Spa Hotels Research Articles

Modern hotel profitability centers: spa and wellness in the Russian hotel space

In the article, the authors, based on the analysis of domestic and foreign theoretical and periodical literature, argue that in the scientific community and in the practice of the hotel business there is no unified understanding of the essence and content of the concepts of «spa» and «wellness» in the hotel space and the interrelationships between these phenomena. The authors believe that in the modern hotel market, a hotel (especially in the luxury segment and the middle price segment) that does not offer spa and wellness services is at a disadvantage in terms of attractiveness to guests. Some hoteliers doubt the role of the spa center as a center of profitability of the hotel, since the value of such an object lies in meeting the expectations of guests, and many guests no longer consider spa centers and related facilities such as a fitness room, swimming pool, etc. as a luxurious addition to the services offered, and the developed hotel spa space is perceived as the standard for a modern hotel concept. The search for a solution to the problem of monetization of the hotel spa has led to the emergence of various economic models for managing the spa division: (1) direct management of the spa infrastructure by the hotel enterprise itself; (2) management by a third party; (3) rental of premises; (4) white label. In the article, the authors consider various methods used by Russian and foreign hoteliers to optimize hotel revenues through the activities of the hotel spa center. The authors conclude that despite all the existing problems, spa and wellness have become an integral component of the modern hotel business. Therefore, hoteliers must learn how to manage this new type of activity using effective economic models, creating original and profitable spa and wellness hotel concepts that harmoniously combine innovation, authenticity and local culture, meeting the specific needs of target segments.

Influence of individual and social values on customer engagement in luxury thermal spa hotels: The mediating roles of perceived justice and brand experience

This study aims to examine how values (i.e., individual and social values) influence customer engagement after managing a service failure in the thermal spa hotel context, and the mediating roles of perceived justice and brand experience. The data was collected from a survey of guests of luxury thermal spa hotels in Portugal, and the research model was assessed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results show that individual values affect perceived justice and brand experience, which in turn contribute to a higher level of customer engagement. Brand experience is a better mediator of the relationship between individual values and customer engagement than perceived justice. The novelty of this study is highlighted by the mediating effects of perceived justice and brand experience on the relationship between individual values and customer engagement.

Research on the relationship between wellness tourism experiencescape and revisit intention: a chain mediation model

PurposeThis study aims to construct a scale for measuring the spa hotel experiencescape in wellness tourism, clarify the mechanism through which wellness tourism experiencescape influences revisit intention and investigate the mediation roles of authenticity, memorability and organizational identification.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted content analysis of interviews, online reviews and relevant articles and used the concept of experiencescape to interpret spa hotels’ experiential environment. The stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model was used as the basis for introducing authenticity, memorability, organizational identification and revisit intention to investigate how wellness tourism experiencescape affects tourists’ behavior. In total, 488 valid questionnaires were collected at Taiwanese spa hotel clusters.FindingsFour factors of spa hotel experiencescape were identified: health promotion treats, mental learning, unique travel experience and healthy diet. Existential authenticity–memorability and existential authenticity–organizational identification exerted full positive mediation effects in the relationship between wellness tourism experiencescape and revisit intention.Practical implicationsThis study provides guidance on experience design for spa hotels. It promotes the consideration of existential authenticity in wellness tourism design.Originality/valueThe COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of wellness, drastically increasing the potential of the wellness tourism market. This study investigated the construction of wellness tourism experiencescape and its influence, and the findings can facilitate post-pandemic restoration of the wellness tourism industry. On the basis of SOR model, a chain mediation model was proposed to reveal the influence of wellness tourism experiencescape on revisit intention. Existential authenticity was discovered to play a crucial role in the relationship between wellness tourism experiencescape and revisit intention, which suggests that existential authenticity should be considered during service design and in marketing strategies for wellness tourism.

Factors That Influence Sustainable Selection and Reselection Intentions Regarding Soluble/Instant Coffee—The Case of Serbian Consumers

Soluble or instant espresso coffee in capsules with added values is a product that is increasingly recognized as a healthy lifestyle habit, which often goes together with the expansion of spa centers and spa hotels. In addition to the theoretical and empirical examination of sustainable drinking habits regarding different types of instant espresso coffee in Serbia, the aim was to define, by applying the theory of planned behavior, the relationship between certain factors that influence instant espresso coffee beverage reselection. The research model was developed using a sample of 1385 soluble/instant espresso coffee consumers. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the conceptual model and research hypotheses. The results indicate a statistically significant influence of certain predictors on the intention of consumers to rechoose soluble/instant coffee. One exception is perceived behavioral control, where statistical significance exceeds the allowed values, which indicate that the offer of functional soluble/instant espresso solutions should be extended outside high-quality service hotels and spa centers to be available to all consumers with healthy lifestyle habits. Defining the factors that influence instant espresso coffee reselection can help to understand influences on certain consumer behaviors and improve sustainability on the market.

