Guest satisfaction in independent and affiliated to chain hotels

In the hotel sector, two basic organisational forms can be distinguished, independent and chain-affiliated, which reflects in the entities' management processes and in the dimensions of the hotel service. Guest satisfaction is the determinant of and the secret to success in the hotel industry, nevertheless the comparison of customer satisfaction of both operational models is scarce. The main goal of this work is to determine whether those differences exist, considering the geographical scope and size of the chain in linked hotels. Customer satisfaction was analysed in 404 four and five-star hotels, measured through the hotel ratings from online travel agent Booking.com, in two tourism destinations in Spain using the Rasch Measurement Theory. Results obtained indicate that the superiority in customer satisfaction of one of these management forms shows for specific dimensions of the service provided.     

Accounting for customer satisfaction in measuring hotel efficiency: Evidence from the US hotel industry

Customer satisfaction, though an important output, is often ignored in hotel efficiency studies. Our study provides empirical evidence that excluding customer satisfaction may lead to significant difference in the mean and ranking of hotel efficiency scores. We derive our hotel efficiency scores using the distance stochastic frontier method based on a balanced sample of leading hotel chains in the US. We present and compare the efficiency results from two models, one that includes customer satisfaction and one that excludes customer satisfaction. The study discusses the difference in efficiency scores between the models. It also elaborates on the efficiency scores of some individual hotel chains and provides directions for future research.     

Individual employment characteristics of hotel employees that play a role in employee satisfaction and work retention

The variation of individual employment characteristics may influence how employees feel about their work environment. This study intended to identify employment characteristics that influenced employee satisfaction with work environments related to employment retention. Factors played different roles in measuring job satisfaction and employee retention according to individual employment characteristics, while factors related to the work environment (location, communication, accomplishment, and department) should be addressed regardless of employment characteristics. It is recommended that hoteliers provide a customized improvement agenda directed to and focused on individual groups according to that group's employment characteristics.     

Sources of satisfaction with luxury hotels for new,repeat, and frequent travelers: A PLS impact-asymmetry analysis

There are differences in service expectations according to travelers' experiences. This study aims to identify the structure of service quality factors with regard to satisfaction with luxury hotels concerned with new, repeat, and frequent travelers to Macau. The data are analyzed by a partial least squares (PLS) impact-asymmetry analysis in order to explain how the structure of factors can influence the behaviors of three visitor segments. The results of this study explore the transformation of the factor structure of customer satisfaction across different experiences encountered. This study contributes to the knowledge of life cycle theories using three-factor theories that position most of the quality attributes in the introduction stage as excitement factors; they show various types of factors in a growth stage, and they unify to performance factors when the products and services mature. Thus, asymmetrical analyses are highly appropriate for studying customer behavior throughout the customer life cycle.     

Investigating the accessibility factors affecting hotel satisfaction of people with physical disabilities

People with physical disabilities (PwPD) have various incompacities, use different assistive devices and can encounter many barriers in hotels. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of accessibility, disability types and forms of assistive devices on the hotel satisfaction of PwPD. A survey was conducted among PwPD who use mobility devices. Factor analysis revealed five accessibility dimensions: accessibility of public areas, rooms, recreation and other areas, baths in rooms, and food and beverage areas. Accessibility dimensions, disability types and forms of assistive devices had significant impact on the hotel satisfaction while accessibility of public, recreation and other areas, and baths in rooms were the strongest predictors of the satisfaction. People with acquired physical disabilities, powerchair and wheelchair users were the most disadvantaged group in hotels. Hotel satisfaction of PwPD is directly related to the accessibility of hotels. Insufficient and inaccessible areas have negative effect on this satisfaction.     

Big data for big insights: Investigating language-specific drivers of hotel satisfaction with 412,784 user-generated reviews

This study leveraged the advantages of user-generated reviews with the aim of offering new insights into the determinants of hotel customer satisfaction by discriminating among customers by language group. From a collection of 412,784 user-generated reviews on TripAdvisor for 10,149 hotels from five Chinese cities, we found that foreign tourists, who speak diverse languages (English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, and Russian), differ substantially in terms of their emphasis on the roles of various hotel attributes (“Rooms,” “Location,” “Cleanliness,” “Service,” and “Value”) in forming their overall satisfaction rating for hotels. Chinese tourists domestically exhibit distinct preferences for room-related hotel attributes when compared to foreign tourists. Major interaction effects are revealed between the attributes “Rooms” and “Service” and between “Value” and “Service”.     

Chinese Hotels in the Eyes of Chinese Hoteliers: The Most Critical Issues

Chinese hotels have undergone a series of reforms in the past three decades. With both increased demand and supply of hotel products and services, it is important for hotel practitioners and governing bodies to understand challenges that face the current Chinese hotel industry so that a proactive plan can be formulated to guide further hotel development. The current study conducted six focus groups with 46 Chinese hoteliers to explore the most critical issues, concerning the Chinese hotel industry. In total, the hoteliers identified 38 issues to be critical to the hotel industry in China. The issues were further ranked based on the level of importance to the industry.     

