Hotel Brand Research Articles

The role of perceived value in shaping luxury service customers’ self-brand connection

Building on the literature on luxury consumption behavior, this study investigates customers’ perceived values on their patronage behavior toward luxury service brands. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling is used to test the research model with a sample of 177 American luxury hotel customers. The findings suggest that functional, individual, and social values from experiences influence customers’ perceived connection with a luxury service brand. The bond between customers and brands affects customers’ patronage behavior. Moreover, the role of the self-brand connection on the relationship between the perceived value and behavioral intention indicates that the impact of functional, individual, and social values on patronage behavior, and the self-brand connection is different depending on the perceived congruity with the luxury hotel brand. However, the affluent customers’ perception of financial value does not enhance the self-brand connection. The results suggest that it would be more effective for luxury hotel service providers to build strong and meaningful ties with customers. This study identifies the role of the self-brand connection in the relationships between multidimensional perceived value (i.e. financial, functional, individual, social) and loyal behavior in the luxury service context.

Assessing brand performance consistency from consumer-generated media: the US hotel industry

Purpose Given the importance of performance consistency of chain hotels in customers’ decision-making and service evaluation, this study aims to explore how consistently chain hotel brands offer quality service and carry out their performance from the eyes of customers through online reviews on TripAdvisor of the top five US hotel chains (i.e. Choice, Hilton, InterContinental, Marriott and Wyndham) and their brands. Design/methodology/approach The research objectives were achieved through methodological triangulation: business intelligence, data visualization analytics and statistical analyses. First, the data collection and pre-processing of consumer-generated media (CGM) (i.e. TripAdvisor online reviews) were performed using business intelligence for further analyses. Using data visualization analytics (i.e. box-and-whisker plot by region and brand), the geographic patterns of performance attributes (i.e. online review ratings, including location, sleep, cleanliness, room and service) were depicted. Using a series of analyses of variance and regression analyses, the results were further assessed for the impacts of brand performance inconsistency on consumers’ perceived value, sentiment and satisfaction. Findings The empirical results demonstrate that there are significant performance inconsistencies in performance attributes (location, sleep, cleanliness, room and service) by brands throughout the six regions in the US hotel market. More importantly, the findings confirm that brand performance consistency significantly influences consumers’ perceived service quality (i.e. perceived value, satisfaction and sentiment). Originality This study is one of the first attempts to empirically explore hotel brand performance consistency in the US hotel market from customer reviews on CGM. To measure hotel brand performance in the US hotel market, this study collected and analyzed user-generated big data for the top 5 US hotel chains through business intelligence, visualization analytics and statistical analysis. These integrated and novel research methods would help tourism and hospitality researchers analyze big data in an innovative data analytics approach. The findings of the study contribute to the tourism and hospitality field by confirming hotel brand performance inconsistency and such inconsistent performance affected customers’ service evaluations. Practical Implications This study demonstrates the significant impact of hotel brand performance consistency on consumers’ perceived value, emotion and satisfaction. Considering that online reviews are perceived as a credible source of information, the findings suggest that the hotel industry pays special attention to brand performance consistency to improve consumers’ perceived value, emotion and satisfaction.

라이프스타일 호텔의 디자인 특성에 관한 연구 - 어퍼 업스케일, 업스케일, 그리고 어퍼 미드스케일 라이프스타일 호텔을 중심으로 -

With the change in modern consumption culture, the market share of boutique hotels that provide differentiated designs and services has increased, unlike global chain hotels, which have also provided standardized facilities and services in the hotel industry. Recognized by this change, the global hotel chain will create a lifestyle hotel brand that combines the characteristics of boutique hotels with a standardized operating system. This research aims to examine how the design characteristics of existing boutique hotels are strategically applied to lifestyle hotels by limiting the scope of research to upscale and midscale lifestyle hotels that occupy highly competitive mid-market. First of all, we will look at the background and definition of the emergence of lifestyle hotels, the current status and trend of lifestyle hotels, and target customers. In addition, how the design characteristics of boutique hotels derived from previous studies, such as playfulness, narrative, diversity, locality, and fluidity, were applied in each lifestyle brand, was investigated. As a result, hotel brands that consider the younger generation as their target customers show high play and diversity, and locality is high in hotel brands that value experience. Epicuality is linked to the designer

