Hotels and the businesswoman: a supply-side analysis of consumer dissatisfaction

Abstract

Complaints about the treatment of businesswomen by the hotel sector are evident in both popular anecdote and the research literature. It is argued in this article that such dissatisfaction can be ill afforded in any service industry; furthermore, that the failure to address these complaints confounds the received direction within hotel management that argues for decentralized decision-making and customer orientation. Complementary surveys were conducted at the organisation and unit levels of selected UK-based hotel chains in order to test the hypothesis that the propensity of a hotel to answer the dissatisfactions of businesswomen is directly related to the extent of decentralized decision making and consumer orientation evident in the organization. Data gathered did not support the hypothesis and the authors suggest that future studies should concentrate on challenging prevalent gender guest stereotypes through an Equal Opportunities approach and exploring the influences of an ideology of domesticity on the employee and guest roles of both men and women in the hotel industry.