The COVID-19 pandemic and organisational commitment of senior hotel managers

The COVID-19 pandemic will reduce the attractiveness of hospitality occupations. This particularly concerns senior management positions whose holders may substitute hospitality jobs with more secure and rewarding employment in other economic sectors. Organisational resilience of hospitality businesses, including their response to COVID-19, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices may, however, affect perceived job security of senior managers and, thus, influence their commitment to remain in their host organisations. This paper quantitatively tests the inter-linkages between the above variables on a sample of senior managers in hotels in Spain. It finds that the levels of organisational resilience and the extent of CSR practices reinforce perceived job security of managers which, in turn, determines their organisational commitment. Organisational response to COVID-19 affects perceived job security and enhances managers’ organisational commitment. To retain senior management teams in light of future disastrous events, hotels should, therefore, strengthen their organisational resilience and invest in CSR.     

Customer Satisfaction,Training and TQM

Abstract

Managers within the hospitality industry make frequent reference to TQM principles. The extent to which these principles are applied effectively within the human resource management area of hospitality however remains under-researched. By applying TQM principles, this paper focusses on the relationship between customer service and training drawing upon comparative data from Western and Thai hotels. The paper also examines the perceptions of staff towards of hotels' guest-orientation and the provision of quality guest services. The researchers found that guest assessments of the performance of hotel frontline staff depend on their services function (e.g., front-office, housekeeping). The service quality skills needed by frontline staff were also found to differ in the case of Western and Thai hotels. Such differences merit proper consideration on the part of managers within the major hotel chains. The various findings may assist hospitality managers to determine appropriate strategies for the enhancement of guest services particularly in cross-cultural settings.     

Consumers' responses to hotels’ donation of rooms to homeless people: The impact of political ideology

Our research examines how consumers’ political ideology affects their intention to stay at hotels that have donated rooms to homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose that conservative consumers are less likely than liberal ones to stay at hotels that have donated rooms to homeless people due to their greater feelings of disgust toward such hotels. However, we further argue that the proposed effect would be mitigated when the hotels are luxury (vs. non-luxury) establishments. To provide convergent evidence for those arguments, we conducted four experimental studies. Our research contributes to the literature on political ideology, corporate social responsibility, contagion, and hospitality. We also provide practical guidelines for policymakers and hotel marketing managers on how to design initiatives for corporate social responsibility, especially involving the donation of rooms.     

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.     

Understanding service attributes of robot hotels: A sentiment analysis of customer online reviews

Robots and artificial intelligence are essential to the future of the hospitality industry, and they are receiving increasing interest from hotel managers and researchers. However, the adoption of robotic services in hotel operations is a challenging task owing to the current level of technology and lack of understanding on the relationship between various aspects of robotic services and customer satisfaction. Moreover, no prior study has examined the service attributes of robots in hotels. To fill these gaps, this study analyzes customers’ sentiments on major hotels employing robotic services expressed through online reviews. A list of robot quality and operational area attributes is first constructed, through which underperforming robot service areas are identified. Sentiments on robotic services have a positive correlation with hotel service satisfaction, which plays an important role in determining the overall satisfaction of customers. The analysis and findings are valuable to researchers and managers for future research and adoption of robotic services in hotels.     

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.     

Environmental Tactics Used by Hotel Companies in Mexico

Summary

The impact which environmental law and management has had in the hospitality industry is substantial. Hotels have begun conservation and recycling programs as a means of reducing energy cost and solid waste. A significant number of environmentally related regulatory and consumer pressures are being imposed upon the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to begin to explore the environmental programs that hotel corporations in Mexico are adopting. Eight managers at eight hotel corporations in Mexico were included in the study. The corporation hotels located in Mexico started to implement environmental strategies in 1995, and the most common reason was because of the legal pressures they faced. Efficient use of lighting and eliminating use of diesel in the boiler were the most frequently sited strategies. Seven hotel managers benefitted from the application of these strategies, while one indicated he did not benefit. The hotel managers feel social, legal, and political pressure in Mexico to implement environmental strategies but consider consumer pressure unimportant. They believe these strategies are not very important when facing competitors, and only one manager mentioned that in the future the competitive threat will be important in developing environmental consciousness.     

