Effects of Picture Presentations on Customers' Behavioral Intentions on the Web

SUMMARY

As the Web is becoming a major communication channel to bridge hotels and customers, great marketing efforts have been made to attract new customers and repeat business. A wide variety of studies have been conducted to identify factors that could affect customers' purchase behavior on the Web. Little research, however, has been documented that assessed the effects different pictures presented on the Web had on customers' online purchase behavior. Based on the content analyses with 203 existing hotel Websites, this study examined the potential effects of Website format, Website contents, and Website realism on customers' behavioral intentions. Results indicate that the content and realism of picture presentations are important predictors of customers' attitudes toward the Website. The attitudes appear to be a strong predictor of behavioral intentions on the Web. Suggestions and implications are included for the lodging industry and future research.     

The Future of Internet Based Training in the Lodging Industry

ABSTRACT

It has become clear in recent years that the Internet has dramatically affected all aspects of hotel operations. Although the Internet has been primarily used as a medium for marketing and communications, it has the potential to reshape the way in which many other vital operations are performed, such as the distribution of training programs. The proliferation and popularity of the Internet now makes it possible to separate trainees and trainers by both time and location. This study examines expert's predictions of using Internet based training and identifies its benefits, drawbacks and barriers to entry in the lodging industry. The findings of the study have direct implications for hotel operators, training professionals, and technology vendors for their future training plan, budget, technology inputs, and product development.     

Developing,Operating, and Maintaining a Travel Agency Website

SUMMARY

Travel agencies have increasingly utilized agency Websites on the Internet to enhance their marketing efforts. This exploratory study aims to provide an analysis of the Internet use by travel agencies in the United States. A survey conducted with 102 travel agency professionals collected primary data to examine the perceived value and contribution of a Website to the agency business, purposes for developing and operating a Website, and benefits and challenges faced in operating a travel agency Website. The results of this study not only identified various issues in developing, operating, and maintaining a travel agency Website but also made various suggestions to address those issues. Implications are discussed as to how travel agencies could better understand e-consumer behavior and effectively market their product offerings online.     

Assessments of Lodging Service Unit Performance for Repeat Business

Abstract

Generating repeat business has been one of the greatest challenges to lodging marketers. This study explores a new approach to predicting customers' repatronization intention from the performance of key service units in lodging organizations. Repeat and first-time customers are studied separately in order to draw effective strategic implications for lodging operators. The results of this study show that repeat and first-time customers have different reasons for their continuous patronization to a particular lodging company. Practical implications and future directions for this line of research are discussed.     

Staying Afloat in the Tropics

SUMMARY

This study examines the extent to which the top ten Caribbean destinations market their tourism product using their national tourism organization Websites. A comparison of the national tourism organization Websites of the Caribbean Tourism Organization member countries will be conducted to determine the differences in technical aspects, user friendliness, site attractiveness, and marketing effectiveness using the modified Balanced Scorecard (BSC) for Website evaluation. The modified BSC results were next used to develop and test a model of Caribbean NTO Website visitor retention. Third-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the model. The model showed that the four aspects which comprise the modified BSC are important in the development of Caribbean NTO Websites.     

Lodging Managers' Perceptions of Work and Personal Life: Balanced or Imbalanced?

ABSTRACT

This study serves two main purposes: (1) to assess lodging managers' perceptions of difficulties and success in balancing their personal and work lives, and (2) to investigate if lodging managers' work interferes with or is enhanced by their personal lives, or vice versa. The results indicate that most lodging managers believe that they have struck a satisfactory balance between their work and personal lives. This study identifies the respective bidirectional effects of the interaction between work and personal life. Personal life boundaries are more permeable to work demands than work boundaries are to personal life demands.     

The Challenges of Providing Training in Small Sized Lodging Properties

ABSTRACT

Labor issues confront the lodging industry in good times and in bad. Employee training is viewed as a means to manage labor challenges and the hospitality industry is not well known for specializing in employee training. Small sized properties have unique challenges to implementing training practices and this study focused on understanding the training practices of small sized lodging properties. Two hundred eighteen lodging owners/general managers responded to a mailed questionnaire regarding training practices. Overall, less small properties provide training. Properties value training similarly, however, small properties provide less training, experience lower occupancy, are less often profitable, and experience some unique barriers to training. Considerations must be made for this lodging group and suggestions for addressing these issues are provided.     

