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“What is beautiful we book”: hotel visual appeal and expected service quality
Abstract
Purpose
This research investigated the effect of hotel aesthetics as represented in on-line spaces (e.g. OTA website) in prospective guests’ evaluation of expected service quality and booking intentions, as well as the interplay between aesthetic and functional values as related to those outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
A scenario-based experimental design was conducted with 203 Chinese respondents. A between-subject two way MANCOVA (high vs. low aesthetic value; high vs. low functional value), which also controlled for respondents’ individual tendency to appreciate beauty, was employed.
Findings
Results showed that high aesthetic value hotels are more likely to be booked and perceived as able to deliver better services in SERVQUAL dimensions Tangibles, Reliability, and Assurance. There are no significant effects for Responsiveness and Empathy. Given the presence of the aesthetic effect, hotel functional value has no impact on the outcome variables.
Practical implications
Practical implications – Hotel managers are recommended to employ professional photographer-artists who are aware of the aesthetic value of hotels and can translate this value into IT-mediated spaces. Such professionals should be able to create a composition that balances the elements of classic (e.g. symmetry vs. asymmetry) and expressive (e.g. color) aesthetics.
Originality/value
This research brings out a number of insights form the product experience literature in the hospitality context and points to the limitations of the product visual attractiveness in engendering positive service quality evaluation.
... Given the importance of multisensory elements, numerous studies have begun exploring their roles in customer behavior and marketing (Shahid et al., 2022). According to Kirillova and Chan (2018), the appearance and interior visual design of hotels directly influence customers' first impressions and overall experiences. Hotels with high aesthetic value are more likely to be booked and provide more reliable service quality (L. ...
... Hotels with high aesthetic value are more likely to be booked and provide more reliable service quality (L. Hou & Pan, 2023; J. R. Kirillova & Chan, 2018). Wen et al. (2020) investigated the significance of auditory stimuli, discovering that music has the capacity to elicit emotional responses from customers. ...
... Li et al., 2018). This significance is attributed to the fact that sensory perceptions fundamentally mediate our interaction with the environment, guiding cognition and behavioral responses through sensory information and resultant subjective experiences (Kirillova & Chan, 2018). ...
Images, with their direct content experience, have become essential in tourists’ narratives of accommodation sharing. Although visual content plays an important role in influencing user decisions, research on hotel images often neglects the significance of sensory elements. Sensory elements in visual content help shape tourists’ perceptions and evaluations of their accommodation experiences. This study explores how sensory elements in marketing and review images affect hotel sales from a sensory perspective. The research employs a combination of hybrid machine vision and econometric methods to examine how visual, tactile, auditory, and smell elements influence hotel sales. These results reveal the relationship among sensory elements in marketing and review images, their discrepancies, and hotel sales. The primary theoretical significance of this study is in analyzing how sensory elements in image content influence hotel sales, providing a unique sensory perspective for tourist decision-making and hotel marketing strategies.
... In marketing, aesthetics is regarded as a key factor in building a business operation's competitive advantages (Aljukhadar et al., 2020;Kirillova & Chan, 2018). High aesthetic value tends to attract consumer attention, enable quality consumer experience and lead to behavioural responses beneficial to the brand (Bloch, 1995). ...
... As an important stage of human information processing, aesthetics plays a decisive role in forming a good first impression (Bloch, 1995). Aesthetics is considered vital in marketing, especially, as hedonic benefits can be well presented through aesthetic appeal (Kirillova & Chan, 2018). Most studies suggest that aesthetic value is mainly provided by visual content and influenced by its quality and attraction (Marder et al., 2021). ...
... First of all, aesthetic attributes can be used as cues for potential tourists to evaluate the utility of travelling to a destination, which will largely determine whether tourists classify a destination as beautiful or ugly, and further influence destination selection. Kirillova and Chan (2018) found that hotels with high aesthetic value are considered to be able to provide better service and more likely to successfully attract bookings. In online marketing, aesthetic qualities of destinations and hotels are always highlighted to the public (Kirillova & Chan, 2018). ...
Based on aesthetics and inspiration perspectives, this study applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to investigate the configurations of aesthetic and travel inspiration variables that lead to audience’s intention to share SfTV. The study identified six configurations between the four aesthetic value constructs and the two travel inspiration constructs explaining audience’s sharing intention, which can be further summarized into four typical modes: ‘destination reputation-inspiration’, ‘presenter physical beauty-inspiration’, ‘video aesthetics-inspiration’ and ‘presenter physical beauty-video aesthetics-inspiration’. The study emphasized the key role of travel inspiration, as it always presents as the core condition in each configuration, while obvious substitution can be found with aesthetic value factors. This study provided new insights of the relationship between configuration effects of aesthetic value and inspiration and audience intention to share SfTV, which can be applied in industry practices.
... Moreover, researchers in marketing have determined that individuals known as visual learners represent most of the world's population (Kędra, 2018). Such a significant peculiarity pertinent to human behaviour as perception through visualisation has proliferated a research stream in the domain of marketing which examines the effects of visual appearance presentation on the product's commercial performance (Kirillova and Chan, 2018). ...
... In this domain of studies, researchers determined the positive effects evoked by the larger number of digital hotel images and their shorter text descriptions . Furthermore, prior research has determined that appropriate reflection of the hotel's appearance, aesthetics and design symbolism communication in the hotel's online images may generate greater customer expectations and thus predispose booking decisions (Baek and Ok, 2017;Kirillova and Chan, 2018). Another notable study in the relevant research domain investigated the role of hotel picture positioning on the website. ...
... Hotel digital images in hotel e-commerce. Literature highlights the significance of photography in hotel marketing (Kirillova and Chan, 2018;Back et al., 2020;Kim et al., 2021). As priorly noted, the issue of product intangibility is substantial in the hotel due to customers' inability to perceive the location, room interior, amenities, smell, and room view before checking in the hotel. ...
Photographic images help customers perceive product information more accurately and clearly. A customer’s perception of a particular product also influences their decision to purchase it. In the context of a hotel, guests evaluate digital hotel photos online during their booking decision process. While a large body of research has contributed to the understanding of how hotel online digital images shape hotel customer behaviour, little is known about the aesthetics, content, and composition of hotel images and their effects on booking decisions. In addition, previous research has routinely been criticised for having methodological limitations. These studies have routinely used surveys and experiments to explore how hotel pictures affect customer perception of the hotel and his/her booking intentions. Unlike prior studies, this research scopes a determination of the ‘selling’ properties pertinent to the hotel’s digital images placed online on the hotel-themed websites with the application of the latest technologies pursuant to visual data mining, processing and analysis. This study employed Google’s Inception v3 neural network as an AI solution for embedding and classifying hotel photo images with the further application of logistic regression and fuzzy cognitive mapping method. The results of the present study determined the hotel picture properties that may engender positive customer perception of the hotel and sequentially can precipitate hotel booking. The revealed ‘selling’ hotel image properties comprise (a) light and time of the photo shooting, (b) image colour scheme, (c) human presence, and (d) shooting angle. This study suggests a set of practical recommendations to hotel marketers to develop ‘selling’ photo images that generate hotel bookings online. The completed research is one of the first in the nascent literature stream in AI-powered computer vision solutions studies to determine the effects of photo aesthetics on online hotel bookings.
... Hotel appearance has become a form of commodified enchantment, the product of an aesthetics process that aims to create novelty, surprise, and excitement to generate profits [6]. Hotel and interior design evidently play an important aspect to sustain hotel in market [7]. ...
... The description of each SID criteria findings is then summarised in Table 1. It was found that the retrieved SID criteria aligned to previous research and literature [2], [3], [6], [8], [9], [15]. The description leads to the rationale of components division for each of the criteria and how it can impact to the hotel's performance effectiveness during operational stage. ...
Maintaining the hotel’s operational stage and its tangible value is significant for hotel industry as the industry relies on customer satisfaction towards the service. Since the hotel industry services are vary and complex, it is crucial to recognize the contextual characteristics and understand the surrounding environment of operations through its performance effectiveness during its operational. However, issues on the maintenance management of aesthetic performance, service hospitality and awareness on sustainable interiors products are significant concerns in the hotel’s performance in operational stage. Hence, this paper aims to develop a conceptual framework consisting of the sustainable interior design (SID) criteria and components that relates to hotel’s operational performance effectiveness. A semi-structured interview was carried out in this study involving 18 experts comprises of interior designers’, architects, and maintenance managers of green certified hotels. The data is analysed using ATLAS.ti9© qualitative software. The findings revealed that there are eight (8) sustainable interior design (SID) components consists of biophilic, energy efficiency, water consumption, health and social flexibility, environmental comfort, ergonomics, green awareness as well as sustainable site planning and management. It was found that there are 37 SID components sub-divided from the criteria which relates to the hotel’s performance effectiveness. This study is significant for the hoteliers in identifying critical elements contributed to the successful performance by integrating facilities management to the SID.
... In particular, these studies have been confined to skewed areas of the hospitality sector such as aesthetics of a hotels' websites [32], plantations [33], aesthetic labour [28,34], as well as visual servicescape [34,35,36]. Additionally, these scholars have only concentrated on service aesthetics that considered sparse areas by commonly focusing on a single context such as restaurants, hotels or attractions [37,38,34,39]. ...
... These outcomes are in line with that of [37] who explored aesthetic dimensions in a nature-based tourism context and identified five dimensions of aesthetics that customers patronize, viz harmony, variation/contrast, scenery/viewing, genuineness, and art/architecture with majority of the respondents vouching for harmony and variation/contrast as the central dimensions. Also [32,112], avers that visual product aesthetics are embedded in tourism. Similarly [99], states that taste aesthetic contributes to the total satisfaction or experience of tourists. ...