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.     

Use numbers not words! Communicating hotels’ cleaning programs for COVID-19 from the brand perspective

After hotels in many countries were forced to close in government-imposed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an inherent need to communicate how they deal with the coronavirus to motivate guests to visit. However, lack of knowledge about how to persuasively communicate about hotels’ cleaning programs for COVID-19 can challenge the industry’s survival. We investigated how hotels that position their brand as a particular personality (sincere vs. exciting) could benefit from different communication styles (inclusion of numerical vs. verbal quantifiers) when presenting their COVID-19 cleaning procedures. Study 1 explored tourists’ central attitudinal responses toward hotels’ cleaning programs. Study 2 demonstrated that sincere hotel brands would benefit from using numerical and verbal quantifiers to communicate their cleaning policies, whereas exciting hotel brands would benefit only from numerical quantifiers. Our results invite hotel managers to use their brand personality positioning to influence tourists’ attitudes and intentions in a pandemic context.     

Hospitality workers’ COVID-19 risk perception and depression: A contingent model based on transactional theory of stress model

The hospitality industry worldwide is suffering under the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the transactional theory of stress and coping, this study aims to investigate when hospitality workers’ COVID-19 risk perception affects their likelihood of having depressive symptoms. Using data from 211 hospitality workers in 76 hotels in Peru, we examined the effects of perceived COVID-19 risk on the likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms. We posited that this relationship is moderated by the workers’ environment at work (job satisfaction) and at home (the number of children). The results indicate that job satisfaction weakens the link between hospitality workers’ COVID-19 risk perception and their likelihood of depressive symptoms while the number of children exacerbates this link. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on COVID-19 risk perception and offer practical implications for hospitality workers under COVID-19 crisis.     

COVID-19 impacts,coping strategies,and management reflection: A lodging industry case

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global tourism and hospitality industry with drastic results. Hotels have been experiencing unprecedented challenges, leaving many to temporarily or permanently closed. Employing a case study approach supported by both quantitative and qualitative analysis, this study examined how two hotels in Oklahoma City had coped with challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, from day to day operations, health and safety measures to marketing, human resources and cost-saving strategies. The study contributes to the tourism crisis and disaster literature by providing micro-level coping strategies, a literature gap that needs to be addressed, particularly under the current pandemic.     

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.     

关于中国城市饭店产业评价的思考

中国饭店业的发展加深着人们对饭店业的认识。单体饭店在走向成熟的同时，也需要整个饭店行业的成熟。文章提出衡量一个区域或城市饭店业是否成熟，有这样几个标准：拥有一批好的饭店群体，城市(地区)饭店的结构合理，有自身特色，有标志性的饭店，与城市特点相协调，有健全的行业法规，成熟的投资动机，成熟的职业经理人队伍，有成熟的市场和成熟的消费者，有成熟的饭店衍生业以及成熟的行业自律组织。     

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.     

