A fad or the future? Examining the effectiveness of virtual reality advertising in the hotel industry

New virtual reality technology presents hotels with wide-ranging marketing, training, and customer service opportunities. The purpose of this study was to explore both the immediate and delayed effects of hotel VR commercials as compared to traditional video commercials. Based on the perceptual load theory and elaboration likelihood model, this study designed and conducted a 2 × 2 laboratory experiment with two stages of data collection. The study demonstrated that VR commercials produced better immediate effects than the traditional commercials, especially for participants with high elaboration likelihood levels. However, the findings also revealed significant decreases in purchase intention among participants watching VR commercials and a significant improvement in attitudes among participants watching traditional commercials. Both theoretical and practical implications were discussed to leverage the power of VR in marketing.     

Government and social trust vs. hotel response efficacy: A protection motivation perspective on hotel stay intention during the COVID-19 pandemic

Based on protection motivation theory (PMT), this study conceptualizes a research framework to explain and examine customer intentions regarding hotel stays during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 700 U.S. consumers via a crowdsourcing website in July 2020. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the collected data for testing proposed hypotheses. The analytical results showed that the level of threat perceived by customers significantly reduced their intention to stay at a hotel. On the contrary, individual customer response efficacy significantly enhanced their intention to stay at a hotel. Additionally, both government and social trust, as well as hotel response efficacy, were found to significantly increase hotel stay intention by mediating the effects of threat perception and individual response efficacy. To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to apply PMT to explain customer hotel stay intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Game theoretic pricing models in hotel revenue management: An equilibrium choice-based conjoint analysis approach

This paper explores a game-theoretically founded approach to conjoint analysis that determines equilibrium room rates under differentiated price competition in an oligopolistic hotel market. Competition between hotels is specified in terms of market share functions that can be estimated using multinomial logit models of consumer choice. The approach is based on choice-based conjoint analysis that permits the estimation of attributes weights (“part-worths”) for an additive utility formulation of the utility function. From this, room rates that equilibrate the market, conditioned on the differences in services and facilities offered by competing hotels, can be determined. The approach is illustrated by an example.     

Do online hotel rating schemes influence booking behaviors?

Travelers’ hotel booking behaviors increasingly depend on peers' opinions and online ratings. This study investigates the effects of online hotel ratings on travelers' attitudes toward the hotel and booking intentions, using a 2 × 2 experimental research design. The results suggest that online rating lists are more useful and credible when published by well-known online travel communities (e.g., TripAdvisor). More favorable attitudes toward a hotel and higher booking intentions emerge when the hotel appears in best hotels lists. Finally, for the entries on best hotels lists, better attitudes and higher booking intentions result if the list is published on a well-known online travel community (Tripadvisor), whereas for entries on a worst hotel list, attitudes and booking intentions decrease even further if the list appears on TripAdvisor.     

What are guests scared of? Crime-related hotel experiences and fear of crime

ABSTRACT

This study aims to explore the typology of hotel crime and how it is related to guests’ fear of crime based on a cause-and-consequence model. A total of 873 TripAdvisor reviews were content-analyzed to develop a typology of hotel crime. High-class hotels experienced more theft, fraud, and burglary while low-class hotels encountered more prostitution and drug-related activities. Hotel guests generated a higher fear of crime when crime occurred inside guest rooms, especially in cases of burglary, theft, or fraud. Reviews mentioning crimes were perceived to be more helpful. Managerial implications and best practices of crime prevention are provided for hotel practitioners.     

Free add-on services and perceived value in competitive environments: Evidence from online hotel reviews

This study investigates how free add-on services affect customers’ perceived value in horizontal and vertical competition. We collected 349,879 reviews about over 3000 hotels in 25 U.S. cities from TripAdvisor. Using three balanced data sets generated by coarsened exact matching, the ordered logistic regressions show that free hotel add-on services (including free breakfast, parking, and WiFi) positively affect consumers’ perceived value. However, increased horizontal and vertical competition differentially weakens the positive effects of free add-on services. We not only observe a negative moderating effect of horizontal competition, but also identify three patterns of the marginal effects of these three add-ons in horizontal competition. The moderating effect of vertical competition exists from the higher-grade hotel segment to a lower-grade hotel, but such an effect is insignificant from the lower-grade hotel segment to a higher-grade hotel. Therefore, hotel managers should consider diverse external competitive environments and design appropriate differentiated service strategies.     

中国酒店餐饮中的食品营养问题研究

随着我国社会的不断进步,经济的不断发展,人民群众的生活水平逐渐提高,人民的生活节奏也越来越快,生活方式也逐渐发生改变.因为各方面原因,现在越来越多的人喜欢在外就餐,但是目前我国酒店餐饮中的食品依然存在营养问题,例如,酒店为了追求菜品的色香味,破坏了食物的营养,忽略了膳食平衡.为了人们的健康饮食,急需解决这些问题.本篇文章以中国酒店餐饮中的食品营养为例,对存在的问题进行深入分析,供大家参考.     

The impact of the challenge and hindrance stress on hotel employees interpersonal citizenship behaviors: Psychological capital as a moderator

This study investigates the relationships between challenge and hindrance stressors and hotel employees’ interpersonal citizenship behaviors (ICB). The study also tests the moderating role of hotel employees’ psychological capital (PsyCap) on the aforementioned relationships. Data were collected from 213 U.S. hotel frontline employees. The results showed that both challenge and hindrance stress had a negative relationship with ICB. PsyCap was found to moderate both relationships. Implications for hospitality researchers and industry practitioners are discussed along with the limitations and suggested avenues for future research.     

酒店英语教学中酒店管理专业学生服务意识的培养

较强的服务意识和过硬的服务质量是酒店企业发展的根本。针对酒店英语课堂教学中酒店管理专业学生服务意识的培养途径,文章从酒店服务之语言到位服务意识和酒店服务对象意识两个方面尝试探讨。     

Big data hedonic pricing: Econometric insights into room rates’ determinants by hotel category

This research uses a big dataset of online prices published on Booking.com by three-, four- and five-star hotels located in Madrid (Spain). Data is broadened by other sources, resulting in a rich set of context-, hotel- and offer-based variables. This research aims to determine the impact of these variables on the online room prices set by one representative sample, featuring the total pricing behaviour as well as per hotel categories. The variables considered, their extent and the insight per category represent a novelty and complement the literature on demand forecasting and hedonic pricing, enabling the improvement of optimisation techniques. The models, based on regression analysis with random effects, reveal a significant impact of the variables on room prices and a clearly distinct behaviour for five-star hotels. This research contributes to the scientific community and practitioners by showing the pricing dynamics behaviour of an important urban destination by star rating.