Purpose
The study examines the role of aesthetics in tourist satisfaction in the Ghanaian hospitality industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is quantitative and cross-sectional in nature. A total of 5 tourist destinations and 350 tourists were selected using purposive sampling technique. Data for the study was gathered using self-reported questionnaires and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). A total of 300 retrieved questionnaires representing 85.7 % of response rate was used for data analysis.
Findings
The study results proved that the three main types of aesthetics that influence tourists' visitation to tourist destinations are visual product aesthetics, package aesthetics and taste aesthetics. The study also discovered that visual product aesthetics, package aesthetics and taste aesthetics had significant positive correlations with tourist satisfaction. Again, the results established that, aesthetic types (visual product aesthetics and package aesthetics) have significant positive impact on tourists' satisfaction whereas taste aesthetics has a negative effect on tourists’ satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The Ghanaian hospitality sector should push creativity to new heights by ensuring that venues change their appearance and ambiance through the use of creative lights, music, and food setups, so as to often attract consumers and offer them a completely unique experience each time. The hospitality sector also need to provide more effective and dependable channels for user complaints, recommendations, and contributions, as well as consumer feedback systems.
Originality/value
The study adds to literature on aesthetics and tourist satisfaction as well as contributes to the agenda towards tourist destination sustainability.
... Akbaba (2006) found that the perceived quality of the rooms was a determinant of guest satisfaction and repeat patronage, while Juwaheer and Ross (2003) found that room attractions and décor positively impacted the service quality perception. Kirillova and Chan (2018) showed that when a hotel projected higher esthetic value, it was regarded as having superior physical facilities, higher quality, and as being more dependable. ...
... Many studies used the physical environment as a component of the hotel's service quality. Many studies (i.e., Juwaheer and Ross, 2003;Akbaba, 2006;Kirillova and Chan, 2018) measured the physical environment by using the SERVQUAL scale to measure service quality, which also has a component of the physical environment within it. Only a few studies, such as Surucu et al. (2019)) and Liu et al. (2020), investigated actual perceptions of the physical environment quality. ...
... The pipa's aesthetics are intricately entwined with Chinese culture in addition to its musical prowess (Muzyka et al., 2021). The instrument captures the essence of these artistic creations, turning calligraphy, painting, and poetry into lovely musical renditions (Kirillova & Chan, 2018). Each performance turns into a canvas on which the performer paints a complex narrative, using the pipa as a brush to produce colourful soundscapes that whisk viewers away to legendary worlds and ancient Chinese landscapes (Sahhar, Loohuis, & Henseler, 2022). ...
... In many facets of art, design, and human perception, aesthetics and expressiveness are two interrelated ideas that are essential (Muzyka et al., 2021). Aesthetics, to start, is the study of beauty and visual appeal in all forms of art, nature, and even commonplace objects (Kirillova & Chan, 2018). The study of aesthetics is concerned with the sensations and feelings that are brought on by a pleasing combination of objects, hues, patterns, and textures (Trautmann, 2021). ...
Purpose: The focus of this study is the pipa, a classic Chinese plucked string instrument with a rich historical and cultural background. Theoretical Framework: The instructional significance of pipa aesthetics within the context of Chinese music education is explored in this journal article. The main goal is to investigate the aesthetics of pipa performance's influence on music education while also taking into account the critical function of cultural surroundings in influencing the learning process. Method: The research uses a mixed-method approach to accomplish this, combining qualitative data from observations and interviews with quantitative data gained from surveys and performance evaluations. Results: The findings provide important new understandings of pipa aesthetics' specific characteristics and its wider implications for music education, both within and outside of China. Conclusions: The results of this study help us understand how traditional musical forms might enhance modern music teaching techniques and promote a deeper respect for artistic expression and cultural heritage.
... Literature on the effects of design characteristics of buildings on people's experience of hospitality suggests that aesthetics is a related factor in attracting people to buildings. When designing service environments, attention to aesthetics is particularly important (Kirillova & Chan, 2018). Designers may focus on visual design, with the main objective of increasing attractiveness (Grewal, Baker, Levy, & Voss, 2003;Kirillova & Chan, 2018;Orth & Wirtz, 2014), especially when applied in exterior design of the building (Baker et al., 2020, Lecointre-Erickson, Adil, Daucé, & Legohérel, 2021. ...
... When designing service environments, attention to aesthetics is particularly important (Kirillova & Chan, 2018). Designers may focus on visual design, with the main objective of increasing attractiveness (Grewal, Baker, Levy, & Voss, 2003;Kirillova & Chan, 2018;Orth & Wirtz, 2014), especially when applied in exterior design of the building (Baker et al., 2020, Lecointre-Erickson, Adil, Daucé, & Legohérel, 2021. Kim and Moon (2009) show that an attractive environment will lead to more positive emotions than an unattractive environment. ...
... Toufani et al. (2017) berpendapat bahwa elemen estetika produk dapat menyebabkan niat beli oleh pembeli pribadi (bukan bisnis). Kirillova & Chan (2018) mengeksplorasi pengaruh atribut estetika pada barang tak berwujud (jasa) terhadap niat beli (pemesanan). Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa konsumen akan lebih senang melakukan pemesanan terhadap jasa dengan nilai estetika yang lebih tinggi. ...
... Hasil pengujian hipotesis H1a menunjukkan bahwa hipotesis tidak ditolak, artinya, estetika dapat memengaruhi niat beli secara positif. Hasil penelitian ini sejalan dengan penelitian terdahulu yang menemukan pengaruh positif estetika terhadap niat beli (Toufani et al., 2017;Bigoin-Gagnan & Lacoste-Badie, 2018;Kirillova & Chan, 2018;Cui et al., 2022). Elemen estetika yang tampil dalam unsur material, gambar, motif, model, dan warna yang bervariasi pada koleksi produk pakaian suatu merek membuatnya terlihat bagus untuk dilihat, sehingga konsumen suka untuk melihat produk pakaian tersebut. ...
Bisnis pakaian mengalami perkembangan pesat mengikuti tren yang sedang berlangsung, kreativitas, dan lifestyle, sehingga mengakibatkan ketatnya persaingan di antara para pelaku bisnis ini. Salah satu hal yang dapat menciptakan penjualan yang tinggi untuk mengungguli para pesaing adalah tingginya niat beli konsumen. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menguji pengaruh estetika, kesadaran nilai, dan citra toko pada niat beli produk pakaian suatu merek yang dimediasi oleh nilai emosional dan sikap. Sebanyak 252 data dikumpulkan melalui kuesioner online dan dianalisis dengan PLS-SEM. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa (1) Estetika memengaruhi niat beli secara positif dan signifikan, (2) Nilai emosional memengaruhi niat beli secara positif dan signifikan, (3) Sikap memengaruhi niat beli secara positif dan signifikan, (4) Estetika memengaruhi nilai emosional secara positif dan signifikan, (5) Citra toko memengaruhi sikap secara positif dan signifikan, (6) Nilai emosional secara positif dan signifikan memediasi hubungan antara estetika dan nilai beli, serta (7) Sikap secara positif dan signifikan memediasi hubungan antara citra toko dan niat beli. Temuan dalam penelitian ini mengonfirmasi bahwa tingginya estetika produk pakaian dapat memotivasi nilai emosional dan niat beli. Citra toko yang baik dapat memengaruhi sikap dan niat beli. Temuan tersebut mendorong para produsen dan toko retail pakaian perlu memperhatikan faktor-faktor tersebut dalam menjual produk-produk pakaiannya untuk menciptakan keunggulan kompetitif.
... Genc and Genc (2022) discovered that aesthetic experience moderated the relationship between existential authenticity and satisfaction with a heritage site but did not play a role in the relationship between objective, constructive authenticity and satisfaction. In the hotel setting, Kirillova and Chan (2018) experimentally compared aesthetic and functional value of hotels (as represented by photographs) in terms of motivating tourists to make bookings and as tourists, what they expect the service quality is to be. Research found that high aesthetic value hotels are more likely to have high booking rates and are perceived to provide better service quality along the SERVQUAL dimensions of reliability, assurance, and tangibility. ...
... Others (e.g. Breiby & Slåtten, 2015;Kirillova & Chan, 2018;Kirillova & Lehto, 2015) focused on how destination/hotel context (inputs) directly affects aesthetic judgements and emotions (outputs), without accounting for the experiential nature of tourism aesthetics. Zheng et al. (2022) attempted to overcome the (subject-object) distinction with the concept of Yijing, which implies a more holistic process of aesthetic appreciation without separating the experience into aesthetic properties and judgements, which is also somewhat in line with Benjamin's aura and Böhme's atmosphere. ...
This systematic literature review identifies major trends that guided tourism research on beauty and aesthetics, critiques its current state, and proposes directions to advance tourism theory and practice. The review categorizes 39 studies into five themes corralled into two meta-themes: Consuming aesthetic value (Aesthetic Judgement & Experiences, Effects of Tourism Aesthetics, Tourism Aesthetics & Sustainability) and Producing aesthetic value (Foundational Issues in Aesthetics Management, Management of Destination Aesthetics). Proposed
future research directions include challenging West European aesthetic ideas, considering the perspectives of destination residents, and expanding research to aesthetic categories beyond the beautiful. The article also launches the Annals of Tourism Research Curated Collection on Beauty & Aesthetics in Tourism. The Collection contains all past articles published in Annals of Tourism Research on the topic, and continues to grow as new articles are added.