Managing green marketing: Hong Kong hotel managers’ perspective

In view of the serious environmental problems we are currently facing, taking action to protect our planet is becoming more persuasive and important. Along with various environmental initiatives, the concept of green marketing emerged in the late 1980s. Some hotels have taken various initiatives to position themselves as green hotels, including the use of eco-labels as a marketing ploy to attract customers. Nevertheless, some of the hotels that use these green marketing strategies have been accused of “green washing”. The main aim of this study is to investigate Hong Kong hotel manager perceptions of the relative importance of different green marketing strategies. Questionnaires containing 30 attributes were distributed to this effect. The findings reveal that hotel managers equally perceive “Hotel green marketing should begin with green product and service design”, “Hotels provide products and services that do no harm to human health” and “The Internet is an effective channel to market a hotel's green initiatives to customers directly” as the top green marketing ploys. Independent t-tests and one-way ANOVA were also used to examine significant differences in the way hotel managers with different professional backgrounds and individual demographic characteristics rate the importance of hotel-related green marketing strategies. The findings indicate that lower-grade hotels tend to adopt lean green marketing strategies, whereas hotels with larger sizes or formal environmental management systems are likely to adopt shaded or extreme green marketing strategies. The study also provides a number of insights to help hotel managers and especially marketers better understand the implementation and importance of different green marketing strategies, thereby allowing them to employ suitable measures to avoid the “green washing” designation and attract more green-conscious travellers.     

The joint effects of need for status and mental imagery perspective on luxury hospitality consumption in China

Given the increasing influence of social media on the hospitality industry, luxury hotels have begun to utilize social media platforms as primary marketing tools. This research reveals the joint effects of mental imagery perspective and need for status on Chinese consumers’ intentions to partake in luxury hotel experiences after viewing social media photos about luxury hotel consumption. For affluent consumers with high need for status, photos taken from a first-person (vs. third-person) perspective lead to higher behavioral intentions. This research further demonstrates that immersion serves as an underlying mechanism. The findings have important implications for luxury hotel managers.     

Quantifying the economic impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. hotel industry: Examination of hotel segments and operational structures

The COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial negative impacts on the global economy. While all sectors of the economy are expected to be adversely affected, the economic implications of this pandemic for the hotel industry have not yet been widely investigated. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the U.S. hotel industry. The results showed that daily room OCC, ADR and RevPAR have plunged about 74%, 47% and 86%, respectively. Although the impact is observed across all hotel segments, economy-scale hotels were more resilient, whereas luxury-scale hotels experienced the largest decline. Also, chain-managed hotels are the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to franchise and independent hotels. Quantifying the magnitude of this impact, we found that the U.S. hotel industry's revenue losses accumulated to over $30 billion between March-2020 and May-2020. Implications for practitioners, policy-makers, and researchers are discussed.     

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.     

Effects of organizational/occupational characteristics and personality traits on hotel manager emotional exhaustion

Emotional exhaustion is a type of burnout and a state of mental weariness. It is an important issue for hospitality organizations because customer contact employees and hospitality managers function in an environment that is particularly susceptible to the creation of the antecedents of burnout. Further, emotional exhaustion itself is costly to hospitality organizations and individuals because it has been shown to result in depersonalization, detachment, decreased service quality and job performance, and increased turnover. Using a sample of 544 hotel managers from 36 hotels located throughout the United States, this study examines whether emotional exhaustion is a function of organizational and occupational characteristics, including job demands, quality orientation, pressure to produce, and need for “face time.” In addition, this study analyzes whether personality traits of the managers themselves, including extroversion and neuroticism, are predictors of emotional exhaustion. This study found emotional exhaustion of hotel managers to be a function of not only job and organizational characteristics, but also personality characteristics.     

Do job insecurity,anxiety and depression caused by the COVID-19 pandemic influence hotel employees’ self-rated task performance? The moderating role of employee resilience

The COVID-19 health disaster has had a dramatic impact on the global hospitality industry, affecting millions of people. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of job insecurity on hotel employees’ anxiety and depression, and whether these psychological strains could influence employees’ self-rated task performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also examine the moderating role of hotel employees’ resilience in this context.The hypotheses were examined by collecting data from 353 hotel employees currently working in the Canary Islands (Spain). The results highlight the significant effects of job insecurity on employees’ anxiety and depression levels. However, hotel employees’ task performance was not affected by their job insecurity or by their anxiety and depression. In addition, employees’ resilience has a moderating effect as it reduces the negative influence of job insecurity on depression. Finally, the discussion section sets out various theoretical and practical implications of the findings.