Association meeting planners’ loyalty to hotel chains

Many associations alternate the location of their annual convention. Hotel chains can have a significant advantage over independent hotels in that respect due to their network of properties across the country and the consequent potential for cross selling. This study explores the relationship between association meeting planners and hotel chains, with a particular focus on loyalty issues. It investigates meeting planners’ reasons for being loyal to a specific hotel chain and their future intentions. Hotel practices, features, and benefits that planners regard as important in developing loyalty to a chain are identified. Performance ratings for these attributes are then established, and contrasted with importance ratings, highlighting opportunities for hotel chains to improve relations with loyal planners.     

Does Triple Bottom Line reporting improve hotel performance?

Triple Bottom Line (TBL) reporting is a comprehensive approach to achieve sustainability as it integrates reporting on environmental, social and financial issues. While society is pushing hotels to increase their commitment to TBL reporting, opinions are divided as to whether TBL reporting affects hotel performance. The present study uses the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method to address this important question. Our results, based on a sample of Slovenian hotels, support the hypotheses that more extensive reporting on environmental, social and financial issues lead to better hotel performance. We show that reporting on environmental issues has a slightly higher impact on performance than reporting on social and financial issues. We discuss the implications of the study and provide directions for future research.     

Self-discipline or self-interest? The antecedents of hotel employees' pro-environmental behaviours

Abstract

Motivating employees to engage in pro-environmental behaviours is an essential topic in the tourism and hotel fields. This paper advances this research direction by integrating the mechanisms of cognition and incentives from the externalities/spillovers perspective. This paper argues that we can view the environmental and financial benefits received by hotels and natural environment as positive spillovers from employees' voluntary pro-environmental behaviours. Accordingly, internalization (the subject of positive spillovers cognitively perceives oneness with beneficiaries like hotels and physical environment) and compensation (beneficiaries offer incentives for positive spillovers' subject) are two leading solutions to the positive spillovers issue, which can improve employees' engagement in pro-environmental behaviours. Hence, this paper explores the impact of employees' cognitive internalization (work ethic) and positive incentives from the organization and nature (hotel's environmental benefit sharing and health rewards rooted in employees' ecological embeddedness) on employees' pro-environmental behaviours in the hotel industry. The empirical analysis of a sample of 324 employees working in Chinese luxury hotels suggests that employees' work ethic, hotel's environmental benefit sharing and employees' ecological embeddedness are significantly positively related to employees' pro-environmental behaviours and that the interplay of employees' work ethic and ecological embeddedness significantly and negatively affects employees' pro-environmental behaviours.     

Tourists’ hotel event experience and satisfaction: an integrative approach

ABSTRACT

Tourists’ hotel event experiences have received little attention in tourism research. By proposing an integrated model of expectation–confirmation theory (ECT) and the experience economy concept, this research explores the relationship between tourists’ event experience and their satisfaction regarding the hotel event setting. The hypothesized model was empirically validated using a sample of 663 tourists who experienced a holiday event at a resort hotel. Results confirmed that the integration of the experience economy and ECT provided a better understanding of tourists’ post-satisfaction in a pleasure-driven setting. This affective–cognitive approach advances the knowledge of tourists’ experiences and satisfaction at hotel events.     

Eliciting customers’ waste reduction and water saving behaviors at a hotel

Without a doubt, sustainability is a critical issue in the world’s hotel industry. The present study examined the key cognitive, affective, and normative determinants of customers’ waste reduction and water saving intentions during their hotel stay. This research also investigated the effect of involvement of green behaviors in everyday life as a moderator. A survey methodology and quantitative approach were utilized while conducting this study. Our results revealed that environmental value, concern, and awareness acted as significant cognitive triggers in forming pro-environmental intentions, and that anticipated feelings were important contributors to increasing intentions. The salient role of moral norm in determining environmentally responsible decision was also uncovered. Moreover, the results from the invariance test demonstrated that involvement of green behaviors included a significant moderating effect. Overall, our conceptual model sufficiently explained the variance in pro-environmental intentions among hotel customers.     

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.     

What determines multinational hotel groups’ locational investment choice in China?

China's hotel industry has been developed quickly from a small number of 137 only in 1978 to 14,237 in 2009. One of the main drivers of the rapid development of the hotel industry has been the expansion of multinational hotel groups (MHGs) into China. The purposes of this study are to analyze the factors that determine the location strategies of MHGs and to assess what factors determine MHG's investment strategies in regard to choice of location. The study finds that the market demand and market size measured by number of inbound tourists, tourist spending, and actual foreign direct investment, the business environment measured by GDP per capital, and dummy variables measured by policy and mega events are all significant factors in affecting MHG's locational choices for investment. These findings may provide some insights for MHG's future investment strategies in regard to location choice.     