... Taking this into consideration will help researchers in the future. The aesthetics of a hotel is "a major element motivating consumers' hotel booking intention," according to Kirillova and Chan (2018) study. ...
... Photos or videos, for instance, can show hotel staff members assisting visitors with special needs (such elderly or young guests) or visitors having trouble. (Kirillova & Chan, 2018). ...
It's common to think of tourism as a global company that contributes effectively to a country's economic growth. The tourism sector relies largely on hotel services as one of the fastest-growing industries ithe a recent decade. Domestic tourists in China brought in $187.5 billion in income in 2010. Outbound tourism is also undergoing an incredible shift. Consequently, the purpose of this essay is to find out how hotel visitors rate the quality of their internet service. By utilizing a conceptual framework that encompasses both theory and conceptualization, this research aims to provide an accurate and reliable way to assess the quality of online hotel service. Regression & path analysis were used to evaluate the model based on information gleaned from an online survey of hotel guests. Information, responsiveness, site aesthetics, personalization, and security are the five essential online hotel service quality aspects found in confirmatory factor analysis. The proposed online service quality model and its management and theoretical consequences are explored in this study.
... Aesthetics play a crucial role in shaping consumers' perception of the value of a product (Kirillova and Chan, 2018). Innovative and visually appealing designs can increase market demand for children's medical products, especially for parents. ...
Background
With the rising global demand for medical syringes among children, the unsuitability of traditional syringes may negatively affect their physical and mental health.
Methods
This study integrates the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to survey 455 child guardians on 10 variables influencing their attitudes toward pediatric medical syringes.
Results
Results indicate that aesthetic preferences of users significantly influence the price value sensitivity and purchasing decisions of children's guardians. Furthermore, the product's function and price value significantly shape users' behavioral intentions. Technology anxiety and time and error reduction emerge as key factors influencing perceived risks.
Conclusions
This study offers product designers crucial insights into purchasing factors for children's medical products, aims to enhance product development and iteration efficiency, and promotes more accurate innovation, decision-making, and communication. Additionally, it proposes new recommendations for ethical and marketing strategies.
... Research indicates that aesthetic qualities significantly enhance customer experiences, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty (Apaolaza et al., 2020;Breiby & Slåtten, 2018). For instance, the aesthetic appeal of hospitality environments, such as hotels, has been shown to positively influence perceived service quality, which in turn affects customer satisfaction and loyalty (Apaolaza et al., 2020; Kirillova & Chan, 2018). Similarly, in online shopping, webpage aesthetics enhance perceived e-service quality, thereby improving customer satisfaction and fostering loyalty (Peng et al., 2017;Tey & Mahmoud, 2020). ...
IntroductionSharia-compliant hospitality is gaining prominence globally, particularly in Indonesia, where Islamic values increasingly influence consumer preferences. Despite the growing demand for Sharia-compliant hotels, research on the factors driving customer satisfaction and loyalty in this niche remains limited.Objectives
This study investigates the relationships between key factors—self-satisfaction, aesthetics, price, prestige, transactional value, hedonic value, and quality—and customer satisfaction and loyalty in Sharia-compliant hotels in Yogyakarta. It aims to identify which factors most significantly impact these constructs and how satisfaction translates into loyalty.Method
The study employed a quantitative approach, collecting data from 113 customers of three Sharia-compliant hotels in Yogyakarta using a structured questionnaire. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the relationships among variables and test hypotheses.ResultsThe findings revealed that self-satisfaction, price, transactional value, hedonic value, and quality significantly enhance customer satisfaction, while satisfaction strongly predicts loyalty. Aesthetics and prestige, however, did not exhibit significant effects. These results suggest that customers prioritize adherence to Islamic principles, fair pricing, and service quality over visual appeal or social status.ImplicationsThe study underscores the importance of integrating Sharia principles with high-quality services and transparent transactions to meet customer expectations and foster loyalty. It provides actionable insights for practitioners seeking to differentiate their offerings in the competitive Islamic hospitality sector.Originality/NoveltyThis study contributes to the body of knowledge on Islamic hospitality by integrating service quality frameworks with Sharia principles, offering a nuanced understanding of customer satisfaction and loyalty in this context.
... It can be considered a comprehensive customer evaluation of a special service and the extent to which it meets their expectations and provides satisfaction. The success and survival of service-related organizations hinges on the quality of their services, particularly in environments of intense competition, as stated by Kirillova and Chan (2018) and Sharma and Srivastava (2018). Since the market is a customer-oriented economy where the customer has the right to choose, all organizations strive to give a high service quality to customers in order to increase customer satisfaction (Zainul, 2019). ...
The aims of this study are to 1) study the level of service quality of small boutique hotels in Pattaya City, (2) study the behaviors of Domestic workcation tourists at small boutique hotels in Pattaya City, and (3) suggest guidelines for the service quality development of small boutique hotels that attract domestic workcation tourists in Pattaya City. Small boutique hotels are presently dispersed around the globe, especially in Pattaya City, Thailand, where small boutique hotels are plentiful. Meanwhile, the concept of ‘workcation’ is more recognizable due to its concept of ‘anywhere is an office’. Although this concept is not new, limited studies concerning workcation tourists were found, particularly studies of service quality among small boutique hotels as well as workcation tourists’ behaviors. A mixed research method was used to accomplish the research objectives. For quantitative research, a validated questionnaire was refined to collect data from targeted samples of 400 domestic workcation tourists who had stayed at small boutique hotels in Pattaya City. For qualitative research, a semi-structured in-depth interview was organized to collect data from 30 small boutique hotel entrepreneurs in Pattaya. The results indicated that domestic workcation tourists prioritize the following service quality factors: tangibility (x̄ = 4.51), responsiveness (x̄ = 4.51), reliability (x̄ = 4.48), assurance (x̄ = 4.29), and empathy (x̄ = 4.35). For behavioral studies, the findings revealed that domestic workcation tourists usually traveled alone, spent only one night at the hotels, stayed over five times per year, preferred July–September as a travel period, obtained hotel information via social media, and regularly made reservations through social media platforms. Having an internet connection was crucial to them. Lastly, three dimensions of guidelines were formulated, including human resource development, organization development, and information technology development. The findings give valuable insights for tourism stakeholders to cater domestic workcation tourists in response to the blooming of small boutique hotels in Pattaya, Thailand and other equivalent areas.
... In this regard, the proposed model contributes to the research field by providing a comprehensive checklist that includes contemporary fundamental elements (e.g. mobile, compelling visual elements, value propositions, and relational function) to classify hotels based on their DOB competence, allowing hotel businesses to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and improve their performance and returns (Bufquin et al., 2020;Green and Lomanno, 2016;Kirillova and Chan, 2018;Law, 2019;Le et al., 2020). ...
Hotel businesses focus on diversifying the tools on their hotel web and mobile sites to drive higher returns, conversions, and profit. This orientation has also converged with the pandemic effects. In response to these challenges and opportunities, this study aims to propose a model for assessing the direct online booking competence of hotel businesses via their web and mobile sites. Designed as a multiple case study including 22 hotels, the study proposes an assessment framework (web and mobile site-based direct online booking competence) with an extensive checklist of 107 items in six dimensions (informative and experiential content, user interface, promotional, mobile, and crisis communication). The framework is also effective to classify hotels according to their web and mobile site-based direct online booking competence such as optimal, effective, functional, dynamic, and practical performers with reference to their strengths and weaknesses. The framework serves as a comprehensive assessment tool for hotel businesses to evaluate their position in relation to their competitors and improve their direct online booking competence. Potential customers also consider the necessity of all the index items in hotel web and mobile sites; however, promotional competence followed by mobile and crisis communication is regarded as the most critical dimension.
... The purpose of visual appeal is to create a favourable impression among those who visit a website for various purposes, such as gathering information or engaging in purchases (Akalamkam and Mitra 2018;Lee and Jeong 2012). Kirillova and Chan (2018) argue that visual appeal plays a crucial role in evaluating how well the consumer understands the visual elements employed in technology-mediated content. They assert that websites with significant content must employ visually appealing layouts in order to attract visitors (Van der Geest and Dongelen 2009). ...
Augmented Reality serves as a marketing strategy for businesses but investigation of the quality factors of AR in the beauty industry of developing countries, is still in its early stages. The motive is to investigates the impact of the quality characteristics of Augmented Reality on customers’ behavior intentions, considering parallel and serial mediation of Visual appeal and Arousal, using Information System success model. Data has been obtained from 594 respondents and analyzed using SPSS22.0 and AMOS.V.24. Structural equation modelling analysis was used to uncover the hypothesised relationships in the research model. System quality and Vividness strongly influence behavior intention. Visual appeal and Arousal both parallelly and serially mediated AR quality elements’ effect on Behavior intention. The results demonstrated full mediation between content quality and behavior intention and partial mediation between quality characteristics (system quality and vividness) and behavior intention. Study can be implemented in the fashion industry of developing countries, that have their websites and use AR technology to have a positive behavior intention of consumers towards their products. Through AR, consumers will have an enhanced and captivating experience as a consumer will feel how after applying these products she will look. Study can assist beauty brands in the fashion industry in promoting their products and engaging consumers towards their brand products. Study adds to the pertinent body of knowledge as the use of AR technology has been undergoing a significant shift specifically in fashion industry in emerging nations like India. Study evaluates the parallel and serial mediating effect of visual appeal and arousal on AR quality factors and behavior intention using IS success model. This study closes the gap between improving AR qualities and providing industry implications aimed at enhancing AR features to boost positive consumer behaviors.