Modelling growth and revenue for Swedish hotel establishments

This paper provides first estimates of the determinants of output growth of Swedish hotels based on establishment data. Growth of overnight stays is modelled as a function of initial size, age, type of accommodation, location and hotel prices measured as average revenues per guest nights. The empirical model accounts for potential endogeneity of hotel prices through the two-stage least absolute deviation model (2SLAD) and the instrumental variable quantile regression method. 2SLAD estimates show a positive and significant relationship between hotel prices and subsequent growth. The relationship is nonlinear with a decreasing impact as the price level increases. Growth of establishments is significantly higher for smaller and younger hotels. An important result is that city hotels, in comparison to tourist and other hotels – which are mainly located outside urban areas (in the mountains and at the sea) – exhibit significantly higher growth rates with a gap between 2.2 and 3.4 percentage points. Furthermore, the positive impact of hotel prices on growth is larger for high-growth establishments. Accommodation prices significantly decrease with the number of local competitors with a non-linear form and increase with size. City hotels and accommodation in the capital city have the highest revenues per guest night.     

Present and future hotel website marketing activities: Change propensity analysis

The objective of this study is to examine and predict website marketing activities of US hotels. An online survey is conducted to collect data from members of three major hotel associations located in the US. Change propensity analysis is utilized to evaluate future trends of website marketing activities. The results demonstrate that current website exploitation by the US hotels is relatively limited, with a focus on information dissemination. It is suggested that a number of transaction and relation-building activities will emerge in the near future. Implications based on the results are discussed.     

A novel hotel recommendation method based on personalized preferences and implicit relationships

On tourism websites, hotel recommendations have drawn growing attention from researchers, as they can help customers select a satisfactory hotel from many options with massive information. However, some inherent challenges exist in conventional hotel recommendations, specifically the extent to which there is considerable room for improvement in user preference models and neighbour recognition. Therefore, we propose a two-stage hotel recommendation approach that employs hotel feature information to support preference analysis. First, in the filling stage, association rules between features are considered to accurately capture users’ personalized preferences, which can be incorporated with public preferences to estimate potential ratings of users for unvisited hotels. Then, in the recommendation stage, we combine rating similarities between users with their closeness relationships to identify more reliable neighbours. Finally, a hotel recommendation case on Ctrip.com is performed to evaluate the model. Experimental results confirm that our method outperforms the other five benchmark methods.     

Mainland Chinese Tourists to Hawaii: Their Characteristics and Preferences

Tourism is the most economically important industry to the United States' only island state, Hawaii. With Hawaii's highest spending and largest international tourist segment, Japanese, decreasing significantly (a loss from over 2,000,000 in 1997 to just over 1,000,000 Japanese visitors in 2009), Hawaii needs to prepare to replace the significant decrease of Japanese visitors with a new visitor market. The logical new international visitor target market would be tourists from the fastest growing economy in the world, that being China. The purpose of this study is to explore the differences in attitudinal and behavioral characteristics, and preferences of Chinese tourists in Hawaii according to key sociodemographic variables. The results of this study conclude that sociodemographic variables show significant differences in attitudinal and behavioral characteristics. For example, when comparing the number of times a respondent had visited Hawaii, first-time visitors showed the highest level of preference for a deluxe hotel while second-time visitors showed the highest level of preference for a budget hotel. Those who had visited Hawaii three or more times indicated the highest preference for a first class hotel and also to be more interested in high-end shopping. First-time visitors showed the highest percentage in the lowest category of estimated cost of gifts (US$0–US$300). This indicates that Hawaii tour operators should focus on introducing more discounted shopping to first-time visitors.

The results of this study are likely to be beneficial for understanding Chinese tourists and establishing marketing policies to enhance their satisfaction and raise their intention to revisit Hawaii. The findings of this study could be helpful for all stakeholders including local tour operators, the hotels, and Hawaii's tourism officials.     

Travel and Leisure Services Preferences and Patronage Motives of Older Consumers

The population is aging and the number of people over 55 (older consumers) is increasing. Firms which recognize the importance of the older consumer segment can use this demographic change to their advantage. However, the older consumer market is more heterogeneous than the younger consumer market when it comes to preferences, motives, and spending patterns. Travel and leisure services are no exception. This study reports the result of a large‐scale study that examined the responses to travel and leisure services and patronage motives of different age and lifestyle groups. The results suggest several marketing strategies that would be most appropriate for reaching older consumers of travel and leisure services.     