What explains differing holding periods across hotel investments? A hazard rate framework

We explain the variation in hotel holding periods (HP) based on liquidity needs, owner type, acquisition conditions and timing of hotel renovation. Contrary to popular belief, properties owned by listed companies tend to have longer HPs due to lower liquidity constraints. REITs sell heterogeneous hotels sooner to strengthen their focus whereas REOCs keep such assets longer for diversification benefits. Moreover, we document that higher quality hotels tend to have longer HPs, and that capital expenditure employed in renovating an acquired asset prolongs the HP whereas assets renovated before acquisition experience shorter HPs. Finally, we show how our model can be used in practice to predict the median HP based on a given hotel characteristics, and present a method to adjust the DCF discount rate according to the selected holding period.     

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.     

Affectivity,conflicts in the work–family interface,and hotel employee outcomes

Based on data obtained from frontline hotel employees in Turkey, the current study examined the effects of negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA) on work–family conflict and family–work conflict and the effects of both directions of conflict on marital satisfaction and turnover intentions. This study also tested the relationship of marital satisfaction with frontline employees’ turnover intentions. The results demonstrated that PA ameliorates both work–family conflict and family–work conflict, while NA exacerbates only work–family conflict. The findings of the study indicated that family–work conflict has a detrimental impact on marital satisfaction. However, this study provided no empirical support for the relationship between work–family conflict and marital satisfaction. Consistent with the study predictions, frontline employees’ perceptions of work–family conflict and family–work conflict increased their turnover intentions. There was also empirical support for the hypothesis that marital satisfaction has a significant negative impact on frontline employees’ turnover intentions. Implications of the empirical results and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Exploratory study of understanding hotel employees’ perception on work–life balance issues

This paper explores hotel employees’ perception on work–life balance issues. In-depth interviews and self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the data. Factor analysis discovered seven factors: (1) enough time-off from work; (2) workplace support on work–life balance; (3) allegiance to work; (4) flexibility on work schedule; (5) life orientation; (6) voluntary reduction of contracted hours to cater for personal needs; and (7) upkeep the work and career—the determinants perceived by employees to attain “better” work–life balance in the dynamic hotel environment. Adopting an employee-centric and integrative approach are the critical success factors for implementation of a work–life balance program.     

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.     

Loss or gain? The role of message framing in hotel guests’ recycling behaviour

Abstract

One of the major challenges for the tourism sector is enacting sustainable behaviours. A key strategy for hoteliers is developing persuasive messages, with the goal of encouraging guests’ voluntary participation in green programmes. Through the lens of prospect theory and construal level theory, the present study investigates to what extent a loss or gain-framed message influences recycling of hotel guests via a field and a laboratory experiment. The field experiment tests the moderating effect of message construal level (concrete or abstract) on the message frame that activate pro-environmental behaviour, while the laboratory study delves further into the mechanism by showing that perceived self-efficacy is the mechanism behind the activation of these behaviours. The findings from both studies suggest that hotel guests are more likely to engage in recycling behaviour when a concrete message is paired with a loss-framed message, because of a greater perceived self-efficacy. These results help to understand the theoretical psychological mechanisms and offer managerial implications for operators on how to engage guests to be active partners in sustainable tourism behaviours.     

Determinants of hotels’ environmental performance: Evidence from the hotel industry in Accra,Ghana

This study explores the factors that account for the environmental performance of hotels in the special context of a developing country, Ghana. It also examined the socio-demographic characteristics of managers and organizational characteristics that determine the environmental performance of Ghanaian hotels. A stratified random sampling method was employed to survey 200 hotel managers from different categories of hotels in Accra. Ninety-four per cent were independent, and Ghanaian-owned. Sixty-seven per cent had fewer than 20 rooms; only 45 had more than 100 rooms. Only 11.6% were affiliated to foreign multinational companies in any way. Six key factors that accounted for the environmental performance were extracted from a factor analysis. They included, in order of most practised, the environmental education and training for staff, measures to support for the host community, conservation project support, compliance with environmental regulations, waste management, and voluntary programmes. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that larger size and better class of hotels, as well as those with membership of the national hotel trade association, had better environmental performance as did hotels with better paid managers. Affiliation to foreign multinational chains did not predict better performance. A series of suggestions are made to improve the environmental performance of Ghana's hotels.     