... For instance, design, art concept, style, location, high levels of service, novelty, and brand identification are found to be the primary dimensions of lifestyle hotel guests' perceptions [23][24][25][26]. The second group is related to aesthetic perceptions; for example, higher aesthetic value in the lifestyle hotel context is considered to mean having superior physical facilities and a higher level of service and being more deserving of trust and confidence [27]. Aesthetic characteristics, such as traditional architecture, modern furniture, design-led elements, style, distinction and intimacy, are distinguished from operational characteristics, such as staff, amenities, food, and fitness centres [1]. ...
The purpose of this study is to systematically explore lifestyle hotel guests' aesthetic experiences. This study adopts word frequency analysis, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modelling analysis and manual coding to systematically analyse 11,239 online reviews posted by guests from 131 lifestyle hotels in eight cities in China. A framework is developed to organize the identified themes and illustrate lifestyle hotel guests' aesthetic experiences. The framework revealed that lifestyle hotels embrace the concept of “bleisure” travel—blending business and leisure by offering high-end lodging, flexible tourism destination elements, and event services that cater to the needs of today's independent guests. The findings suggest that lifestyle hotel guests stress multiple functions of a hotel, especially the spiritual. Guided by the aesthetic experience at lifestyle hotels, hotel managers can cater to the full spectrum of hotel guests' aesthetic experience when implementing marketing strategies.
... It is pertinent to clarify that the term "aesthetics" is interpreted here as encompassing a holistic sensory perception rather than adhering to Kant's classical philosophical notion of disinterestedness. While the aesthetics of tourism indeed embrace an extensive array of sensory experiences [11,12], the present study predominantly concentrates on the visual aspects, recognizing that visual interactions frequently stand out most prominently in tourists' engagements with the natural world. ...
Aesthetic expectations often constitute the primary focus in marketing nature-based tourist destinations. However, academic research has insufficiently explored the disparity between tourists’ aesthetic expectations and the actual aesthetic quality maintenance in shaping satisfaction. Employing the Expectation Confirmation Theory, this study utilized structural equation modeling techniques to analyze survey data (n = 446). It proposed and tested an Aesthetic Expectation Confirmation Model to examine the relationship between aesthetic expectations, experiential qualities, and tourist satisfaction in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. The empirical findings show that aesthetic expectations have a direct, negative impact on satisfaction, while aesthetic expectation confirmation has a positive direct impact on satisfaction. Moreover, aesthetic expectation confirmation also plays a mediating role in the influence of aesthetic expectations and experiential quality on satisfaction. Specifically, aesthetic expectations indirectly impact satisfaction negatively through aesthetic expectation confirmation, whereas aesthetic experiential qualities have a positive, indirect impact on satisfaction through the same process. These findings offer theoretical contributions to the literature on forest recreation aesthetics and hold practical significance for the planning and management of destination aesthetics.
... Similarly, hotel interior design has the potential to affect a guest. Although no empirical research on transformative hotel designs exist, Alfakhri et al. (2018) demonstrated that hotel aesthetics and interior design are as important as functional elements, while Kirillova and Chan (2018) showed that beautiful hotels are perceived to deliver superior service quality. Guests, however, tend to approach hotel aesthetics holistically, including visual, gustatory, olfactory, auditory, and tactile dimensions (Alfakhri et al., 2018). ...
Given the significance of transformation and the conceptualization of experiences that incorporate corporate social responsibility in their design to satisfy customers, this paper develops the concept of ethically transformative experiences and their consequences in commercial hotels. We define such experiences as occurrences that trigger outward-directed, lasting changes in a customer, manifested as future responsible consumption choices. We propose a design framework for such experiences and argue that hospitality and tourism organizations, with the micro-environment of a hotel as an example, are well positioned to design ethically transformative experiences. The outcome, a responsible consumer, amounts to a public good, providing a potential path for businesses to attain societal purpose and demonstrating connections between micro and macro-levels of transformation.
... In addition, the study could offer better services regarding the SERVQUAL attributes of tangibility, reliability, and assurance. Furthermore, Kirillova & Chan (2018) observed no significant effects on responsiveness and empathy in their research. Considering the aesthetic appeal, the hotel's utilitarian value had little effect on the outcomes. ...
Online reviews are essential in the travel and hotel businesses. Because there are various types of hotels, customers frequently read online hotel reviews before making a reservation. The ability to distinguish between positive and negative reviews at luxury hotels according to SERVQUAL attributes of tangibility, reliability, empathy, responsiveness, and assurance could help hotels identify problems, prioritize solutions, and offer better services to Luxury hotels. The study outcomes will assist hotel management in gaining complete knowledge of client complaints regarding service difficulties and promoting service enhancements. This study was conducted to examine and analyze the content of positive and negative customer reviews from Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor in five-star hotels in Manila. SERVQUAL dimensions were used to classify positive and negative reviews from the selected OTAs in five-star hotels in Manila. Findings revealed that the responsiveness dimension in the recreational services area received the highest number of customer reviews than any other service area of the hotels gathered from the selected OTAs of the study.
... Service quality is a significant factor contributing to the growth and success of organizations (Sangeeta et al. 2006). Perceived service quality is defined as a consumer's judgment of the excellence of a service provided by a firm (Kirillova & Chan, 2018). All efforts with the aim of customer satisfaction and helping them to receive the most value from purchased products and services are called customer service (Yen & Su, 2004). ...
Nowadays, the COVID-19 pandemic has had many harmful effects on the hotel industry. This study aims to identify and prioritize the factors affecting SERVQUAL in the hotel industry and evaluates five-star hotels during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The present study prioritizes the influence factors of SERVQUAL using the stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) method and using the Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) method to identify the best hotel among the five hotels in Iran in 2022. In the present study, 22 influence sub-criteria in the hotel industry were studied, and the delivery of service promise sub-criterion was ranked first, which shows its importance among other sub-criteria. Among the hotels studied, A1 hotels ranked first among other hotels. The present study examines and prioritizes the influence factors of SERVQUAL in the hotel industry to help hotel managers to identify the most important influence factors of SERVQUAL in the hotel industry to implement these factors in their hotels and can improve their strengths.
... Mobile advertising has evolved into an important tool in the hospitality industry for catching consumer visual attention [21]. It has been effective in visually demonstrating how much attention people pay to hotel marketing [22]. As a result, Ref. [23] strongly recommend that future studies in the hospitality sector employ mobile devices to objectively investigate the associations between consumer behavioral choices. ...
With many outdated hotels in urgent need of refurbishment in China, chain hotel groups are under mounting pressure to expand their market share by strengthening advertising performance. This study aims to explore the effects of sender types and anonymous clues on advertising exposure as well as the impacts of the above factors and content narratives on service conversion (e.g., link clicks) for hotel franchise promotion. In addition to increasing exposure action, use of the AA-IDA model can effectively increase the possibility of hotel advertising conversion. Two experiments were employed to examine the impacts of advertising design factors on exposure and conversion rates of hotel franchise promotion. A behavioral experiment and a field experiment were carried out to examine the critical effect of advertising design factors on advertising exposure and conversion. The Wald tests for parameters show that the effect of anonymity on advertising conversion was significant (β = 0.479, p < 0.01). Objective content narratives had a significant positive impact on advertising conversion (β = 0.594, p < 0.01). Furthermore, The ANOVA results show that hoteliers in groups with different design elements applied had significant differences in post-conversion service usage (F = 33.809, p < 0.001). The AA-IDA model provides a new framework for future hotel franchise promotion research. Additionally, the important design factors of promotional ads and their reorganization (e.g., sender types, anonymous clues, and content narratives) had a significant impact on the view action and conversion action.
... Many hotels have noticed leisure travellers' online booking pattern and have provided online platforms to make online booking and website is one of them. Kirillova and Chan (2018) in their study stated that visual appearance of hotel websites increase consumers experiential value and improve their attitude towards websites. Attractive website features increase customers interest and leads to better assessment of hotels service quality and revisit intention and positively influence purchase decision. ...
... One also needs to keep in mind the major strategy changes in H&T from standardised service management to personalised experience (Kirillova and Chan, 2018). As such, automated technologies such as service robots or AI-powered interfaces are now becoming a part of H&T in various processes of the service, with the adoption of technology by the H&T industry from delivery of the service to check-in, or dealing with the more complex situations and tasks such as handling customers' inquiries (Ho et al., 2020, Choi et al., 2019. ...
Purpose
When service failure occurs, it leads to dissatisfaction, lack of trust and avoidance behaviour among customers, and it can also be seen as a threat to the survival of the business. This paper aims to investigate the current and potential dynamics of service failure research within the tourism and hospitality area.
Design/methodology/approach
By adopting qualitative, quantitative (citation and text mining) and science-mapping tools (descriptive, conceptual and intellectual), this study analyses 99 key papers on service failure in 18 major hospitality and tourism journals over a 20-year span.
Findings
The research on service recovery strategies, recovery efforts, pre- and post-failure and post-recovery in the service encounter and the impacts of justice on post-recovery and post-complaint behaviour are identified as the major streams of service failure research. While emotional labour, rumination and satisfaction recovery were identified as emerging themes, service failure perceptions and social media were found as the developed and substantial trends.
Practical implications
This study presents a comprehensive understanding of service failure research development in the hospitality and tourism industry. This study propose three areas – circumstantial cues, interactional cues and crisis management – that practitioners need to understand to minimise service failure during the service interaction.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior bibliometric study has investigated the current and future dynamics of service failure in the hospitality and tourism industry and offered a research agenda based on this gap in the literature.