Does Competition Benefit Complements? Evidence from Airlines and Hotels

We analyze how changes in the market structure of one industry—airlines—affect the performance of firms in a complementary industry—hotels—using an instrumental variables strategy to account for potential correlation between unobserved shocks to both markets. We find that more intense airline competition boosts hotel performance across all standard measures: price, occupancy rate, and revenue per available room. Spillovers vary across hotel quality and passenger type: Lower-quality branded hotels serving more price-sensitive travelers, most likely brought into the market because of more intense airline competition, benefit the most. However, performance spillovers do not translate into higher hotel entry. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy. Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4568 .

INFLUENCE OF CSR ACTIVITY, SERVICE QUALITY AND BRAND ATTITUDE TO CUSTOMER’S RE-VISIT INTENTION IN HOTEL INDUSTRY

Abstract: Hotels are a key component of tourism industry and tourism industry is strongly reliant on them. The tourism industry and the hotel sector are most closely related. Corporate social responsibility is a key strategic resource in the hospitality sector. This study intends to investigate probable causes of guests' favorable opinions of hotel. The suggested approach covers environmental CSR, charitable CSR, physical quality, employee behavior, customer satisfaction, brand attitude, and revisit intention. Using samples of domestic and international hotel guests who visited Bali, Indonesia, the model is put to the test. Testing of the model made in this study resulted in customers satisfaction and revisit intention positively influenced by CSR philanthropy. According to hypothesis testing, Environmental and Philanthropy CSR are more important to hotel guests' satisfaction and revisit intention than service quality and brand attitude. Purpose – CSR is regarded as a valuable resource, especially in the service industry. Only a few research have looked at the combined effects of brand attitude and service quality, in contrast to earlier research that concentrated on CSR activities and service quality. Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate the possible reasons for hotel customers' positive perceptions of the establishment. Design/methodology/approach –The suggested model considers CSR efforts, service encounters, customer happiness, brand attitude, and intention to return. Samples of Indonesian and foreign hotel clients are used to test the model. In tests of the proposed model, path coefficients from CSR activities (environmental and philanthropic), but not from physical quality, staff behavior, and brand attitude provide meaningful results. Findings – According to hypothesis testing, perceived environmental and philanthropy CSR support are more important to customer satisfaction and intent to return than physical quality, employee behavior, and brand attitude. From these findings, it shows that hotels need to make better CSR strategies, especially in CSR philanthropy. CSR can be a good marketing tool to "attract customers" to the hotel industry. Research limitations/implications – The findings have crucial significance for researchers studying the impact of CSR initiatives on customer behavior to effectively manage customers' pleasant experiences with amenities and workers, as well as hotel brand sentiment. This research also has an impact on the hotel industry in deciding a better CSR strategy considering its positive effect on customer satisfaction and customer revisit intention. Originality/value –CSR is a topic that is frequently brought up by the hospitality sector, particularly hotels. By highlighting the essential elements of hotel patron behavior, current CSR literature supported by this study.

