), and rooms rented, were examined for their determinants using ordinary least squares and negative binomial regression models on key endogenous and exogenous (regional) factors, including Destination Attractiveness and Capacity, Business and Commercial Environment, Image and Openness, and Tourism Professional Specialization. Using China as a case study, and at different hotel star designations (2- to 5-star hotels), the results show that RevPAR is determined mainly by labor quality and Tourism Professional Specialization. Particularly, regional factors significantly affect ARR and rooms rented. The influence and sophistication of regional factors increases with higher star designations. This paper highlights links between the hospitality industry and regional economic development, which should be considered by both the hotel industry and tourism policy makers.     

Zimbabwean hospitality students’ experiences of sexual harassment in the hotel industry

This study investigates the experiences of Zimbabwean hospitality management students in relation to sexual harassment. The students were asked to draw their responses from their industrial attachment year which is part of their four-year degree program. Guided interviews were conducted with 77 final year hospitality management students who had undertaken their industrial attachment in the hotel industry. Findings reveal that sexual harassment is not uncommon in Zimbabwean hotel workplaces. Coworkers, managers and customers were identified as perpetrators. The lack of sexual harassment training in the Zimbabwean hospitality, as well as the non-response of managers to some sexual harassment cases are possible indicators of the inadequacy, or complete lack of sexual harassment policies in Zimbabwe's hotel industry. The researcher suggests that human resource managers in the hotels should formulate, in consultation with Zimbabwean law and labour relations experts, sound sexual harassment policies. Continuous educational training for all employees and managers is also necessary to encourage more employees to report cases and to deter offenders.     

Macro and non-macro explanatory factors of Chinese hotel stock returns

This study investigates the link between macro and non-macro explanatory factors and Chinese hotel stock returns. Macro variables include growth rates of industrial production and imports, discount rates, yield spread and inflation rate. In addition, growth rate of total foreign tourist arrivals (ΔTA) was introduced as another critical macro factor that may affect Chinese hotel stock returns, considering a tremendous growth of tourism in China. Empirical results indicated that the impact of ΔTA was positive, but insignificant. Thus, Chinese hotel stock returns were more sensitive to general macro variables. Non-macro events that could significantly impact Chinese hotel stock returns encompass financial crises, natural disasters, wars, terrorist attacks, political events, and sports mega-events. Discussions and conclusions are provided to guide hospitality investors.     

Corporate brand strategy: Drivers and outcomes of hotel industry’s brand orientation

The MNC resellers are vastly competitive and capital-intensive. Based on the corporate brand orientation, the objective is to investigate how the individual dimensions of hotel industry’s brand orientation can improve a corporate experience and subsequently create superior hotel performance and retailer preferences. A model of the integration of the hotel industry’s brand orientation was tested in a survey conducted among MNC resellers from hospitality industry. Structural equation modelling was applied to gain insight into the various influences and relationships. The research makes two main contributions. It makes a theoretical contribution by classifying the integration of the hotel industry’s brand orientation for hospitality industry and from this extrapolate key suggestions for further study. The continuous evolution and economic influence of the hospitality industry require the application of innovative marketing practices.     

Measuring hotel performance: Using a balanced scorecard perspectives’ approach

This paper provides an examination of hotel performance research published in the seven leading hospitality and tourism journals from 1992 to 2011, through the lens of the balanced scorecard (BSC). The review seeks to answer three questions. What BSC perspectives are included in hotel performance research published in major hospitality and tourism journals? What are the trends and implications for future hotel performance research? What are the main geographical areas of publication outputs?Eleven hypotheses were tested using a database of 138 articles that fully met the key word selection criteria of hotel, BSC and performance. The results suggest hotel performance attracts widespread attention from hospitality scholars, but significant gaps remain. Researchers have recognised the benefits of including financial and non-financial indicators. Yet, more research is required in this area to offer hotel organisations better approaches to the management of their performance. We conclude by identifying three research gaps.     

Workforce diversity and hotel performance: A systematic review and synthesis of the international empirical evidence

The purpose of this study is to synthesize the international empirical evidence concerning the impacts of workforce diversity (as mediated by management and a number of other organizational and environmental factors) on hotel performance. To clarify the complexity in the studied relations, we develop a conceptual framework and consolidate the key (qualitative and quantitative) evidence, which we discuss in the context of the wider human resource management hospitality literature. The findings indicate that the aforementioned factors are often neglected and that workforce diversity unmediated by management can have negative impacts on hotel performance. On the basis of the critically reviewed evidence we conclude that staffing initiatives, and especially recruitment policies, have the widest reaching positive effects on hotel performance. Respective policy implications are provided cautioning the need for further research in most of the above areas.     

The effectiveness of managing social media on hotel performance

This paper investigates how managing online reviews affects hotel performance. An international hotel chain provided the hotel performance data and the online review data. A leading social media firm for the hospitality industry collected the online review data, which the hotel company purchased. The results indicate that overall ratings are the most salient predictor of hotel performance, followed by response to negative comments. The better the overall ratings and the higher the response rate to negative comments, the higher the hotel performance. Therefore, online reviews in social media, specifically overall rating and response to negative comments, should be managed as a critical part of hotel marketing.     