我国饭店营销管理的黄金规则

该文是作者在研究美国《全球营销管理》作者Warren J.Keegan(沃伦J.基肯)教授提出的18条企业营销管理指导原则基础上,结合我国饭店业特点、目标顾客消费行为特征与市场竞争趋势,提出、论证了20条指导我国饭店营销管理的黄金规则,并说明了它们的运用要点。     

Modelling perceived quality,visitor satisfaction and behavioural intentions at the destination level

Visitor perceptions of the quality of a tourist destination, satisfaction with their experience and the resulting behavioural intentions are vital for successful destination management and marketing. The purpose of our research is to explore the complex relationships between these constructs using structural equation modelling, whereby both formative and reflective constructs are included. The structural model was tested on a sample of 1056 visitors at four tourist destinations in Slovenia. The empirical validation of the conceptual model supports the research hypotheses. Destination attributes affect the perceived quality of tourist offerings, which positively relates to satisfaction as well as visitors' behavioural intentions. The link between satisfaction and behavioural intentions was also confirmed. These research findings contribute to a better understanding of which behavioural mechanisms and factors represent a viable basis for increasing customer retention at the level of individual providers as well as a destination as a whole.     

Service climate and customer satisfaction in a casino hotel: An exploratory case study

Given the global escalation in gaming availability, this paper proposes a service management framework for the study of competitive advantage in casino hotels. Using data collected from 303 employees at an Australian casino hotel, an exploratory case study in service climate and customer satisfaction is presented. The findings suggest that while service climate is highly correlated with customer satisfaction, internal dynamics result in significant differences in the perceptions of casino employees versus non-casino employees, highlighting the need to tailor organisational strategies to different types of employees.     

Reconfiguring Chinese cultural values and their tourism implications

This study explores the Chinese cultural values that prevail in the contemporary Chinese society and their tourism implications. Focus group discussions with residents in Beijing and Guangzhou identified 40 Chinese value items, which are classified as instrumental, terminal, and interpersonal. These value items are largely different from traditional Chinese values in the literature and provide a timely update on the current values system in China. Modern terminal values identified that demonstrate relationships with travel behaviors include convenience, indulgence, leisure, liberation, self-interest, and ostentation. Traditional values found to be associated with travel behaviors include the instrumental values of courtesy and morality, honesty, respect for history, and thrift; the terminal values of horizon broadening/novelty, knowledge and education, and stability and security; and the interpersonal values of conformity and family orientation/kinship. These Chinese value items serve as an invaluable measurement pool for future tourism research.     

Measuring festival quality and value affecting visitors’ satisfaction and loyalty using a structural approach

Perceived value is understood to be a precursor of customer satisfaction and loyalty and is itself impacted by product quality. The linkages between quality, value, satisfaction, and loyalty have been gaining increasing attention in the marketing field. Accordingly, this study examines whether quality dimensions have an impact on perceived value, which, in turn, affects satisfaction and loyalty, in the context of the Punggi Ginseng festival.     

Profiling satisfied and dissatisfied hotel visitors using publicly available data from a booking platform

We develop a set of models for predicting hotel visitor satisfaction and the probability of complaints about various service aspects. Our empirical analysis is based on 3630 reviews from one of the Dubai hotels. We identify profiles of visitors who are likely to be dissatisfied with the hotel service and need special attention, as well as of visitors, who are likely to be satisfied with the service and, therefore, do not require extra attention. The predictions are based on observable characteristics of visitors, thus making it possible for hotel managers to apply the models in their everyday work. Using content analysis we also reveal specific problems that different groups of visitors encountered and infer which of the problems has the highest impact on the overall satisfaction with the hotel.     

Loyalty Runs Deeper than Thread Count: An Exploratory Study of Gay Guest Preferences and Hotelier Perceptions

Alongside many global businesses, hotels have recently shared in the movement to serve the gay market. If the perception of being gay-friendly is not the same for hoteliers and their gay guests, a marketing discrepancy may exist and loyalty of the gay segment could be at risk. To address this issue, a sample of 188 gay guests and 48 hoteliers was explored. Differences tests were conducted to evaluate the hotel attribute importance ratings of gay guests versus hoteliers when considering that segment. After conducting a factor analysis, a regression determined the impact of each factor on gay guest loyalty, with the social environment component having the greatest impact. Most importantly, hotels should support the gay community beyond simply offering a room, an intangible yet important display of social responsibility. This study augments previous hospitality research on the gay guest segment and provides avenues for future qualitative and quantitative studies.     

Measurement specification and leisure satisfaction

Abstract

A comparison of specific expressive and instrumental indicators of satisfaction were compared against general measures of satisfaction. Research was conducted to explore specific indicators of satisfaction which included expressive measures representing major intrinsic goals of a leisure activity and instrumental measures which serve to facilitate those goals. Expressive indicators of satisfaction involving core experiences were most salient in explaining variance in general measures of satisfaction. Specific instrumental indicators of satisfaction did not contribute significantly to explaining variance in general measures of satisfaction.