Influencer marketing, as a booming phenomenon, has huge potential for marketing research and practices. This paper tackles the topic of pet influencers on social media, more specifically, dog influencers on Instagram, to examine their effectiveness in guiding hotel guests’ booking intention. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the joint effects of message appeal and prior experience (Study 1, n = 129) and message appeal and perceived attractiveness (Study 2, n = 255) on hotel booking intention. The findings reveal that individuals with less experience are more influenced by rational messages, while those with more experience show no significant preference. Additionally, rational messages are more effective when perceived attractiveness is low. This research fills a gap in understanding the effectiveness of pet influencer marketing and its nuances, providing valuable insights for marketers in the era of social media, particularly in leveraging the unique appeal of pet-human relationships through online marketing tools.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of emotional perceived value on hotel guests’ satisfaction, affective commitment and loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 348 respondents living in the United Arab Emirates, and hypotheses were tested using AMOS 28 and structural equation modeling.
Findings
This study’s unique contribution lies in its revelation that emotional perceived value directly impacts guests’ satisfaction, affective commitment and loyalty. Furthermore, it uncovers that emotional-perceived value indirectly influences loyalty through satisfaction and affective commitment.
Practical implications
This research underscores the importance of hotel managers prioritizing guests’ emotional perceived value in their offerings. Managers can significantly enhance guests’ satisfaction, affective commitment and loyalty by highlighting self-gratification, aesthetics, prestige, transaction and hedonics.
Originality/value
This study brings a fresh perspective to understanding customer perceived value (CPV). It argues that the mere emphasis on the functional aspect of CPV would likely fall short of fully comprehending specific outcomes of their experience (e.g. satisfaction-dissatisfaction, loyalty, etc.). Assessing the emotional aspect of CPV, known as emotional customer perceived value (ECPV), adds further explanations and sheds light on the understanding of the CPV concept and its impacts on consumers’ experience. Furthermore, this study emphasizes that emotional perceived value is better comprehended as a multidimensional rather than a unidimensional construct. It adds that the concept of customer value as a multidimensional concept is context-specific (i.e. dimensions vary from one service sector to another), providing a unique and valuable perspective for the luxury hotel industry.
Purpose
Online learning is increasingly popular, and educational platforms provide a wealth of courses. Improving course sales is the key to promoting sustainable development of online course platforms. However, limited research has explored the marketing of online courses. We study how to drive online course sales by leveraging teacher information.
Design/methodology/approach
We performed an empirical study. We collected data through a crawler and image recognition from Tencent classroom.
Findings
Our results show that providing teacher information and profile images helps promote online course sales. However, detailed course descriptions weaken the positive impact of teachers' profile images on online course sales. Furthermore, our study shows an inverted U-shaped relationship between the intensity of smiling in teacher profile photos and online course sales, and teacher descriptions negatively moderate this relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Our study contributes to the research on online course sales and extends the context of the research on smiling as well as the studies of visual and textual information.
Practical implications
The results have practical implications for online course sellers and platforms.
Originality/value
Existing scholarly efforts have explored online courses mainly from an education perspective. More research is needed to advance the understanding of online course sales. Our study advances research in the marketing of online courses.
Draws on the integration of aesthetic theory and transaction-specific satisfaction theory, this study concentrated on the concept of hospitality service aesthetics of the front desk of luxury hotel about consumers’ perception among the visual servicescape and humanistic appearance and potential effect on their willingness-to-pay price premium. A mixed method approach of both lab experiment and field investigation was applied to test three hypotheses. The results showed that consumers’ visual aesthetics of front desk with non-thematic style have a more significant impact on their willingness-to-pay price premium compared to the thematic style. This study also indicated that the physical attractiveness of employees is a moderator only when consumers’ willingness-to-pay price premium during service interactions in the context of thematic front desk with low hospitableness.
Distinguished from the goods-dominant logic, service-dominant logic has suggested customers are value cocreators. However, in boutique hotels where services are highly individualized and interactive between hotel staff and customers, the role of customer value cocreating might be different compared to a normal service encounter. Yet limited studies have demonstrated whether customers’ value cocreation behaviors have changed in boutique hotels and its corresponding mechanism. This study aims to fulfill this gap by examining customer value cocreation behavior (i.e., citizenship behavior via feedback, advocacy, helping and tolerance) from the impact of hospitableness (personalization, warm welcome, deeper connection, and comfort), perceived value, and satisfaction. Data were obtained in China via an online marketing research panel. Results from confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) showed that both hospitableness and perceived value positively affect satisfaction, while perceived value also partially mediates the relationship between hospitableness and satisfaction. An interesting finding indicates that satisfaction impacts citizenship behavior in a following descending order: advocacy, feedback, helping, and tolerance. Two demographic variables (i.e., marital status, household incomes) were found to moderate the relationship between satisfaction and citizenship behavior. This study contributes to the literature on service-dominant logic, value cocreation, and boutique guest experiences. Managerial implications for facilitating the value cocreation process are also discussed.
Although the literature on online travel agencies is growing, it is fragmented and incoherent. Hence, this review aims to synthesize the online travel agencies and suggest directions for future research on online travel agencies. The review adopted an integrative literature review method by undertaking a review of sixty-nine empirical studies following rigorous protocols. The review presents the research profile, key research themes, gaps, and limitations of the prior literature. Furthermore, the directions of future research as well as the development of a comprehensive research framework, are also presented. There were five major research themes identified based on prior studies. The study findings will facilitate the scholars and practitioners to contemplate the diverse aspects of the online travel agencies ecosystem, contexts of contemporary research and the methodological progressions for future work. The study provides crucial implications, including integrations of online and offline channels, internet word-of-mouth applications and stakeholder identifications.
This study aims to review tourism and hospitality management research on online satisfaction, offline satisfaction and booking intentions published in numerous recognised tourism and hospitality journals from 2000 to 2023. This article studied and reviewed 62 published articles that emerged in the past 22 years in selected top 10 tourism, leisure and hospitality journals. Various variables influencing customer satisfaction, that is, online satisfaction and offline satisfaction leading to the intention to book a hotel online, were identified based on the previous studies. A conceptual model is proposed, which can be empirically tested while conducting future studies in the tourism and hospitality sector, specifically with respect to hotel booking intention. This study offers a conceptual framework for the antecedents used to measure online and offline satisfaction while booking a hotel online. The study ascertained information quality, system quality and service quality as independent variables to measure online satisfaction and perceived values like perceived functional value, emotional value, social value, and monetary value as independent variables to measure offline satisfaction. This study provides a detailed literature review on hotel booking intention and variables that influence overall satisfaction, that is, online and offline satisfaction published in specific hospitality and tourism journals over the past 22 years.
Purpose
This study aims to explore how inter-organizational systems (IOSs) drive tourism businesses to a new normal based on the resource-based view through the supply chain of tourism and information and computer technology used in IOSs.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from the management of tourism businesses, and stratified sampling was used in the study. The authors selected 1,000 travel agencies as the study sample, mailed the research questionnaire to their managers and received 252 completed questionnaires. The authors analyzed the data using the partial least squares approach.
Findings
IOS is seen as a transformational service mechanism that provides a dynamic support weapon for members of the tourism supply chain. Tourism businesses should look for suppliers providing comprehensive services through IOS, excellent quality tourism products and customized tourism products to enhance the competitiveness of tourism businesses in the new normal.
Originality/value
This study provides an industrial marketing research perspective on tourism businesses facing the challenges of the new normal. For tourism businesses, technological innovation allows for changes in the strategies and procedures for their transformation and improves the business model of tourism businesses in the new normal.
The pursuit of beauty has been a part of our daily lives, as the hospitality industry recognizes by offering aesthetically pleasing artifacts through a constellation of service attributes. This research takes a qualitative approach to explore hospitality service elements that are aesthetically appealing to customers. It draws on Adorno’s aesthetic theory to better understand service aesthetics through the lens of the autonomous, socially determined, critical, and mimetic character of beauty. We improvise the concept of hospitality service aesthetic to notion that beauty is socially mediated in hospitality settings along five major themes: ocular-servicescape, facility spectacle, thematic embellishment, architectonic magnificence, and humanistic appearance. This inquiry also moves beyond the servicescape typology and prior empirical studies of aesthetics to acknowledge the constellation of environmental stimuli that can arouse customers from functional, emotional, symbolic, and socio-cultural perspectives.追求美已经成为我们日常生活的一部分, 正如酒店业通过一系列服务属性提供令人愉悦的艺术品所认识到的那样. 本研究采用定性方法来探索对顾客具有审美吸引力的酒店服务要素. 它借鉴了阿多诺的美学理论, 通过美的自主性、社会决定性、批判性和模仿性来更好地理解服务美学. 我们即兴提出了酒店服务美学的概念, 认为在酒店环境中, 美是通过五大主题进行社会调节的: 视觉服务景观、设施奇观、主题装饰、建筑华丽和人文外观. 这项调查也超越了服务景观类型学和先前的美学实证研究, 以确认可以从功能、情感、象征和社会文化角度激发顾客的环境刺激
Purpose
The survival of hotel business in maintaining market competitiveness depends on the constant improvement of the quality of hotel facilities and services. The key to sustain hotel business is lean on the adaptability of the hotel management team towards current lifestyle trends and its surrounding context in fulfilling customer satisfaction. Because of hotel operating service complexity, the hotel contributes a higher impact on environmental degradation in performing their daily activities. Therefore, hoteliers need to determine sustainable strategies to minimize environmental impact and at the same time be able to provide satisfaction to their customers. However, green initiatives require a proactive action by the organizational management engaging both employees and guests in the environmental management process. Thus, this paper aims to review the concept of green practices, the implementation of green practices from the stakeholders’ perspectives (manager, employee and customers) in the hotel industry, the performance impact from the green practices on the sustainability pillars and to further develop a conceptual green practice to sustainable hotel operations and performance impact.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper identified relevant empirical research that published in the recent 10 years from January 2012 to December 2021. The articles are searched through reputable databases such as Emerald, Elsevier and Taylor and Francis. The obtained data were screened preliminarily from 108 research papers. The post-screening process has finalized a total of 57 articles as the findings for this paper, where the themes were delineated to the attributes that need to implemented by the stakeholder in hotels industry, that is, manager’s perspectives, employee’s perspectives and customer’s perspectives.
