The importance of security for hostel price premiums: European empirical evidence

Our aim is to study the impact of hostel guest reviews posted on a consumer-generated website on hostel price premiums. More specifically, we study the effect of guests' ratings of six hostel characteristics—atmosphere, cleanliness, facilities, location, staff and security—on hostel price premiums. Given the importance of security, location and cleanliness to hostel price premiums, we analyse whether the impact of guests' ratings of these three characteristics is higher for hostels in countries with the highest crime indexes. To answer our research questions, we collect data on consumer reviews of 383 hostels in 12 European capitals, which are grouped according to crime level, from Hostelworld.The results show that guests are willing to pay a higher price and/or higher price premium in European countries with the highest crime indexes if a hostel has higher levels of security, cleanliness and location. These findings are consistent with previous studies in other fields.     

Identifying salient attributes of peer-to-peer accommodation experience

This study explores key content and themes from online reviews to explain major service attributes of peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation sought by guests. The results from lexical analyses indicate that attributes frequently mentioned in guest reviews are associated with location (proximity to point of interest and characteristics of neighborhood), host (service and hospitality), and property (facilities and atmosphere). Reviews focusing on location and feeling welcome are consistently linked with higher rating scores, including accuracy, cleanliness, check-in, communication, value, and overall ratings. This confirms that P2P accommodation appeals to consumers who are driven by experiential and social motivations. Marketing implications are provided.     

Understanding the dynamics of the quality of airline service attributes: Satisfiers and dissatisfiers

This research aims to determine the relationship between the quality of airline service attributes and overall satisfaction. Although a number of relevant studies have reported a linear relationship (or symmetric effect) between the two concepts, this work suggests that attribute quality exerts heterogeneous effects on satisfaction or dissatisfaction. A total of 157,035 consumer data from online reviews have been analyzed to achieve the research objective. In accordance with Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman’s (1959) two-factor theory, the findings of this research have determined that the quality of certain service attributes, such as cleanliness, food and beverages, and in-flight entertainment, affects the variations of positive ratings as a satisfier. Other airline service attributes, such as customer service and check-in and boarding, influence the deviations of negative ratings as a dissatisfier. Apart from airline attributes, the individual features and types of airline products have been estimated to improve the understanding of such relationships. In this regard, this study provides important implications to customer-centric marketing in an airline marketplace.     

Perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the U.S.: What affects customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions?

This study investigates American customers’ perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the U.S., using the Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA) approach. This study also examines which attributes of Chinese restaurants influence American customers’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The IPA shows that environmental cleanliness and attentive service are two important areas where Chinese restaurateurs can make improvements. In addition, food taste and service reliability appear to be key attributes for Chinese restaurants’ success. Overall, this study indicates that food quality, service reliability and environmental cleanliness are three pivotal attributes to create satisfied customers and positive post-dining behavioral intentions. Chinese restaurant managers should reasonably allocate their limited resources to restaurant attributes based on their contributions to customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions.     

Selection attributes of wedding banquet venues: An exploratory study of Hong Kong prospective wedding couples

Despite the significant contribution of the wedding business to the hospitality industry, few studies of wedding banquet venues have been conducted. This study aimed to investigate the perception of Hong Kong prospective wedding couples of the importance of venue selection attributes. Among the 25 venue attributes identified, employee attitude was viewed by the 205 respondents as the most important, followed by cleanliness and food quality. Among the 11 extrinsic and intrinsic personal attributes, first impression was the most influential while an auspicious wedding date was the least. Marketing strategies are recommended to industry practitioners on the basis of the findings.     

U. S. winter migrants' park community attributes: An importance–performance analysis

North American seasonal migrants, who are usually retired, typically live in recreational vehicle/mobile home park communities in the southern U. S. during the winter months. This study examines the importance of specific park characteristics in the park selection process and uses the case of winter migrants in south Texas to demonstrate how parks may use a modified approach of importance–performance analysis and the promoter–detractor methodology to assess how well the parks perform on selected attributes. The analysis of survey responses from 1429 winter Texans categorized attributes based on the attributes' impact range and asymmetrical impact on park recommendation likelihood. Overall, seasonal migrants based their choice of location for their winter home largely on physical appearance (e.g., cleanliness) and affect (i.e., friendliness and caring management). Wireless Internet access and low rates were also of high importance. But park recommendation likelihood varies depending on the migrants' satisfaction with important attributes' performance.     