Social justice or social stigma? Hotel customers’ perception on branded hotel used as quarantine facility

This study provides evidence that hotels could reap benefits by including social justice notions of equity and fairness in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The study develops a novel conceptual model for understanding perceived social justice in the context of COVID-19 quarantine hotels based on social exchange theory. Data was collected using an online survey of 465 hotel customers, with results analyzed using structural equation modeling and bootstrap analysis. The results show that perceived CSR is a significant antecedent of brand loyalty and identification while perceived social justice mediates this relationship. Further, most human values, except the openness to change, were found to moderate the mediated relationship between perceived CSR and brand loyalty and identification through their interaction with perceived social justice. In general, the mediating effect of perceived social justice was stronger when the hotel customers scored higher on human value dimensions. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

<p>A Comparative Study of Social Media Marketing and Traditional Marketing in Indian Hotel Industry</p>

Purpose The present study aims to compare social media marketing with traditional marketing concerning its role in Hotel Branding and Hotel Revenue. Design/Methodology/Approach A quantitative approach has been adopted for this research, wherein the data has been collected through a questionnaire from 470 respondents comprising General Managers, Marketing Managers & Departmental Heads of 77-star hotels (5*Deluxe, 5*, 4* & 3*) in Delhi/NCR. Findings The findings highlight the prominence of social media marketing and discover that social media marketing has benefitted the hotel industry in increasing brand awareness and generating revenue as compared to the traditional marketing methods. It also discovers that social media marketing is the future of the hotel industry. Practical Implications This study will help the hotel managers in the application of various Social media marketing practices for the overall profitability of the business. Originality/Value Arguably this is one of a kind study, as there has been no such research done specifically aiming at the perception of Hotel Managers of star hotels of the Indian market. The findings will help the hotel industry enrich its digital presence by suggesting the benefits of social media marketing as compared to traditional marketing in creating & enhancing brand awareness and generating more revenue. Limitations The present study is just confined to hotels in Delhi/NCR and hence carried on a limited population. A more detailed study with a larger sample size, with a large range of variables and/or in any other region of the country, may also be carried out to effectively represent the intrinsic research. Keywords: Hotel; Social Media; Traditional Media; Social Media Marketing; Traditional Marketing

The impact of brand affiliation on asset values: the case of UK hotels

ABSTRACT Using the hedonic pricing method, we study more than 400 hotel transactions in the United Kingdom between 2000 and 2015 to determine the impact of brands on hotel market values. We initially find that hotel brands are negatively associated with hotel values in our sample. However, after controlling for endogeneity, we find that brand affiliation produces no significant impact on hotel transaction values. These results suggest that it is the characteristics of branded hotels, rather than the fact of being branded, that determine the transaction values. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine the impact of brands on hotel values, and the first to account for the role of endogeneity when comparing the transaction value of branded and unbranded hotels.

When Hotel Guests Complain About Tobacco, Electronic Cigarettes, and Cannabis: Lessons for Implementing Smoking Bans.

We analyzed reviews on tripadvisor.com from a random sample of N = 477 hotels in ten large cities in the US to examine how well existing policies protect guests from exposure to tobacco, electronic cigarette, and cannabis (TEC) smoke. We examined the association between complaints per 100 reviews with hotel smoking policies, star rating, cost, brand, and location. Of all TEC complaints, 80% were associated with thirdhand smoke residue lingering in hotels from previous guests. Compared to the hotel brands with the best records, the two worst-performing brands had 3.4- and 3.6-times higher complaint rates (P < .001). Hotels with ≤2-star ratings had twice the complaints as higher-rated hotels (P < .001). Compared to 100% smokefree hotels, those offering designated smoking rooms had a 35% higher rate of complaints (P < .05). The success of some hotel brands demonstrates it is feasible to protect guests by fully committing to, implementing, and enforcing 100% smokefree building policies.

How Hotel Brand Website Contributes to Online Hotel Reservation on Consumer Review Website?