Findings
The findings of this paper revealed that there are 27 attributes of green practices and initiatives for sustainable hotel operations from the manager perspectives (10 attributes – Green Marketing Strategy, Green Managerial Attitude, Eco-Innovation Investment, Marketing and Sustainability, Environmental Management Strategy, Green Supply Chain, Green Managerial Awareness, Green Procurement, Green Human Resources and Green Technology), employee perspectives (5 attributes – Employee Green Awareness, Employee Green Training and Educating, Employee Environmental Behaviour, Employee Green Performance and Employee Green Reward) and customer’s perspectives (12 attributes – Customer Perception, Customer Loyalty, Customer Awareness, Customer Behaviour, Customer Trust, Green Supply Chain, Green Value, Green Marketing Strategy, Customer Perceived Value, Service Quality, Brand Image and Hotel Design). All of the attributes are aligned to the performance effectiveness as the major concern in the hotel’s operations and impacted towards the sustainability pillars, environmental performance, economic performance and social performance. Sustainable practice in organization benefits the owners towards sustainable economic, environmental, socio-cultural and legal policy.
Originality/value
This review paper provides key elements of current green practices and sustainable initiatives for the hotel’s operations, as proactive measures. The novelty of the findings is to be able to convey valuable inputs to the relevant stakeholders (hotel’s owner, consultants, designers, maintenance officers, hoteliers, staffs, customers and end-users) in perceiving the elements of green practices into the preliminary planning of the hotel’s design. The review also helps to identify practices and measures to the performance impact to the hotel’s operations.
Despite its increase in recent years, e-commerce is far from surpassing traditional trade, and the online purchase of travel arrangements is no exception. Using an integrated model founded in theory about consumers’ attitude and behaviour, we studied the behaviour intention of online purchasers of travel services, based on an online questionnaire and the responses of 251 respondents. The results indicate that loading time, security, and visual appeal have a positive influence on website quality and suggest that website quality, trust, and brand image explain behaviour intention. The mediation, moderation, and direct effect are studied, offering insights and both theoretical and practical implications.
Relying on a Bayesian-like framework, the authors develop a behavioral process model of perceived service quality. Perceptions of the dimensions of service quality are viewed to be a function of a customer's prior expectations of what will and what should transpire during a service encounter, as well as the customer's most recent contact with the service delivery system. These perceptions of quality dimensions form the basis for a person's overall quality perception, which in turn predicts the person's intended behaviors. The authors first test this model with data from a longitudinal laboratory experiment. Then they develop a method for estimating the model with one-time survey data, and reestimate the model using such data collected in a field study. Empirical findings from the two tests of the model indicate, among other things, that the two different types of expectations have opposing effects on perceptions of service quality and that service quality perceptions positively affect intended behaviors.
Conveying a brand image to a target market is a fundamental marketing activity. The authors present a normative framework, termed brand concept management (BCM), for selecting, implementing, and controlling a brand image over time. The framework consists of a sequential process of selecting, introducing, elaborating, and fortifying a brand concept. The concept guides positioning strategies, and hence the brand image, at each of these stages. The method for maintaining this concept-image linkage depends on whether the brand concept is functional, symbolic, or experiential. Maintaining this linkage should significantly enhance the brand's market performance.
Tourism business executives should discover critical ways to create a memorable experience
by appealing to consumers’ multi-sensory organs emotionally and rationally. From this point
of view determining the most successful multi-sensory brand experience concept, which the
customers fi nd most satisfying, is becoming a critical marketing strategy. So this study aims to
fi nd the sensory based memorable tourism experiences, attributes/specifi c elements of the hotel
business. With this aim, Adam&Eve Hotel, a themed hotel in Antalya, was chosen as the study
sample. In this exploratory research, comments which were made electronically on Tripadvisor.
com, known as the world’s most visited online social travel information channel about the holiday
experience, constituted the search data and the data was subjected to content analysis via Nvivo
Software and the critical multi-sensory organs that create memorable tourism experiences were
defi ned. The analysis of the results has been performed on the basis of fi ve sensory stimuli:
1) tactile, 2) gustatory, 3) olfactory, 4) visual, and 5) auditory. The fi ndings also revealed that
nearly 70 percent of the recalled emotions and feelings from sensations related to visual stimuli
which were detailed with the components like decor, interior/exterior design, etc.
Online trust is considered as a critical factor in online shopping, especially when dealing with unfamiliar vendors. This research provides empirical findings from an experimental investigation of the influence of website emotional design features, visual appeal and ease of use on users' perceptions of usefulness, trust, as well as intention to use websites. The proposed research model was developed based on theories in the human-computer interaction and Information Systems domains. An experiment was conducted using a hypothetical website with four conditions of treatment manipulation. The study revealed that visual appeal can produce a greater influence on customers’ evaluation of trust, than ease of use. It was also found that both visual appeal and ease of use are contributing factors in developing online trust among male customers, with visual appeal dominating trust formation among female customers.
Prior research has investigated a number of drivers of consumers’ perceived product attractiveness, such as a product’s shape and color. The context, in which a product is presented, has so far been largely neglected in examining consumers’ aesthetic appraisal of products. Drawing on social cognition theory, this research investigates how the attractiveness of the visual context (e.g., websites, advertisements) influences consumers’ perceptions of product attractiveness and product quality for familiar versus unfamiliar products. Results of two experimental studies show that consumers perceive unfamiliar products as more attractive and, consequently, of higher quality when products are placed in an attractive context than when they are placed in an unattractive context. No differences in consumers’ perceived product attractiveness and perceived product quality exist for familiar products. The findings extend our theoretical knowledge of product aesthetics and provide managers with insights into the effective communication of their offerings’ attractiveness.
Evidence from past research and insights from an exploratory investigation are combined in a conceptual model that defines and relates price, perceived quality, and perceived value. Propositions about the concepts and their relationships are presented, then supported with evidence from the literature. Discussion centers on directions for research and implications for managing price, quality, and value.
Staged 2 different videotaped interviews with the same individual--a college instructor who spoke English with a European accent. In one of the interviews the instructor was warm and friendly, in the other, cold and distant. 118 undergraduates were asked to evaluate the instructor. Ss who saw the warm instructor rated his appearance, mannerisms, and accent as appealing, whereas those who saw the cold instructor rated these attributes as irritating. Results indicate that global evaluations of a person can induce altered evaluations of the person's attributes, even when there is sufficient information to allow for independent assessments of them. Furthermore, Ss were unaware of this influence of global evaluations on ratings of attributes. In fact, Ss who saw the cold instructor actually believed that the direction of influence was opposite to the true direction. They reported that their dislike of the instructor had no effect on their rating of his attributes but that their dislike of his attributes had lowered their global evaluations of him. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Hotel operators strive to satisfy the needs of their guests and subsequently retain them by trying to understand the factors that could build up a strong loyal clientele base. Previous studies have found that there are four critical perspectives related to the hotel industry that enable hotel operators to cope with the fierce competition in the industry and boost their profit margin: service quality, customer satisfaction, corporate image, and customer loyalty. This study attempts to evaluate the relationships between these perspectives. Systematic sampling approach was adopted in the study. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaires from 200 respondents. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the research model. The findings reveal that the four variables are significantly related to one another and they are useful for hotel operators to promote long-term business growth and ensure sustainability in the hotel industry in Malaysia.
Conveying a brand image to a target market is a fundamental marketing activity. The authors present a normative framework, termed brand concept management (BCM), for selecting, implementing, and controlling a brand image over time. The framework consists of a sequential process of selecting, introducing, elaborating, and fortifying a brand concept. The concept guides positioning strategies, and hence the brand image, at each of these stages. The method for maintaining this concept-image linkage depends on whether the brand concept is functional, symbolic, or experiential. Maintaining this linkage should significantly enhance the brand's market performance.
This chapter outlines the two basic routes to persuasion. One route is based on the thoughtful consideration of arguments central to the issue, whereas the other is based on the affective associations or simple inferences tied to peripheral cues in the persuasion context. This chapter discusses a wide variety of variables that proved instrumental in affecting the elaboration likelihood, and thus the route to persuasion. One of the basic postulates of the Elaboration Likelihood Model—that variables may affect persuasion by increasing or decreasing scrutiny of message arguments—has been highly useful in accounting for the effects of a seemingly diverse list of variables. The reviewers of the attitude change literature have been disappointed with the many conflicting effects observed, even for ostensibly simple variables. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) attempts to place these many conflicting results and theories under one conceptual umbrella by specifying the major processes underlying persuasion and indicating the way many of the traditionally studied variables and theories relate to these basic processes. The ELM may prove useful in providing a guiding set of postulates from which to interpret previous work and in suggesting new hypotheses to be explored in future research.