It’s in the air: Aroma marketing and affective response in the hotel world

Smell is considered to be the sense that is most closely attached to emotional reactions. This makes scent in the hotel environment an important atmospheric variable to study, because fragrances are expected to increase the likelihood of producing an emotional reaction from consumers. Capitalizing on smell’s ability to cue memories and conjure up emotions, the purpose of this research is to examine the emotional states evoked by various hotel scents in a hotel business in Hong Kong that uses scent throughout its premises. More specifically, this study intends to make a connection between the emotional states evoked by the hotel scents and how hotel businesses can make use of their guests’ emotional responses. Scent marketing is an overlooked subject in hospitality and tourism research.     

How do consumers’ perceptions differ across dimensions of corporate social responsibility and hotel types?

This study develops three hypotheses regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of the hotel industry. First, the study examines a ranking of consumers’ perceived importance of the four CSR dimensions proposed by Carroll’s hierarchy of CSR in 1991, expecting the following orders: philanthropic, ethical, legal, and economic dimensions, from most to least important. Second, the study investigates the relationship between consumers’ perceived importance of and their overall support for CSR. Third, the study introduces the type of hotel (for example, economy, mid-scale, and upscale) as a moderator to provide a better explanation of the relationship between consumers’ perceived importance of the CSR dimensions and support for CSR. Contributions to the CSR literature in general, and also specifically relating to the hotel context, and managerial implications are discussed.     

Estimating the impact of showroom entertainment on the gaming volumes of Las Vegas hotel–casinos

Increases in showroom headcounts are found to increase casino gaming volumes in two Las Vegas Strip casinos. This study examines long-standing assumptions regarding the indirect contribution of investment-intensive showroom entertainment. Such contributions are difficult to measure and the literature contains no rigorously derived estimates of gaming contributions from in-house entertainment venues. Despite the paucity of research, gaming companies are willing to invest staggering sums in showroom entertainment, based in large part on the belief that traffic from these venues will increase gaming volumes. Using estimates produced by time series regression models, the two showrooms produced average gaming win contributions of $11.28 and $19.32, per paid showroom attendee. Based on these estimates alone, extravagant investment in showrooms would have to be justified by other means. Future studies aimed at understanding the showroom contributions to non-gaming profit centers and the role of showrooms in the high-roller's patronage decision are both recommended.     

What can big data and text analytics tell us about hotel guest experience and satisfaction?

The tremendous growth of social media and consumer-generated content on the Internet has inspired the development of the so-called big data analytics to understand and solve real-life problems. However, while a handful of studies have employed new data sources to tackle important research problems in hospitality, there has not been a systematic application of big data analytic techniques in these studies. This study aims to explore and demonstrate the utility of big data analytics to better understand important hospitality issues, namely the relationship between hotel guest experience and satisfaction. Specifically, this study applies a text analytical approach to a large quantity of consumer reviews extracted from Expedia.com to deconstruct hotel guest experience and examine its association with satisfaction ratings. The findings reveal several dimensions of guest experience that carried varying weights and, more importantly, have novel, meaningful semantic compositions. The association between guest experience and satisfaction appears strong, suggesting that these two domains of consumer behavior are inherently connected. This study reveals that big data analytics can generate new insights into variables that have been extensively studied in existing hospitality literature. In addition, implications for theory and practice as well as directions for future research are discussed.     

A review of the literature on culture in hotel management research: What is the future?

This paper aims to provide insights into the development of research on culture in the hotel industry by reviewing the existing literature. A total of 107 journal articles published between 1985 and 2010 were retrieved from 12 refereed journals, all of which could be accessed online. The papers were categorized into six major groups according to Pizam's (1993) hierarchy of cultures, and were further sorted by year of publication, source, subject area, region of focus, and the nature of the research. National culture, organizational culture, and cross-cultural comparison were found to be the most popular research topics. In contrast, few studies have investigated industry, occupational, and corporate cultures in association with hotel management studies, prompting concern for future research. In summary, this review paper offers a first and important attempt to understand the development of research on culture in the hotel management field and identifies future research opportunities.     

Does positive affectivity moderate the effect of burnout on job outcomes? An empirical investigation among hotel employees

A conceptual model examining positive affectivity as a moderator of the influence of burnout on extra-role performance and quitting intentions is developed and tested. Data obtained from employees in the hotel industry in Turkey were used to assess the model. As hypothesized, burnout influences extra-role performance deleteriously and exacerbates quitting intentions. The results of the Chow test also reveal that positive affectivity serves as a moderator in reducing the detrimental impact of burnout on extra-role performance and quitting intentions. The findings and their implications are discussed.