While past research only attempted to investigate the impact of consumer review website characteristics on the hotel reservation behavior, this study incorporated both characteristics of hotel brand website and consumer review website into consideration. Impacts of the two types of websites on reservation behaviors in consumer review websites were examined. The moderating effects of consumer involvement and risk aversion factors were also considered. Three hundred and two respondents from the questionnaire survey were chosen from Bangkok metropolitan population aged 25-60, who experienced with online hotel reservations. The findings show that apart from the review website’s ease of use, information usefulness and price offered, brand website’s information usefulness also has positive impact on consumers’ decisions on the review website. However, brand website’s ease of use discourages the usage of the review website. High-risk aversion consumers tend to use the review websites, while high-involvement consumers pay less intention to the review websites’ information usefulness and are unlikely to use them. These findings will help managers effectively manage and design decision algorithm for their multi-channels of hotel e-commerce. The results explain dynamic, search sequence and interrelationship of current traveler’s behaviors. The source of their hotel search is both consumer review website and hotel brand website.

럭셔리 호텔 브랜드의 자아일치성과 정서적 애착, 감정적 만족 및 행동의도와의 관계에 대한 연구

This study is to verify the dependent variable to predict the behavioral intention of hotel users by applying the self-congruence theory and the cognitive-affective-conative model. The sequential mediation effect of emotional attachment and affective satisfaction was verified in the relationship between brand self-congruence and behavioral intention. The survey was conducted on customers who visited luxury brand hotels in Korea more than once or twice a year. As for the survey period, a survey was conducted for a month of 25 June 2022 to 15 July 2022. Of the total 330, 302 were used for the final analysis, excluding 28 unfaithful surveys. And, demographic, EFA, CFA, correlation analysis, structural equation modeling, and sequential mediation effect analysis were verified using SPSS and AMOS. H1a, H1c, H2a, H2c, H3a, H3c: actual/social congruence has significantly effect on behavioral intention, emotional attachment, and affective satisfaction as supported. But, H1b, H2b, H3b: ideal has not significantly effect on behavioral intention, emotional attachment, and affective satisfaction as rejected. H4: emotional attachment has significantly effect on affective satisfaction as supported. H5: emotional attachment has significantly effect on behavioral intention as supported. H6: affective satisfaction has significantly effect on behavioral intention as supported. Based on the analysis results of this study, this study is to present basic evidence so that luxury brand hotel companies can effectively approach customers' emotions and satisfaction.

Digital transformation, operational efficiency and sustainability: innovation drivers for hospitality's rebound in the United Arab Emirates

PurposeThe paper researches the actions taken by United Arab Emirates (UAE) industry stakeholders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate impact, ensure continuity and target growth. More specifically, the focus is to investigate innovations adopted across hotel brands, both, local and international, and the UAE Government's policies that have created an enabling ecosystem for such innovations.Design/methodology/approachUsing an exploratory analysis technique, the paper provides a socio-economic, scientific and economic overview of the UAE and then proceeds to highlight the zeitgeist in the context of the hospitality and tourism industry. The impact of COVID on the industry is discussed and stakeholder feedback is solicited and analyzed to gauge the variety of innovations adopted to address the pandemic induced challenges.FindingsA key finding of this research indicates that proactive government policies have enabled the hospitality and tourism industry to stay viable and perform better than their counterparts in most destinations. The “innovate or perish” mindset spurred by the pandemic is evident in the variety of innovations adopted by hotel brands in the UAE. Another key finding is that digital transformation, operational efficiency and sustainability are the innovation drivers in hospitality.Originality/valueUsing the UAE as a case in point, the study highlights the importance of an innovation mindset which the hospitality and tourism industry needs to embrace in order to tide over the crisis triggered by the pandemic.

Brand first? The effect of hotel online word-of-mouth on consumer brand sensitivity.

With the e-commerce development and changing of hotels' booking channels, the online word-of-mouth, as a new signal of quality, is becoming to attract more attention of consumers. Using the scenario experiment, this study explores the effect of online word-of-mouth on brand sensitivity of consumers during the decision making for hotel booking. The results show that if the information about hotels obtained is limited in the decision-making process, consumers would have a higher sensitivity to the hotel brand. Increasing information about the online word-of-mouth can effectively reduce consumers' brand sensitivity to hotels. Besides, the moderating effect of the hotel grade on the relationship between the online word-of-mouth and brand sensitivity is affected by the scale of the negative differences of word-of-mouth.

