Investigating the Effectiveness of Repositioning Strategies: The Customers’ Perspective

An effective repositioning means the target customers have developed a positive and favorable perception of the altered product offerings and satisfied with service delivery. Passengers of an Australian carrier were surveyed to determine whether its repositioning strategies have been effective. The findings reveal that passengers define product characteristics differently from industry and academia, resulting in a knowledge discrepancy, which in turn has a significant impact on the formulation of positive and favorable perception and satisfaction. We suggest an effective repositioning lies in managing consumers' knowledge strategically to minimize the knowledge gap.     

Tablets and Tablet Apps: What Do Hotel Customers Want?

This study aims to explore consumers’ preference whether to bring their own tablets or use those provided by hotels, their expectations of hotel tablet apps, and antecedents of their behavioral intention toward hotel tablet apps. This study applied an extended model of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to understand consumers’ perceptions of tablet apps. By surveying 1,034 customers, this study found the respondents were more likely to utilize some tablet app features over others and revealed five key antecedents of customers’ behavioral intentions toward hotel tablet apps. The findings will help operators make informed decisions to maximize the benefits of tablet technology investments. The theoretical framework of this study provides a benchmark for other researchers to further investigate this field.     

The Value of Service Robots from the Hotel Guest’s Perspective: A Mixed-Method Approach

Service robots (SR) are increasingly valued and embraced; they are here to stay. Research on collaborative intelligence to better understand robotic-human partnerships is scarce. To bridge that gap this study aimed to examine the value of SR from the guest’s perspective, thus gain a deeper understanding of the co-value creation process in the context of full-service hotels. A mixed-method design was used to capture the depth and breadth of perceived value of SR. Study 1 is a qualitative study probing consumers’ sense making regarding SR. Study 2 used structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses derived from Study 1. Results indicate that perceived privacy, functional benefits of SR, and robot appearance positively influence consumers’ attitude towards adoption of SR. Functional benefits and novelty had an impact on the individuals’ anticipated overall experience. Attitude and anticipated overall experience, in turn, enhanced consumers’ acceptance of SR. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.     

Consequences of Customer Dissatisfaction in Upscale and Budget Hotels: Focusing on Dissatisfied Customers’ Attitude Toward a Hotel

It is important to understand customer dissatisfaction in order to maintain a sustainable business, given that the negative effects of customer dissatisfaction in service businesses may be even greater than the positive effects of satisfaction. This study investigates customer dissatisfaction and its consequences by focusing on the mediating role of attitude toward a hotel according to different hotel classes related to customer expectation level. The results show a mediating role for attitude in the relationship between customer dissatisfaction and specific negative behavioral intentions. This study broadens our knowledge of customer dissatisfaction and the role of attitude toward a hotel in the relevant literature. The empirical findings demonstrate that regardless of hotel type, customer dissatisfaction significantly affects their attitude and their consequent negative behavioral intention.     

Understanding Active Loyalty Behavior in Hotel Reward Programs Through Customers’ Switching Costs and Perceived Program Value

Whether loyalty programs have become part of the lexicon of buzzwords or not, the hotel industry continues to adopt loyalty/rewards programs as a major channel to nurture customers’ active loyalty as well as to reap return business. This study examins the structural relationships among perceived program value, switching costs, and active loyalty. The proposed model is supported by an online survey dataset collected from United States (US) tourists. The findings show that perceived program value is less effective in driving active loyalty compared with switching costs. This implies a need for strategic thinking on the part of hoteliers and the industry. Rather than aggressively spending money or copying schemes used by competitors to gear up program value, the value of a defensive tactic of increasing switching costs should be considered.     

Performing: Hotel room attendants’ employment experiences

Performing is a socio-psychological process of defining self as a room attendant and finding dignity in the course of completing daily tasks while interacting with other social actors—guests and hotel employees—on hotel stages. The grounded theory of performing emerged from qualitative research, informed by socialist-feminist critical theory and qualitative social constructivist grounded theory. Forty-six room attendants working in one of five participating 5-star hotels located in South East Queensland, Australia, were interviewed. Performing has ramifications for tourism service provision, specifically, hotel praxis and the need for greater acknowledgement of room attendants as a community of value, possessing practical knowledge that could be used to improve daily operations, enhancing guest interactions and tourism service experiences.     

Investigation of Social Media Marketing: How Does the Hotel Industry in Hong Kong Perform in Marketing on Social Media Websites?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which social media marketing is being utilized in the Hong Kong hotel industry. Marketing performance of 67 hotels in Hong Kong on 23 social media sites was evaluated according to 18 criteria adapted from past studies. The results indicate that hotels generally have a poor performance in using social media to learn about customers. Major problems regarding the hotels' social media marketing efforts are identified. Implications behind these problems and recommendations for improvement are made accordingly.     