Copyright © 1986 Academic Press Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This article provides an example of how researcher-found images have been used in a study where the tourist experience of intangible heritage is at the center. In this research, images were triangulated with in-depth interviews and participant observation in an attempt to flesh out the more intimate aspects of tourism experiences. It is suggested that photo elicitation, in its various forms, presents a fun, creative and multi-sensory alternative to conventional techniques. In this study, the use of researcher-found images in interviews proved to be a valuable tool to research tourist embodied experiences. While images offer many weighty advantages, some limitations do exist. Not only researcher-found images may introduce some positive bias into how informants recollect and present their experiences, but they may also lack the narrative power that visual materials assembled by research participants may have.
This chapter reviews research on aesthetic appreciation and demonstrates that preferences or taste judgments obey certain rules or principles. It argues that many of these principles are rooted in human nature and can somehow be explained on the basis of adaptations of our sensory systems and brains to one's environment. Aesthetics is a very old concept, rooted in the Greek word aisthesisthat can be translated as understanding through sensory perception. In the eighteenth century the concept started to be used to refer to sensory pleasure and delight. Although this definition of aesthetics is to some degree limiting, most of the research done in the area of experimental aesthetics since the pioneering work of Fechner (1876) is relevant for this overview. Much of this research focused on finding, mostly visual properties of objects, whether simple patterns, artworks or designed objects, determining aesthetic preference. These properties are generally classified into three classes: psychophysical, organizational, and meaningful properties. The psychophysical properties are the formal qualities of objects, such as their intensity, size, and color (in terms of hue, saturation, brightness), or, generally speaking, properties that can be quantified. Aesthetic effects of these properties are highly relational and contextual. This chapter also discusses the two other classes of properties, organizational and meaningful properties. In this discussion, it confines itself as much as possible to studies involving design objects as stimulus material. Findings from those studies often suggest universal agreement in aesthetic pleasure. It also explains why and under what conditions people of different times and cultures aesthetically prefer the same properties, and not only visually. Furthermore, it presents some implications for designers and the field of design.
Using the means-end framework as a theoretical foundation, this article conceptualizes, constructs, refines, and tests a multiple-item scale (E-S-QUAL) for measuring the service quality delivered by Web sites on which customers shop online. Two stages of empirical data collection revealed that two different scales were necessary for capturing electronic service quality. The basic E-S-QUAL scale developed in the research is a 22-item scale of four dimensions: efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, and privacy. The second scale, E-RecS-QUAL, is salient only to customers who had nonroutine encounters with the sites and contains 11 items in three dimensions: responsiveness, compensation, and contact. Both scales demonstrate good psychometric properties based on findings from a variety of reliability and validity tests and build on the research already conducted on the topic. Directions for further research on electronic service quality are offered. Managerial implications stemming from the empirical findings about E-S-QUAL are also discussed.
Despite its centrality to human thoughts and practices, aesthetics has largely been ignored in research on Web site design. Recently, studies have begun to show that aesthetic qualities such as color, graphics, and the layout of a Web site can play an important role in improving consumer shopping experiences. By integrating theories and research findings from diverse fields, we investigate the impacts of two dimensions of aesthetics, namely, classical aesthetics and expressive aesthetics, on online consumers' shopping value. More important, we propose that the effect of these two dimensions of aesthetics on consumer shopping value is contingent on the hedonic and utilitarian nature of products that consumers purchase online. A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the research model, and the results generally support our hypotheses. From a theoretical perspective, our findings not only establish consumer shopping value as a key business value of Web site aesthetics but also enrich the current knowledge on the contingent effect of Web site aesthetics for utilitarian and hedonic products. From a practical perspective, the findings provide guidance for online vendors to provide their customers with better service in the form of properly designed aesthetic Web sites.
The evaluation of customer satisfaction is a primary goal for any service firm that would like to survive in this increasingly competitive market. Keeping tourists satisfied and delighted is even more important for the Mauritian tourism industry given that the destination faces fierce competition abroad. Developing a measure of hotel service quality is an important precursor to attracting and retaining tourists and hence ensuring the survival of hotels. SERVQUAL has been proposed as a generic measure of service quality that may be applicable to hotel services. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether SERVQUAL dimensions are pertinent to the hotel industry. Results from this study verify SERVQUAL dimensions, but demonstrate additional dimensions that are specific to the hotel sector.
This study reports the results of a study designed to evaluate the effects of a service exchange on consumers’ satisfaction after accounting for the effects of the servicescape. An experimental design was adopted to show that servicescapes have an effect on individuals’ preexisting mood states. Consumers’ moods after they had been exposed to the servicescape were crossed with two service exchange states: good and bad. Their reported level of satisfaction was measured. Results indicate that servicescapes have an important effect on consumers’ mood states. Direct effects of servicescape type and service exchange are reported and managerial implications discussed.
This study reports an application in the hospitality industry of the SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry. Although originally developed for application within the financial services sector, the model is designed to measure those components of service that generate satisfaction within five dimensions. This study identified the existence of gaps between clients' and management perceptions of attributes of the hotel, and between client expectation and perception of the services offered. It is argued that the existence of these gaps is a source of dissatisfaction with services provided. Factor analysis identified five dimensions explaining 78 per cent of variance, but these differed from the SERVQUA L model.
A typology of service organizations is presented and a conceptual framework is advanced for exploring the impact of physical surroundings on the behaviors of both customers and employees. The ability of the physical surroundings to facilitate achievement of organizational as well as marketing goals is explored. Literature from diverse disciplines provides theoretical grounding for the framework, which serves as a base for focused propositions. By examining the multiple strategic roles that physical surroundings can exert in service organizations, the author highlights key managerial and research implications.
Smell is considered to be the sense that is most closely attached to emotional reactions. This makes scent in the hotel environment an important atmospheric variable to study, because fragrances are expected to increase the likelihood of producing an emotional reaction from consumers. Capitalizing on smell’s ability to cue memories and conjure up emotions, the purpose of this research is to examine the emotional states evoked by various hotel scents in a hotel business in Hong Kong that uses scent throughout its premises. More specifically, this study intends to make a connection between the emotional states evoked by the hotel scents and how hotel businesses can make use of their guests’ emotional responses. Scent marketing is an overlooked subject in hospitality and tourism research.
Emphasizing experiential appeals to consumers through design is most notable in the emerging lifestyle hotel segment of the lodging industry. This study identifies which lodging design mechanisms evoke consumer responses and provides a novel understanding of the relationships among consumer perception of hotel product/service design and booking intention by incorporating consumer emotional arousal and quality expectations in a theoretical model. The findings of this study suggest that aesthetics and symbolism in hotel design shape booking intention through emotional arousal and quality expectation. The functional dimension of design affects booking intention only through quality expectation. The findings will be particularly meaningful to the lodging industry because online booking requires both emotional and cognitive responses on the part of consumers.
The physical form or design of a product is an unquestioned determinant of its marketplace success. A good design attracts consumers to a product, communicates to them, and adds value to the product by increasing the quality of the usage experiences associated with it. Nevertheless, the topic of product design is rarely, if ever, encountered in marketing journals. To bring needed attention to the subject of product design and enable researchers to better investigate design issues, the author introduces a conceptual model and several propositions that describe how the form of a product relates to consumers’ psychological and behavioral responses. After presenting this model, the author describes numerous strategic implications and research directions.
While attracting new tourists is an important issue in destination marketing, it is also imperative to
manage tourists' experience post-trip, particularly in cases of unsatisfying experiences. Yet, the questions
of how to rectify unsatisfying tourism experiences received little attention in tourism scholarship. In the
present research, we investigated the effectiveness of different forms of marketing messages and the role
of counterfactual thinking in the ability of a marketing message to improve tourists' attitudes towards
the destination and intentions to recommend, when a tourism experience was not up to tourists'
satisfaction. A scenario-based experiment was conducted with 480 respondents. The results showed that
user-generated messages and the messages employing emotional appeal were more impactful than
destination-generated or rational messages. Respondents who engaged in downward counterfactual
thinking, that is imagining the situation in which their experience could have been worse, was shown to
have a greater positive effect on unsatisfied tourists.
In spite of the fact that product appearance would not seem to bear upon performance, this article provides evidence that the appearance of an industrial product may have an impact on its evaluation. Utilizing a conjoint scaling approach, Mel Yamamoto and David R. Lambert find that industrial product appearance exerts an influence, which in some circumstances exceeds the influence of certain product performance or price attributes. They suggest that attention paid to product aesthetics may have a payoff in terms of sales performance. And further, the impact of product appearance affects people in different organizational functions, across a range of technical orientations.