Rethinking Sustainability Hotel Branding: The Pathways from Hotel Services to Brand Engagement

Brand experience has received attention from scholars and researchers, especially in experiential marketing and management. Due to the high market competition and sustainability branding trends, hotel brands need to improve and enhance their hotel services to meet customers’ expectations and retain their engagement and loyalty to the brand. This study explores the relationships between hotel services (servicescape and employee service), brand experience (internal and behavioral responses), brand engagement, and brand loyalty. Web-based and paper-based surveys were used to collect data from the customers who have experienced hotel services in Vietnam. A total of 390 responses were used and analyzed by AMOS. The results show that there are positive relationships between hotel services, internal responses, and brand engagement. In addition, the moderating effects of brand loyalty on the relationship between brand experience and brand engagement were found. Although prior studies have been conducted in the servicescape and employee service fields, there remains less empirical research addressing the relationships between hotel services and brand experience. In addition, the examination of brand loyalty playing a moderator in the relationship between brand experience and brand engagement has not been adequately explored, so this study contributes to the brand loyalty literature.

Analysis of International Hotels' Social Media Strategies

The hospitality industry and customer behaviors are unceasingly due to technology. Social media is thoroughly used by many people globally today and is a primary digital form of communication that includes these developments regarding hospitality, which is discernible in the most recent way. Eminently, it is being browsed for recreation, providing notable information and promotion for businesses. Social media generates outstanding opportunities for corporations to run critical digital marketing strategies. One of the essential considerations of enterprises is to grow their sales volumes, and advertising on digital platforms is a much more operative approach than any other platform nowadays, so hotels are thriving to a great extent in that regard. Accordingly, in this descriptive research, how international hotel brands in Ankara use digital marketing for expanding their marketing activities within the framework of brand standards and to what extent the usage of such platforms is practical concerning their sales are analyzed by using the interview technique.

Threat-Induced Sustainability: How Covid-19 has Affected Sustainable Behavioral Intention and Sustainable Hotel Brand Choice

The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers’ sustainable consumption behavior. It investigated whether the perceived threat of COVID-19 increased their intention to choose a sustainable hotel brand option. It examined whether environmental concern and the perceived value of patronizing a sustainable business mediated the relationship between the perceived threat of COVID-19 and sustainable behavioral intention. Five experimental studies indicated that the pandemic contributed to elevating sustainable behavioral intention. Environmental concern and the perceived value of patronizing a sustainable business played a mediating role in the relationship between the perceived threat of COVID-19 and sustainable behavioral intention. Another important outcome was that customers showed a preference for choosing a sustainable hotel brand over a non-sustainable brand, even when the price was higher.

Hotel brand equity and online reviews on social commerce intention: A cross-level identification process

Customer reviews and brand equity are both key assets that offer hospitality providers competitive advantages over rivalries. However, how they can complement each other is a question that scholars and practitioners continue to seek. This research draws on social identity and social presence theories to synthesize a multilevel model with social identification as a mediator of the relationship between persuasive message compliance and social commerce intention. We take a resource-based view to conceptualize brand equity as a strategic asset and to model it as a moderator. This inquiry contributes to extant literature by illuminating a multilevel paradigm to better understand the strategic imperative of brand equity in fortifying a strong brand, while casting means for weak brands to capitalize on e-WOM to impel favorable guest behaviors. It adds to the literature by acknowledging a dual-identification process in which both customer reviews and branding exercise different roles in customers’ brand identification.

Do Brand-Affiliated Hotels Have Lower Cash-Flow Risk?