Social entrepreneurs and employee green behavior: value systems and social context as moderators

Emerging evidence shows that employees can deliver and sabotage entrepreneurs’ environmental performance. Hence, exploring how entrepreneurs can influence employees to maintain and improve environmental performance with work and non-work factors is crucial for managerial and policy interventions. We contribute to the literature by examining the moderating effects of value systems (thus, the opposing bipolar dimensions of self-enhancement-self-transcendence and conservation - openness to change values) and social context on the relationship between Social Entrepreneurship Orientation (SEO) and employee green behavior. Using time-lagged matched data for entrepreneurs and employees (N = 420) from spa hotels in Ghana, our findings show that SEO positively relates to employee green behavior. While this finding is amplified by the moderators, social context recorded a marginal impact. Regardless, social entrepreneurs’ inclination toward the environment influences the corporate behavior of employees, and hotels can seize a favorable social context to enhance their bargaining power on environmental products.

Ways to increase the efficiency of SPA-hotels in a pandemic

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for spa treatments began to decline significantly and this led to the partial or complete cessation of a number of spa complexes. In this situation, the beauty industry began to rapidly lose its credibility in the international service market. Restoring the position of the SPA industry is possible under the conditions of adequate response and rapid adaptation to modern challenges. The subject of the research in the article is the peculiarities of hotel SPA operation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of the article is to determine measures to increase the efficiency of SPA hotels in pandemic conditions. Objectives: elucidation of the concept of "SPA" in modern scientific discourse, as well as the development of mechanisms for optimizing the operation of hotel SPAs in a period of crisis. General scientific methods used to achieve the goal of research: analysis, synthesis, systematization, comparison, abstract-logical method. The results of the study show that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed people's lives. On the one hand, the majority of the population has become much poorer, which has affected their well-being, and on the other hand, the consequences of the disease have led to impaired physical and mental health. In the current situation, in order to maintain and restore the health of the population, SPA institutions should offer consumers loyal prices, individual approach to each client, expand the range of contactless SPA services, implement innovative rehabilitation programs aimed at restoring the body to the post-COVID period in accordance with all anti-epidemic safety measures. Conclusion: therefore, the competent construction of a strategy to maintain health and well-being will allow owners to increase the efficiency of hotels through interesting proposals that will improve profitability, length of stay, cross-selling and retention rates.

HSD12 Assessing the Changes of Spa Hotel Demand in Hungary between 2012 and 2019

In general, the demand for medical tourism is influenced by several factors. The first is an aging population with a growing health problem and discretionary income and leisure. The second is changes in health behaviours that focus on disease prevention. Research seeks the answer to the changes in the demand for medical tourism in recent years in spa hotels.

Architecture of contemporary spa hospitality - current tendencies in designing spa hotels

The emergence of spa tourism as a sector of the wellness tourism marketplace is reflected in contemporary architecture of spa hotels. These facilities are essentially accommodation facilities that offer a variety of individual treatments and services for spaseeking tourists focused on their health and wellness. The primary objective of the research is to investigate current tendencies and strategies in the field of architectural design of spa hotels, as well as to explore successful design approaches. The research begins with elaboration of basic characteristics of modern wellness tourism, followed by the definition of spa hotel as a special type of hospitality facility. Later, classification of modern spa hotel modalities is elaborated and further clarified using relevant case studies. The second part of the research is the analysis of recognized design tendencies in terms of spatial organization of spa hotels. In the conclusion, their further applicability in wider practice is discussed, and certain disadvantages and limitations are listed.

SPA Otel İşletmelerinin Çevrimiçi Müşteri Değerlendirmeleri: Tripadvisor Örneği(Online Customer Reviews for SPA Hotels: The Case of Tripadvisor)

Purpose – This study aims to find out the expectations of customers regarding 5-star SPA hotels in Sapanca, and reveal the factors affecting customer satisfaction in SPA hotels. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative research method was used in the study.485 positive and negative customer reviews made between April 1, 2020, and April 1, 20201 regarding 5-star SPA hotels in Sapanca on Tripadvisor.com were reviewed. These reviews were branched into significant groups through content analysis method and grouped under nine main themes and 54 subthemes. Results – At the end of this study, it was observed that the main review categories were attentiveness in “human resources” category, successful SPA services in “SPA” category, tastiness of food and beverages in “food and beverage” category. Discussion – The internet has radically developed and become widespread in recent years, and online customer reviews has become significant sources of information for tourists. Online reviews are crucial for hotels since they show all aspects of customer satisfactions and dissatisfactions. There are no studies that examined the online customer reviews for SPA hotels in Turkey. This study examines the customer reviews of SPA hotels, and it shows that human resources, SPA, and food & beverage services are the factors that have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction. At the end of this study, it was concluded that the success of SPA services had a significant impact on overall satisfaction at SPA hotels. There are considerable number of reviews about pools at SPA hotels, thus, it shows that the variety and cleanliness of pools should be prioritized. It is also important for a successful SPA facility to have sufficient number of staff, and to recruit professionally trained personnel for massage services.