Environmental certification schemes: Hotel managers’ views and perceptions

This paper contributes to research into environmental certification schemes in the hospitality industry, by discussing three objectives of such schemes: (1) promote the implementation of sustainability practices in the hospitality industry; (2) increase profitability; and (3) provide more accurate information to guests. This paper provides a first insight into the perception of managers towards certification schemes. Interviews with 21 London managers from a range of star-rated hotels, and an analysis of 196 websites of London hotels, indicates that these objectives are not all achieved. It is discussed how certification schemes provide knowledge to hoteliers and helps against claims of ‘greenwash’. The effect of certifications on profitability, however, is questioned, and due to limited communication of certifications by hotels, certifications are failing to provide guests with more accurate information. Implications, recommendations and limitations of the research are discussed.     

Revisiting Attributes: How Important Is Green in the Consumer Selection of Hotel Rooms?

Consumers’ buying behavior is not always consistent with their positive attitude, particularly toward environmentally friendly products. In a survey of 197 travelers, the relative importance consumers ascribe to the attribute of green was assessed. Through a multi-methods study involving interviews, focus groups discussions, and forced-choice experiments that simulate market buying situation, it was found that consumers’ selection of hotel rooms is still much dictated by traditional choice factors. Through a conjoint analysis, it was found that consumers highly prioritized the price attribute. The green attribute was assigned a low relative importance of 4% among the respondents. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Influencing stakeholders to reduce carbon footprints: Hotel managers’ perspective

Reducing the carbon footprint is an important strategy in addressing the greenhouse effect. Some businesses in the hotel industry have started to consider implementing programmes that involve their stakeholders so that they can reduce their carbon footprints together. However, little research into how hoteliers influence their key stakeholders has been conducted. The aim of this study is to identify who hotel managers consider to be their key stakeholders and what strategies they use to encourage the stakeholders to act co-operatively. These issues are examined by taking a qualitative research approach, in which data were collected from 22 hotel executives through in-depth interviews. The findings reveal the stakeholders identified by the executives are hotel owners, employees, customers, hotels/hotel owners’ associations, governments, consultants, investors, suppliers, environmental NGOs and the wider community. The different influencing strategies used with these stakeholders are discussed.     

Customers’ Perceived Benefits of a Frequent-Flyer Program

Customer retention has grown in importance as most firms have acknowledged that customer retention has a bearing on profitability over the long term. Firms such as airlines, hotels, retailers, and car manufacturers offer loyalty programs to their customers to reward customers for their support and encourage continuous future support from such customers. Despite the popularity of loyalty programs, little academic research has been published in respect of how customers perceive the benefits offered by loyalty programs. This paper is a first to report on research that resulted in a model that can be used to manage the benefits perceived by members of an airline’s loyalty program. The model to measure and manage members’ perceived benefits of a loyalty program for an airline has good psychometric properties and consists of three underlying dimensions, namely recognition, convenience, and exploration.     

Customers’ Perceptions of Employee Engagement: Fortifying the Service–Profit Chain

This study investigated the three dimensions of employee engagement: dedication, energy, and absorption from the customer’s perspective. The service–profit chain (SPC) and employee behavior that promotes customer satisfaction and loyalty were examined. The results revealed that certain aspects of employee engagement are more readily perceived by consumers and more likely to promote customer satisfaction and loyalty. Findings showed that energy and dedication combined were most likely to foster feelings of satisfaction and loyalty among hospitality patrons. From a theoretical perspective, the study contributes to the literature by enhancing the SPC, revealing new insight into employee engagement, and linking employee engagement to positive consumer outcomes. Hospitality industry professionals may find that employee engagement benefits the customers’ perceptions of the establishment, ultimately increasing profitability. This study utilizes the SPC in the hospitality context and proposes a new link in the chain: employee engagement.     

Hotel Theming in China: A Qualitative Study of Practitioners’ Views

Facing increasing competition, many hotels have adopted “theming” as a marketing strategy. Although still in its fledgling stage, hotel theming has already gained popularity in the growing Chinese hotel market. This study conducted focus group discussions to understand the concepts behind hotel theming in China. Respondents were 41 practitioners from the Chinese hotel industry, who were enrolled in an executive graduate program. Data revealed that hotel theming has four analytical dimensions, namely, the current state, perceived facilitators, inhibitors, and future prospective for developing such strategy in China. Results showed that the specific traits of the Chinese hotel market are highly important for the success of hotel theming in the given context.     

Organizational Learning and Hotel Performance: The Role of Capabilities’ Hierarchy

Building on the capabilities’ hierarchy concept, a model of the effect of organizational learning on hotel performance is proposed and tested in this study. Data was collected from 240 managers in the hotel industry of United Kingdom and Pakistan via survey. The results revealed strong direct inter-relation between different level of capabilities and an indirect relation between organizational learning and performance through these capabilities. This paper makes theoretical contributions to management as well as hospitality and tourism research by generating an integrative and unifying framework for an organizational learning performance relationship, clarifying capabilities inter-relationships and empirically revealing the exact way these capabilities enhance performance. Also, it has practical implications for hotel managers’ understanding on the development and use of capabilities as a hierarchy in enhancing their hotel performance.     