Hotels are generally perceived as the riskiest type of commercial real estate (CRE) investment because hotel “leases” have relatively high turnover. Existing literature regarding CRE investment risk and return lacks investigation of hotels at the unit level—which is the level of analysis undertaken by existing and prospective hotel investors. Two major types of hotels are branded and independent ones. The purpose of this study is to investigate the variability (risk) of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as occupancy rate, and revenues and profit of branded versus independent hotels. Using a large sample of performance data regarding over 4,000 U.S. hotel properties from 2000 to 2019, we examine the extent to which branding affects the volatility of KPIs. We find that brand-affiliated hotels have lower cash flow risk measured as lower volatilities of KPIs compared with independent ones. Furthermore, the level of volatility reduction of branded hotels is greater for profit than for revenue, and profit may be the most important KPI for hotel investors. The magnitude of volatility reduction also increases as the measurement window length (number of years) increases. We also study the long-term returns of branded versus independent hotels. This study contributes to the understanding regarding the relationships between investment risk of branded versus independent hotels, extends the literature regarding hotel investment, and provides hotel investors and analysts information regarding risk to aid decisions such as developing, purchasing, holding, or disposing of hotel assets.

Positive and negative switching barriers: promoting hotel customer citizenship behaviour through brand attachment

PurposeThis study aims to develop and test a theoretical model postulating that a hotel customer’s brand attachment is reinforced by positive and negative switching barriers, which, in turn, determine customer citizenship behaviour (CCB) towards hotel brands.Design/methodology/approachSurveys were conducted and completed by 233 respondents in the USA who had favourite hotel brands and used these brands in the previous year. A framework was developed based on the literature, and eight hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.FindingsThe findings suggest that a customer’s brand attachment (brand-self connection and brand prominence) to a hotel is strengthened not only by relational benefits (positive switching barriers) but also by switching costs (negative switching barriers). Brand prominence can promote CCB, whereas the impact of brand-self connection on CCB is rather limited.Research limitations/implicationsThis study highlights the importance of affirmative and passive reasons for customers to remain in a relationship with the hotel brand and how sub-dimensions of switching barriers are interrelated to predict a customer’s attitude and behaviour to the brand. By emphasising the role of customers’ hotel brand attachment, this study also ascertains that cognitive and affective bonds towards a hotel brand can be significant antecedents to their extra-role behaviours.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the hospitality literature by expanding the realm of consumer behaviour research on switching barriers, brand attachment and CCB.

Ethical Marketing Model for Luxury Hotel Chains: Development and Validation of a Performance Evaluation Tool

The aim of this study is to develop a new performance evaluation tool that is stringently applied to the hotel chains, considering the associated ethical marketing dimensions to measure its proper strategic, tactical, and operational role and impact within hospitality marketing management plans, campaigns, and strategies implemented. A Delphi technique was conducted as the selected research qualitative method, comprising three rounds. A total of 23 panel participants, such as directors and managers of marketing, e-commerce, sales, and branding, completed all three rounds. Two major areas of ethical marketing, internal and external, both divided into five dimensions, each with underlying items, were found to comprise the ethical marketing model for luxury hotel chains: (1) internal area of marketing (with five dimensions: integration, training, equal opportunities, performance evaluation, and smart policies) and (2) external area of marketing (with five dimensions: stakeholders, booking platforms and CRM, marketing plan, digital marketing campaigns, and social media platforms). The study concludes with useful insights and remarks. The generalisability of the results may be limited owning to the partial or not full applicability across all luxury hotel chains. The model still needs to be empirically applied in luxury hotel chains to enrich its robustness, covering a wider spread of four- and five-star luxury hotels. There is a growing potential for researchers, hotel decision makers, and marketing and sales managers and directors to achieve many advantages and benefits from the proposed model, supporting the efforts for ethical marketing theory and practice, such as hotel brand positioning strategies and formulation of more targeted and finely tuned ethical marketing strategies, tactics, and plans. This is the first study to develop and validate a performance evaluation tool of ethical marketing for luxury hotel chains. This pioneering approach extends the scope into ethical marketing because this model has never been used in this area.