Business Model to Create Value for a Client of SPA and Wellness Hotels

Purpose: The article aims to identify the components that make up the package of spa and wellness services that provide the value delivered to specific market segments in the business models of hotel enterprises. Design/Methodology/Approach: A survey was conducted using the questionnaire through the computer-assisted internet interview technique. The survey was carried out between November 2020 and February 2021 among 482 representatives of spa and wellness hotels operating in three-, four-, and five-star Hotels in the Polish market. The empirical procedure was carried out using cluster analysis, principal components analysis, and linear regression analysis using Statistica and RStudio. Findings: The research has identified four market segments for which hotels offer spa and wellness services with customer value. In addition, they also made it possible to identify the components and attributes of an offer of value for customers. On their basis, it should be concluded that the higher the facility category, the greater the hotel guests' expectations of value, i.e., the smaller the difference between the expectations and the minimum requirements. As a result, the main task of hotels is to create a business model through an offer that meets expectations and generates value. Practical Implications: The research results may be an inspiration for shaping, modifying, and redefining spa and wellness hotel business models in terms of the value proposed to selected market segments. Originality/Value: Nowadays, due to the changing environment and the organizational crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant number of enterprises are considering modifying their current business model. Thus, the conducted research allowed the issues related to creating value for the client and shaping business models to be supplemented.

MARINA DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LLC., DOING BUSINESS AS BORGATA HOTEL CASINO & SPA V. AC OCEAN WALK LLC, DOING BUSINESS AS OCEAN CASINO RESORT

MARINA DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LLC., DOING BUSINESS AS BORGATA HOTEL CASINO & SPA V. AC OCEAN WALK LLC, DOING BUSINESS AS OCEAN CASINO RESORT

Tendencies in the Development of the Tourism Industry: The Case of the Odessa Region

The main aspects of the tourism industry in the Odessa region, development trends, and features of the activity of specialised accommodation establishments are considered in this article. The main concentration of specialised accommodation establishments is located in the coastal part of the Odessa region. During the period 2011 to 2017, the number of establishments decreased by 40% (spa hotels and holiday centres with treatment), and the number of holiday centres decreased by 85%. The general trend in the health and medical complex is associated with a reduction in the network of institutions, which is associated with economic difficulties, the attraction of the necessary resources for the operational activities of enterprises, and a decline in the quality of services. Trends in the development of the hotel industry and potential opportunities for the development of the infrastructure in the southern part of the Odessa region are considered in the article. Promising areas of tourism development are medical tourism and rural tourism, in combination with gastronomic and wine tourism. One of the programmes that can be adopted to intensify regional development is the EU programme Support for Geographical Indications in Ukraine.

Travellers decision making through preferences learning: A case on Malaysian spa hotels in TripAdvisor

Tourism has been one of the biggest competitive industries in the world. Nowadays, medical and wellness tourism are quickly developing as a part of tourism for health and wellness care. Social networking sites have played an important role in developing these types of tourism. Online reviews on the tourism products in social networking sites are considered rich sources for tourists’ decision making. Machine learning techniques have proved to be effective in analysing the tourists’ online reviews. For big datasets of tourist online reviews, these techniques must be enough robust to accurately discover the hidden relationships of tourists’ preferences in the online reviews. In addition, scalable machine learning techniques are needed for examining big datasets analysis in tourism platforms to timely provide the required information regarding the tourists’ preferences on the products. This paper investigates the effectiveness of a hybrid method using clustering, Higher-Order Singular Value Decomposition (HOSVD) and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) in analysing tourists’ online reviews in TripAdvisor. We use HOSVD to find the similarities among the travellers in the datasets with huge sets of hotels ratings. Then, we use CART to predict travellers’ preferences on the quality dimensions of spa hotels in TripAdvisor. To evaluate the method, the data is collected from the travellers’ online reviews on Malaysian spa hotels in TripAdvisor. The results showed that our method outperforms the methods which solely rely on prediction machine learning techniques. We demonstrate that the use of clustering and prediction machine learning techniques combined with the HOSVD is robust in analysing the tourists’ online reviews for discovering the tourists’ preferences in social networking sites.