Egyptians’ Hotel Booking Behavior on the Internet

The expansion of booking hotel rooms online has changed the booking process in the hotel market environment. This investigation evaluates Egyptians’ attitude as an overall inclination towards booking hotel rooms online. It consists of two phases: a focus group phase and a survey phase. Initially, focus groups were formed for the purpose of identifying general perceptions of Egyptians with respect to the use of hotel booking websites. Information generated from the focus group study contributed toward questionnaire (survey) development. Results suggest that Egyptians generally show positive attitudes towards booking hotel rooms online. The implication for hotel brands is that they should focus on making the experience of online booking safer in order to convert non-bookers to bookers. This is important because the safety features of online booking (secure transactions, privacy of information, and online fraud) appear to be more important than the usability features (convenience, usefulness, ease of use, and efficiency) for nonbookers.     

Quality,Satisfaction and Customers’ Future Intention: The Case of Hotels’ Fitness Centers in Cyprus

In an era of fierce competition, financial hardship, and volatile customer expectations the hospitality industry is seeking out new revenue centers that can both enrich the customer experience, and contribute to financial success. Capturing the attention of the industry, fitness centers have become a fundamental component of the contemporary hospitality experience with numerous strategic, operational and tactical implications. Responding to the need for further empirical investigation, the study, by adopting a quantitative methodology, holistically investigates quality, satisfaction, and behavioral intention in fitness centers currently operating in upscale hospitality establishments in Cyprus. Findings suggest that satisfaction with the provision of fitness services in hotels is primarily associated with the dimensions of employee behavior and workout facilities. Moreover, workout facilities was the only quality dimension which was significantly associated with the respondents’ intention to renew their membership, whereas a strong relationship between satisfaction and future intention was substantiated.     

Satisfaction measures with monetary and non-monetary components: Hotel’s overall scores

Hotel scores are critical indicators of satisfaction. However, the diversity of methodologies for calculating these indicators leads to notable differences. To explore such discrepancies, this study investigated the differences when monetary and non-monetary components are included in the measures of satisfaction. The empirical test conducted on over 26,000 hotels revealed that exclusively using non-monetary components in satisfaction measures (e.g., arithmetic mean of non-monetary attributes) leads to higher values than using monetary measures of satisfaction (e.g., value for money). The deviations between attribute performance and its expected value explained the difference between both satisfaction measures. In addition, the attributes to which people seem to be monetarily sensitive are “comfort,” “staff,” and “services.” This study provides a tool for decision-makers to identify the best method for communicating the hotel’s satisfaction measures via its position in the market and attributes that require reinforcement.     

Online Reputation Monitoring: An Exploratory Study on Italian Hotel Managers’ Practices

This study aims to understand current Italian hotel managers’ practices in monitoring online reviews included on travel websites and online travel agencies. Results obtained by a web survey indicate what hotel managers monitor (rating, rankings, guest comments regarding different service elements) and managers’ orientation in replying to customer reviews. Findings may support online reputation management tools providers and consulting firms by highlighting the degree of hoteliers’ interest in UGC monitoring and providing insights on possible factors that differentiate current management practices and should be considered in order to offer technical solutions coherent with the distinctiveness of Italian context.     

Deployment of Restaurants Websites’ Marketing Features: The Case of Spanish Michelin-Starred Restaurants

ABSTRACT

Websites have become a fundamental marketing tool for tourism businesses and have a special importance for highly rated restaurants. The aim of this article is to propose and apply a model to evaluate the deployment and adoption of website marketing features of restaurants from a specific category. The model is based on the application of an extended model of Internet commerce adoption (eMICA) technique for technical depth, combined with content analysis for breadth. This study analyzes the website features and capabilities for Spanish restaurants in the 2015 Michelin Red Guide. A total of 102 restaurants were analyzed. The results of the website evaluation model suggest that, despite the importance of the restaurant sector in the economy and in the tourism industry, the websites of high-quality restaurants require improvements to adapt to customers’ demands. Results further found that these websites are not tourist-orientated and are established at different stages of development.     

Customers’ relationships leading to brand tribalism and tribe behavioral intentions

This study investigates the influence of customer relationships on brand tribalism and tribe behavioral intention in the cruise industry. A survey was conducted on a sample of 254 luxury cruise travelers. Results suggest that customer/brand and customer/other cruiser relationships have positive influences on brand tribalism, leading to brand tribe behavioral intention. Involvement moderates the influence of sense of community on brand tribe behavioral intention. Despite the critical importance of successful brand management, it has been little known the leading factors affecting brand tribalism. Furthermore, there is a linkage void with relationship marketing although it is significantly related to brand management. To fill this gap, this paper proposes an explanatory model in which the two leading factors of the relationship are associated with brand tribalism, leading to brand tribe behavioral intentions. The findings will contribute to the development of brand-related theory and managerial directions for practitioners.