Constraints to attracting new hotel workers: A study on industrial recruitment

The global hospitality and tourism industry is not only burdened with high turnover rates but also may soon be in the throes of a labor shortage. As such, a better understanding of industry employment perceptions has become a critical issue for hospitality managers. Of particular concern are the perceptions of those potential employees that do not have prior employment experience in the hospitality industry. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to consider perceptions of hotel employment among the segment of the potential employee population that has no current or past experience working in hotels. Per the tenets of Constraint Theory, perceptions of pay, promotion opportunities, work-to-life conflict, and workplace-induced isolation are proposed to significantly affect potential employees’ attitudes toward hotel employment. In turn, these attitudes are proposed to affect both intention to apply for hotel work and the intention to recommend applying for hotel work to others.     

Discrimination of hotel employees: The role of heteronormativity and political exclusion

This study explores customers’ service evaluations based on the service provided by a hotel frontline employee with different sexualities, manipulated as effeminate or masculine. Study participants were randomly assigned to respond to a video with either an effeminate or masculine hotel employee that mimics a hotel check-in experience and after are asked to evaluate check-in service. The results suggest that participants who hold stronger heteronormative beliefs are more likely to discriminate against effeminate hotel employees when evaluating the service they provided. This effect persists for the social conservatism of the participants. The study also identified a joint effect of social conservatism and political exclusion. Without tapping into sexual orientation, this study contributes to the hospitality literature by introducing sexuality and heteronormativity and adds more content to queer studies. It also suggests the need for more protection policies, management awareness, and training regarding hotel frontline employees from a diversity management perspective.     

What are the key success factors for strategy formulation and implementation? Perspectives of managers in the hotel industry

This study investigates how hotel managers describe strategy and identify key success factors for its formulation and implementation. The study analyzes qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with property level top managers of hotels in Hong Kong. The findings show that hotel managers prioritize competition analysis and macro-environmental conditions over internal characteristics such as teamwork in strategy formulation. In the implementation phase, however, internal considerations such as employee involvement and strategic consensus are given prominence. This study provides a significant contribution by examining how top level practitioners in the industry interpret success factors in their strategic management efforts, and it highlights a largely neglected area in the hospitality and tourism management literature.     

Going beyond the curve: Strategic measures to recover hotel activity in times of COVID-19

Hospitality firms are facing unprecedented challenges on a global scale. The catastrophic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its multiple devastating global consequences have initiated a profoundly disruptive transformation in the hospitality sector, as firms attempt to adapt their activity to the current uncertain scenario. This study draws on the crisis management literature to identify the key drivers of hotel recovery in the event of a disaster or an external crisis, like current pandemic. A sample of 237 Spanish hotel managers evaluated and ranked the strategic measures. Based on this evidence, measures were statistically examined to identify which ranked as most significant in helping hospitality managers. The results yield valuable theoretical and practical insights to guide hospitality managers towards business adaptation and recovery by highlighting key strategic measures for implementation in the short term.     

Developing future hotel managers in Taiwan: from an industry viewpoint

The purpose of the study was to investigate and identify competencies needed for entry-level hotel managers from the industry professional's point of view. A survey instrument was used to gather data from present hotel managers in Taipei, Taiwan. Competencies identified in this survey, as being important by entry-level managers, could be a foundation for development of hospitality management curricula in Taiwan.     

The relationship between hotel employees’ cross-cultural competency and team performance in multi-national hotel companies

In this study, the authors explored the benefits of understanding employee cross-cultural competency and strengthening team performance, which are essential for improving the organizational effectiveness of multi-national hotel companies as they expand globally. Data were collected from six multi-national hotel companies in Thailand. A total of 738 valid questionnaires were obtained and analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the proposed relationships, in which cross-cultural competency was developed as determinant of multi-cultural team performance. The results indicate that cross-cultural competency had a positive, direct effect on team performance. The authors provide significant cross-cultural theoretical and practical management advice for stakeholders in the hospitality industry. In addition, the authors establish the foundation for future studies into cross-cultural competency and multi-cultural team performance in the context of Thai multi-national hotels.     

Factors affecting hotel human resource demand in Taiwan

This study explores the factors affecting hotel human resource (HR) demand and focusing on the organizational, industrial and macroeconomic factors of the hospitality industry. A prediction model was built with eight independent variables and four dummy variables. Secondary data was collected via a governmental statistic database, and regression analysis was performed using the Generalized Least Squares (GLS) method. The results show that the HR demand of international tourist hotels is more likely to be affected by industrial factors and macroeconomic factors, while the HR demand of standard tourist hotels is less complex, and is mainly affected by organizational factors.     

The impact of infectious diseases on hotel occupancy rate based on independent component analysis

The recent global outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1), or the more commonly known as swine flu, has negatively affected the tourism and hospitality industries in many countries. This article reports a study that applied independent component analysis, a novel statistical technique, to separate the dominant factors which determine the levels of hotel occupancy rates in Hong Kong. Empirical findings would provide useful insights on how the dynamic lodging demand reacts to epidemics based on the severity and duration of the events.