Pengaruh Kompetensi dan Kompensasi terhadap Kinerja Karyawan pada Hotel Aneka Lovina Villas and Spa Tahun 2019

This study aims to examine the effect of (1) competence and compensation for employee performance, (2) competence for compensation, (3) competence for employee performance, and (4) compensation for employee performance at various Lovina Villas And Spa hotels. The research design used in this study is causal quantitative. The subjects of this study were employees at the Hotel Aneka Lovina Villas and Spa and the object was competence, compensation, and employee performance. The population in this research is all employees of all employees who work at Aneka Hotel Lovina Villas and Spa, amounting to 44 employees. All populations are made as observation units, therefore this study is included as population research. Data collected by questionnaire technique, then analyzed by path analysis. The results showed that, (1) competence and compensation had a positive effect on employee performance, (2) competence had a positive effect on compensation, (3) competence had a positive effect on employee performance, and (4) compensation had a positive effect on employee performance at Aneka Lovina Hotel Villas and Spa. Keywords: employee performance, compensation, competence

TRENDS IN THE TOURISTIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROSE VALLEY UNDER CONDITIONS OF PANDEMIC RESTRICTIONS

The pandemic restrictions have created conditions for the stagnation or collapse of a significant number of businesses in Bulgaria. One of the most attractive regions - the Rose Valley, is characterized as a leading touristic destination for both local and foreign tourists. The aim of the present work is to establish how the pandemic period has affected the touristic sites of a various nature in the Rose Valley and to make suggestions which could contribute to the implementation of measures for the future development of the region as a touristic destination. The method applied is a standard face-to-face interview with representatives of touristic sites in the Rose Valley. The results from the survey show that the touristic flow has shrunk during 2020-2021, except for the spa hotels included in the study. The structure of the tourists has also undergone some changes. In conclusion, the fact that all types of touristic sites intend to look for ways to maintain and increase the touristic flow in the near future is a favorable sign.

Spa hotels: Factors promoting wellness travelers’ postpurchase behavior

Our purpose in this study was to provide a clear understanding of spa hotel customers’ behavioral intention formation by examining the intricate relationships among quality, emotion (pleasure and arousal), satisfaction, and desire, and their effect on behavioral intention. Participants were 300 customers who had visited a spa hotel and used spa services in South Korea at least once within the past 3 years. Results showed the criticality of 3 spa quality dimensions (tangibility, assurance, and empathy) in eliciting pleasure. In addition, pleasure significantly contributed to improving satisfaction and desire, both of which led to behavioral intention. Results also showed that pleasure, satisfaction, and desire played a crucial mediating role in the theoretical framework. Finally, we successfully built a theoretical framework that efficiently links spa quality → emotion → satisfaction/desire → behavioral intention in a sequential manner.

Hong Kong Millennials’ Intention to Visit Local Hotel Spas

ABSTRACT Visiting spas has become a popular activity in Hong Kong. Particularly, millennials are increasingly prone to visiting spas, it is essential for spa managers to understand their characteristics and utilize resources in attracting them. This study aims to understand Hong Kong millennials’ behavioral intention towards local hotel spas. An online questionnaire was distributed to collect data from 250 participants. The preliminary results indicate that of the seven spa attributes examined, ‘price’ was rated as the most important, followed by ‘therapists.’ Moreover, ‘price,’ ‘location,’ ‘product,’ and ‘promotion’ were the four factors with significant impacts on millennials’ booking intention. In addition, mobile device usage was found to moderate the impact of spa attributes on millennials’ visiting intentions. Managerial implications are discussed.

Market segmentation and travel choice prediction in Spa hotels through TripAdvisor’s online reviews

Customer segmentation via online reviews and ratings can assist different hotels, including spa hotels, to better inform marketing strategy development and ensure optimal marketing expenditures. However, traditional market segmentation approaches are ineffective in analysing social data on account of size, different dimensions and features of online review data. Machine learning approaches can assist in developing effective hybrid algorithms to overcome data-related complications associated with online reviews. Hence, the objective of this study is to develop a method for spa hotel segmentation and travel choice prediction by applying machine learning approaches. Method evaluation is conducted through a collection of datasets from travelers’ ratings and textual reviews of spa hotels on several features in TripAdvisor. Findings confirm that the proposed hybrid machine learning methods can be implemented as an incremental recommendation agent for spa hotel/resort segmentation through effectively utilizing ‘big data’ procured from online social media contexts.

Czy 100 najlepszych hoteli spa w Polsce to rzeczywiście ośrodki spa?

Czy 100 najlepszych hoteli spa w Polsce to rzeczywiście ośrodki spa?

Good food, clean rooms and friendly staff: Implications of user-generated content for Slovenian skiing, sea and spa hotels’ management

Good food, clean rooms and friendly staff: Implications of user-generated content for Slovenian skiing, sea and spa hotels’ management