Applying mixed methods to identify what drives quick service restaurant's customer satisfaction at the unit-level

The current study addresses issues related to developing a set of critical quality attributes. The primary research objective was to address drawbacks of importance–performance method and develop a novel approach that identifies satisfaction drivers for unit-level quick service restaurant (QSR). The new approach is based on synthesis of qualitative, PRCA, and importance grid methods. Basic (taste, temperature, and accuracy), performance (friendliness) and excitement (cleanliness, speed, and ease of understanding) factors were identified for a QSR context. The current findings help to resolve the problem of performance optimization and identify an optimal set of QSR attributes to allocate resources. Taste, temperature, and accuracy must be ensured as top priority. Then, friendliness should also be ensured and only after that the resources should be allocated to cleanliness, speed, and ease of understanding. Generalizability of the findings is bounded by the fact that only one QSR chain was examined. Additionally, only a limited number of QSR attributes was examined.     

An Importance-Performance Analysis of Dining Attributes: A Comparison of Individual and Packaged Tourists in Taiwan

Utilizing an importance-performance analysis (IPA), this paper examines the importance and performance of dining attributes in Taiwan as perceived by individual and packaged tourists. This study obtained 435 samples including 180 individual tourists and 255 packaged tourists. The IPA grids indicated that “food hygiene and cleanliness of the restaurant” fell into the “concentrate here” quadrant in these two groups. In the same quadrant, “service quality of the staff” was identified in the individual tourists' sample and “food quality” was identified in the packaged tourists' sample. These are the main factors that need to be improved. Additionally, an independent sample t-test and Chi-square analysis were employed to examine any significant differences between the individual and packaged tourists and among different demographic profiles of tourists, respectively. Afterwards, a follow-up study interviewing the tourists was conducted to compare with the results of the IPA analysis. Implications for the foodservice industry, travel agency and academic research are discussed.     

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.     

Factors Influencing Restaurant Selection by Travelers Who Stop at Visitor Information Centers

This article reports the findings of an exploratory study defining expectations for restaurants of travelers who stop at visitor information centers. Using data collected from 2, 712 summer travelers, four factors that explain consumer expectations are discussed: information, restaurant basics, amenities, and health. Travelers rated attributes such as cleanliness, food quality, and friendliness of staff as most important. Suggestions are given for developing promotional materials for attracting travelers to restaurants.     

Visitors as victims crimes against tourists in Hawaii

Prior research has noted a statistical relationship between increased crime rates and tourism in resort destination areas. This study utilizes data from two Hawaii counties to derive independent crime rates for tourist and resident sub-populations. The analysis reveals that tourists in both counties experienced higher rates of larceny, robbery, and rape than residents. In Honolulu, tourists also had a higher rate of burglary. These data suggest that earlier findings of a relationship between tourism and crime are explained, at least in part, by the fact that tourists are disproportionately the victims of crime. A number of factors including certain attributes of tourists themselves as well as certain aspects of the tourist industry are discussed to explain these findings.     

COVID-19 and hospitality 5.0: Redefining hospitality operations

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has severely affected the global hospitality industry. The hygiene and cleanliness of hotels has become the focal point in the recovery plan during COVID-19. This study investigates the effects of past disasters on the global hospitality industry, and how the industry responded to them. Since past pandemics and epidemics identified hygiene and cleanliness as an important factor, this study further explores the role of technology in ensuring hygiene and cleanliness. Hence, this study further examines the scalability of Industry 5.0 design principles into the hospitality context, leading to Hospitality 5.0 to improve operational efficiency. The study further delineates how Hospitality 5.0 technologies can ensure hygiene and cleanliness in various touchpoints in customer’s journey. This study serves as a foundation to understand how synergy between humans and machines can be achieved through Hospitality 5.0. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Language facilitation for outbound Chinese tourists: importance–performance and gap analyses of New Zealand hotels

ABSTRACT

Language barriers can negatively affect Chinese outbound tourists’ overseas travel experiences, highlighting the significance of language facilitation during overseas traveling. With survey data of 256 Chinese guests in two New Zealand upscale hotels, this study performed importance–performance and gap analyses on 19 language facilitation attributes. Results revealed that when resources are limited, priority should be given to improving Chinese language facilitation in room safety and security, in-room entertainment, and tourism information. Furthermore, this study reveals that the relationship between tourists’ perceived language barrier and hotel-stay satisfaction varies across socio-demographic characteristic, English language proficiency, and preferences for accommodation standards.     