Older Workers' Communication Satisfaction in the Lodging Industry

Abstract

Labor shortages and high turnover trouble the lodging industry. Older workers have been overlooked as a solution to these problems. Older workers have demonstrated qualities such as loyalty, a strong work ethic, good customer relations, and reliability of performance that the lodging industry desires. The lodging industry needs to strive to increase older workers' job satisfaction in order to attract and retain them. Previous research has already proven that communication satisfaction has a significant impact on job satisfaction. This study examines the important communication factors that influence older workers' job satisfaction. Suggestions regarding older workers' communication satisfaction are provided.     

An Examination of Job Satisfaction of General Managers Based on Hotel Size and Service Type

ABSTRACT

Because of the flatter organizational structure and decentralized hierarchical configuration of limited-service and extended-stay hotels, managerial job responsibilities may differ between these types of hotels and their full-service counterparts. As job responsibilities vary, so too might approaches to ensuring job satisfaction. This study examined how hotel size and service type affect the job satisfaction of general managers. After hypotheses testing and an analysis of the item correlations, it was concluded that neither hotel size nor service type significantly impacted general manager job satisfaction and gender, age, educational level, and longevity in the hospitality industry or as a hotel manager all had minimal impact on job satisfaction.     

Diversity Management Training Initiatives

Abstract

This study investigates diversity management training initiatives (DMTIs) currently practiced within the lodging industry. The results suggest that once an employee becomes involved in the diversity management training initiative, their perception of its importance increases. It was also concluded that the perceived impact of DMTIs is positive for both minority and non-minority employees. The findings support the notion that the lodging industry is operating in a very diverse environment. Thus, emphasizing communication and educational training initiatives while reiterating their importance to all involved is necessary for success.     

Website Evaluation in Tourism and Hospitality

SUMMARY

Millions of dollars have been invested in Website development, often without much thought of how to evaluate the effectiveness of sites. This paper reports on the past, present, and likely future of one of the recommended approaches for evaluating tourism and hospitality Websites, the modified Balanced Scorecard approach. It traces the use of the approach from its beginning in 1999 to the present time. A thorough review of other approaches to Website evaluation is also provided. The article suggests that Website evaluation approaches can be classified into four groups based upon why and when the evaluation is done (formative vs. summative evaluation) and whether efficiency or effectiveness is being measured. It concludes with a call to action for industry leaders, academics, and consultants to develop a unified procedure for Website evaluation in tourism and hospitality.     

Service Quality

Abstract

A methodology is suggested based on the assumption that quality is perceived in a given situation when the individual consumer determines the attributes that make up service quality rather than the service provider. Results gained from a two-part study (state tourism and commercial lodging facilities) that use the suggested methodology showed differences in attributes between consumers and the service providers when compared to another state tourism study and a guest comment card from a nationwide lodging franchiser.     

Guest Satisfaction in the U.S. Lodging Industry Using the ACSI Model as a Service Quality Scoreboard

SUMMARY

This article extracts data from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for the lodging industry and for the six hotel brands included in the study. Guest satisfaction scores are analyzed for three important standards: overall satisfaction, expectancy-disconfirmation, and customer experience compared to an ideal product. Findings indicate that [1] the lodging industry scores slightly better than the entire service sector and about the same as the national score, and [2] there is significant variation in satisfaction scores among the six brands tested. Implications for management are included.     

Key managerial and financial accounting skills for private club managers: Comparison to lodging managers

ABSTRACT

This study provides empirical evidence of the comprehensive accounting skills by financial executives across the United States, and Canada believed important to private club general managers. This study’s purview extends to identify any significant differences or similarities in the accounting skills between the private club and lodging managers. Four hundred and one responses (211 from clubs and 190 from hotels) were received. The most critical accounting skills for club and lodging managers are understanding operating budgets, capital budgets, income statements, and analyses of variances. When comparing the accounting skills to managers between clubs and hotels, the ranks of importance are similar. The findings provide theoretical and practical implication for hospitality researchers, managers, and educators.     

Buying a Piece of Paradise- A Case Study

ABSTRACT

The vacation ownership (timeshare) industry is the fastest growing segment in the hospitality industry. With this growth is the need to attain qualified managers and hospitality programs must ascertain the skills that are necessary to meet the demands of this market. The purpose of this study was to discover if there were any significant differences between traditional lodging managers and timeshare managers based upon a manager's knowledge, ability, and attitude related to their job duties. The study did discover some areas that were deemed more important to timeshare managers. These results could be used to help potential employees in the lodging industry discover what type of environment would best match their skill set.     