The role of server–patron mutual disclosure in the formation of rapport with and revisit intentions of patrons at full-service restaurants: The moderating roles of marital status and educational level

The purposes of this study are (1) to determine the specific server attributes that have the strongest influences on server–patron mutual disclosure; (2) to examine the causal relationships between server–patron mutual disclosures and rapport with and revisit intentions of patrons; and (3) to investigate the moderating roles of marital status and educational level in the process. Theoretical relationships between server attributes, mutual disclosure, rapport, and patrons’ revisit intentions were derived based on a literature review. Following the collection and analysis of data obtained from full-service restaurant patrons, this study found that three server attributes directly influence two sub-dimensions of mutual disclosure (server disclosure and customer disclosure). Furthermore, mutual disclosure was shown to have a positive impact on rapport, which results in patron revisit intentions. This study also found that marital status and educational level have key moderating functions in the relationship between mutual disclosure and rapport. The possible interpretations and managerial implications of these findings are provided.     

Matching visitation-motives and restaurant attributes in casual dining restaurants

This study empirically examines the relationship between the visitation motives and attributes evaluation in the casual dining restaurant context. Based on the focus group discussions, the visitation motives and the restaurant attributes that are considered relevant by the patrons in evaluation of restaurant experience were identified. Data on restaurant visitation motives and attributes importance was collected from 316 patrons of casual dining restaurants in India. A nonlinear canonical correlation was performed to examine the relationship between visitation motives and attributes importance. The results reveal that the attribute importance varied across the visitation motives. Managerial implications, limitations and future research directions are also suggested.     

Factors influencing MICE tourism stakeholders' decision making: The case of Aqaba in Jordan

Although the decision to invest in MICE tourism is tentatively multifactorial, it has been also addressed as being regionally diverse. Thus, this study examines the perspectives of the Jordanian stakeholders on the attributes of the city of Aqaba that would instigate the investment in MICE. The sample of the study comprises 253 stakeholders and uses structural equation modeling for the purpose of examining the effect of destination attributes on the decision to invest on the one hand, and the relationship between exogenous and endogenous constructs of the model on the other hand. The results show a statistically significant and positive correlation between destination attributes, either weak or strong, and decision making although the former tends to augment recognition. Theoretical and managerial implications are also suggested in the study.     

Mechanisms of consumers' trust development in reviewers' supplementary reviews: A reviewer-reader similarity perspective

The literature on online reviews tends to focus on initial consumer postings and reviews, but supplementary online reviews posted by the same reviewer remain an unexplored area in marketing in general and hospitality in particular. To address this gap in the research, this study offers a research model that examines the effects of reviewers' attributes on consumer trust and positive behavioral outcomes, using hotel attributes performance as a moderator. Using responses from 414 hospitality consumers in China, our findings reveal that reviewers whose supplementary reviews use similar identities to those of their initial review, review similar firms, and use similar websites gain consumers' trust. Hotel attributes performance has a strong positive moderating effect on the relationship between reviewers' attributes and consumers' trust, and the trust engendered in this way creates the psychological comfort that leads to positive behavioral outcomes. Implications for theory and practice are discussed along with suggestions for future research.     

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.     

Motivation,emotion and world heritage status in discerning the heritage tourists: A segmentation perspective

Heritage tourists' motives are heterogeneous but few studies examine the relationship between these motives, emotions felt after the visit, and tourists' perceptions of the attributes that contribute to World Heritage Status (WHS) listing of a site. Using cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) as the theoretical lens, we evaluate the relationship between motivation, emotion and site characteristics. Based on a sample of 1531 international visitors to Petra, we segment their motives and emotions and profile these with respect to perceptions of the attributes for WHS listing. The results show the existence of two motivation clusters “General Tourists” and “Heritage Tourists”, with the latter being drawn to Petra for reasons related to both site characteristics and heritage. Three clusters of emotions were identified namely, “Positive Arousals”, “Low Arousals” and “Mixed Arousals”. Significant relationships were identified between the motivation and emotion clusters and their respective perceptions of the attributes for WHS listing. A logit model confirmed that the emotion felt by the different clusters can be predicted by motivation clusters, demographic and travel characteristics. Implications for theory and practice are offered.     

A RARITY SHOW OF MODERNITY: Sweden in the 1920s

This paper redresses a gap in the study of travel literature. It explores a geographical area—Sweden—that has received little scholarly attention, particularly during the period that the paper focuses on; the interwar years. The paper uses ideas of dirt and cleanliness to examine tourist constructions of difference between themselves and other people, as well as to conceptualize modernity. Cleanliness and dirt are themes that have been much discussed in contexts of colonial discourse, but their meanings and functions in a non-colonial setting have not been adequately explored. This paper argues that tourist perceptions of cleanliness and dirt can be used to mediate modernity, race, and the authenticity of cultural experiences.