Dimensions of lodging guest satisfaction among guests with mobility challenges: A mixed-method analysis of web-based texts

Given that many lodging businesses cannot afford to provide satisfactory services to people with mobility challenges, this study recommends a strategic order of service attribute development to maximize customer satisfaction with minimal costs. The crucial lodging service attributes of this population are identified and distinguished by degrees of influence on customer satisfaction based on the analyses of 543 web travel reviews. The results suggests prioritizing the bottom-line delivery of basic and performance factors (i.e. room access and staff attitude capability), whereas optionally offering the delivery of excitement factors or above-and-beyond delivery of performance factors, such as luggage and equipment support and general lodging features. Being the first attempt to integrate quantitative and qualitative web content analysis with Penalty-Reward Contrast Analysis, this study captures the real-life tourist service evaluation criteria with improved accuracy and reliability. It also enables a thorough and efficient exploitation of customer-generated web textual data.     

Shanghai's service apartments: Product,pricing and competition

In 1998, a total of 18 existing service apartments have been identified in Shanghai, with about a third being luxurious service apartments. The majority of the service apartments were built within the last two years. A luxurious service apartment provides hotel‐like facilities, coupled with a home‐away‐from‐home atmosphere for long‐stay guests. Typically, comprised of one or more, bedrooms, a kitchen equipped with all conceivable household appliances and many other conveniences, guests also enjoy housekeeping and laundry service packages. Shanghai, with a population of over 15 million, has made great progress in its modernization efforts, and is fast catching up to become a financial center of Asia. The foreign investors, expatriate personnel and their families constitute the potential demand for luxurious service apartment as a major type of lodging facilities in Shanghai. This paper presents a research study to identify the marketing strategies of luxurious service apartments in Shanghai. To uncover the characteristics of their operations and their clients, two surveys are conducted, one on the existing service apartments and the other on their users.     

Explaining a Community Touristscape

Abstract

Numerous research studies are being conducted that are related to e-commerce and information technology (IT) applications in the hospitality industry with regard to operational, profitability, productivity, and management perspective. The focus of this study is to examine current e-commerce and IT applications in the hospitality industry and to identify the business travelers' perceptions and needs relative to advanced e-commerce and IT applications to improve customer service. Hoffman and Chung (1999) stated that what customers want most is not what restaurants and hotels are necessarily implementing.

This study discusses the typical problems and obstacles of implementing e-commerce and IT applications in hospitality, using the lodging e-commerce and IT applications to satisfy customers, and developing the lodging e-commerce and IT applications as a corporate competitive advantage. Moreover, this study investigated a variety of e-commerce and IT applications related to customer service, satisfaction, and retention as well as e-commerce and IT applications as a distribution channel for receiving travelers' information and accommodation booking. This study provides valuable implications for the hospitality practitioners about customer perceptions and needs relative to e-commerce and IT applications.     

Analysis of Hoteliers' E-Commerce and Information Technology Applications

ABSTRACT

Numerous research studies are being conducted that are related to e-commerce and information technology (IT) applications in the hospitality industry with regard to operational, profitability, productivity, and management perspective. The focus of this study is to examine current e-commerce and IT applications in the hospitality industry and to identify the business travelers' needs relative to advanced e-commerce and IT applications to improve customer service. Hoffman and Chung (1999) stated that what customers want most is not what restaurants and hotels are necessarily implementing. This study discusses the typical problems and obstacles of implementing e-commerce and IT applications in hospitality, using the lodging e-commerce and IT applications to satisfy customers, and developing the lodging e-commerce and IT applications as a corporate competitive advantage. Moreover, this study investigated a variety of e-commerce and IT applications related to customer service, satisfaction, and retention as well as e-commerce and IT applications as a distribution channel for receiving travelers' information and accommodation booking. This study provides valuable implications for the hospitality practitioners about customer needs relative to e-commerce and IT applications.     

A Preliminary Investigation of NFL Games and Self-Drive Tourism

Abstract

This article addresses the thesis that the presence of an NFL team in a market area creates a unique self-drive (i.e., travel by car) tourism opportunity. Even though the impact of the presence of one or more professional sports teams in a community has been repeatedly studied, the research to date has not looked specifically at the impact on any one industry, or examined the extent to which the self-drive sports fan presents marketing opportunities for the host communities. The purpose of this study is to address these two gaps in the research by investigating the impact of an NFL team's play dates on lodging industry revenue (i.e., occupancy percentage, average daily rate, revenue per available room and total dollar impact) in the market area and to discuss destination marketing strategies to increase lodging revenues by targeting the self-drive NFL fan.