Purpose
Among the many studies relating to servicescapes, the emphasis has mainly been on the effect of specific environmental attributes on customer perceptions, emotions and behaviors. Many servicescape studies have not included visual servicescape aesthetics and the overall significance that visual aesthetics hold for a particular consumer in his or her relationship with the servicescape. Yet, servicescape appearance represents the central channel for the formation of consumer–product (e.g. servicescape) relationships. Limited studies have examined consumers’ visual servicescape aesthetics comprehension and appreciation (VSACA) or consumers’ relationship with a specific servicescape and how consumers evaluate a servicescape from a visual aesthetics perspective. This study aims to operationalize and measure VSACA and to examine the validity of a proposed comprehensive model that encompasses the direct effects of VSACA on perceived perceptual experience quality (PPEQ), pleasure and arousal; PPEQ, pleasure and arousal on satisfaction; satisfaction on willingness to pay more; and the mediation effects of PPEQ, pleasure and arousal on the relationship between VSACA and satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an experimental design study with two treatments. Fictitious boutique hotel lobby and classic hotel lobby video clips were created with the appropriate manipulation of visual aesthetics attributes. A random sample of 600 individuals over the age of 18 was drawn from a nationwide (USA) list purchased from a third-party commercial list service. After preliminary analysis, about 12 per cent were eliminated because of unusable responses or missing data. The data from 550 participants were used in the final analyses – 218 males and 332 females. Participants were asked to view a video clip of a hotel lobby online. After viewing the video clip, subjects completed an online survey instrument. The hypothesized model was then tested using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Results of this study suggest that individuals’ VSACA directly influences their PPEQ, pleasure and arousal. PPEQ and pleasure also directly influence satisfaction and indirectly mediate the relationship between VSACA and satisfaction. Finally, satisfaction directly affects willingness to pay more. Additional new findings are also discussed in the paper.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited by focusing primarily on the individuals’ VSACA of a hotel lobby; non-visual components were not considered as part of the VSACA construct. Results should, therefore, be generalized to other similar settings with caution. Future research can integrate both visual and non-visual servicescape aesthetics comprehension and develop a new scale to measure them. Future research can also build on the support of the current proposed theoretical model by testing it in different service contexts and across different groups of participants.
Practical implications
This research provides evidence to hotel service providers that VSACA plays an important role in influencing consumers’ emotions, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The results imply that understanding customers’ simultaneous cognitive-emotional processing of servicescape aesthetics is crucial. Hotel developers and managers can engage potential customers in the designing and planning of a servicescape by conducting focus group research prior to the actual implementation of the servicescape attributes and construction.
Originality/value
This study represents the first research to extend and investigate the concept of visual aesthetics comprehension in the context of the hotel lobby servicescape beyond just product goods. This study contributes to the services marketing literature by confirming the importance and powerful direct effects of VSACA on individuals’ PPEQ, pleasure, arousal and willingness to pay more. Moreover, PPEQ and pleasure mediate the relationship between VSACA and overall satisfaction.
Though aesthetics is generally acknowledged as an important aspect of website design, extant information systems (IS) research on web user experience has rarely studied what affects website aesthetics and how aesthetics influences users’ perceptions of the website and the organization behind the website. In this paper, we synthesize prior literature from different academic domains and propose users’ perceived quality of five design elements (i.e., unity, complexity, intensity, novelty, and interactivity) as determinants of website aesthetics. We further theorize the effects of aesthetics on users’ attitudes toward the website and their perception of the corporate image. Two studies were conducted to test the research model. In Study 1, we adopted a card sorting method and the results provide substantial support to the determinants of website aesthetics. In Study 2, we conducted a survey using ten company portal websites that were unknown to survey respondents. Our analysis further confirms the effects of users’ perceived quality of the five design elements on the perception of website aesthetics. The findings of Study 2 also show that users’ perception of aesthetics has significant impacts on perceived utility and their attitudes toward the website, which further affects the corporate image exhibited via the website. In addition, we find that in users’ first interaction with a website, perceived aesthetics has a larger impact on their attitudes toward the website than perceived utility.
This study examines the role of aesthetic design in Web-based stores. Designing Web-based stores involves the application of knowledge from diverse fields such as marketing and human-computer interaction. We integrate research findings from different areas to propose that the role of aesthetics can be examined using a conceptual framework that takes into account the contingent nature of the consumer, the product, and the shopping process. We also suggest that two subdimensions of Web aesthetics, termed "classical" and "expressive," may aid in understanding and shaping consumer behavior on the Internet. We develop theoretical arguments and propositions, and present some examples to illustrate our approach as to the different products that can be sold under different Web designs.
Publisher Summary
Aesthetics is viewed as a noninstrumental quality, forming an important aspect of product appeal and experience. However, empirical research addressing questions such as how to measure aesthetics; whether aesthetics can be reliably differentiated from other aspects, such as usability; how important is beauty as a part of experience; what is the value users attach to it; and what are “consequences” of beauty is sparse and results are inconsistent. Inconsistencies in findings can be at least partially resolved by distinguishing three different approaches to the study of beauty: normative, experiential, and judgmental. The normative approach defines particular descriptive attributes of the interactive product as expressing more or less beauty. The experiential approach focuses on all-embracing, holistic aesthetic experiences marked by an altered perception of one’s surroundings or a scene—a heightened sense for objects, persons, the environment, which creates and attaches new, yet unthought meaning to things. Finally, the judgmental approach is concerned with what users judge to be beautiful or not. This approach is foremost interested in the consistency of beauty judgments among individuals and how fast and easy those judgments are. In addition, it addresses the question of how beauty relates to other product attributes, such as novelty or usability. This chapter focuses on the judgmental approach to the study of aesthetics/beauty. It defines beauty in a way that lends itself to its empirical/quantitative study in the context of human-computer interaction. It reviews the research addressing correlates of beauty, primarily focusing on the relation between beauty and usability. In addition, it discusses in detail three consequences of beauty, namely beauty as added value, beauty as a way to accomplish self-referential goals, and, finally, beauty as a way to work better.
Purpose
This study aims to identify how the perception of atmospherics in an ethnic restaurant setting influences customers' perceptions of service quality and food quality, as well as the extent to which perceptions of quality mediate the relationship between perception of atmospherics and customer behavioral intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the mediating effects of quality perception, and also performed multiple regression analyses to identify the influences of specific environmental factors on quality perception and behavioral intentions.
Findings
Perceived quality regarding services and foods had a partially mediating effect. Further, the indirect effect of perceived atmospherics on behavioral intentions through perceived quality was greater than the direct effect.
Research limitations/implications
This study emphasized the important role of atmospherics on quality perception to induce favorable behavioral intentions, suggesting that atmospherics could enhance or attenuate customers' perceived quality.
Practical implications
The environment may encourage customers to perceive service and food quality correctly, or even more positively, regardless of the actual quality level. In this respect, restaurateurs should increase their efforts to provide a better environment, which will encourage customers to evaluate the quality of services or foods more highly.
Originality/value
This study extended the existing literature by postulating the direct impact of perceived atmospherics on customers' behaviors by proposing that quality perceptions act as a link between atmospherics and behavioral intentions.
This study investigates how the type of offer sold online (goods vs. services) moderates the relationships between perceived experiential values and customers' attitudes towards the website. A sample of 107 e-shoppers of services and 110 e-shoppers of physical goods responded to a survey on their most recent e-shopping experiences. Results support the majority of hypotheses. It was found that although offering experiential values on the site improves customers' attitudes for both physical goods and services websites, the impact is much stronger in the case of services. Theoretical and managerial contributions are discussed.
The past decade has perceived a significant development of various Internet technologies including HTML5, Ajax, landing pages, CSS3, social media and SEO to name a few. New web technologies provide opportunities for e-commerce companies to enhance the shopping experiences of their customers. This article focuses the phenomenon of online experiences from a services marketing aspect by concentrating online hotel booking. Successful lodging management strategies have been associated with the creation of experience, which in turn leads to fruitful performance outcomes such as superior financial performance, enhanced brand image, customer loyalty, positive word of mouth and customer satisfaction. E-commerce researchers and practitioners also focus on the phenomenon of online customer experiences. Plentiful of previous studies investigated the precursors and consequences of positive online customer experiences by utilizing various marketing and Information Systems theories, and it was found that online customer experience has numerous positive outcomes for e-commerce companies. This study analyses the previous studies on customer experiences by utilizing flow theory and develops a conceptual framework of customer experiences. Later it proposes and tests a measurement model for online customer experiences. Our findings indicate that for successful e-commerce practices, online shoppers need to reach a state of mind where they engage with the website with total involvement, concentration and enjoyment. The traditional approaches to attract customers in brick-and-mortar commerce are not applicable in online contexts. Therefore, interaction, participation, co-creation, immersion, engagement and emotional hooks are important in e-commerce. Managerial and theoretical implications of positive online customer experiences were discussed.
The purpose of this research was to investigate empirically the influence of restaurant atmospherics on the dining satisfaction and behavioral intentions of restaurant patrons. An extensive literature review first identified five dimensions of restaurant atmospherics, namely: facility aesthetics, ambience, spatial layout, employee factors, and the view from the window. Data were collected from 10 middle and upscale full-service restaurants in Hong Kong, and factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were then performed to unveil the relationship between restaurant atmospherics and dining satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The results reveal restaurant atmospherics to have a significant influence on patrons’ dining satisfaction and their behavioral intentions, particularly their intentions to return and spread positive word-of-mouth and their willingness to pay more. Dining satisfaction itself was also found to have a significant influence on behavioral intentions, particularly the intentions to return and to recommend the restaurant. The paper concludes with the practical implications of the research.
This article explores the landscape of contemporary hospitality marketing. It is argued that the teaching and academic discussions that surround the subject area adopt a predominantly positivistic approach; although important, that does not adequately reflect the nature of the industry or the products offered. Such a metrics-oriented position, although significant in the formulation of marketing strategy, does not reflect the complex experiential, nontangible nature of the hospitality product. This article presents a culturally located philosophy that reflects the multifaceted nature of the industry. The philosophy is underpinned by three precepts that draw from a multidisciplinary theoretical framework to create a more subject-specific approach to marketing, that when woven with traditional approaches can create a more effective and informed contemporary approach.
The primary objective of this research is to develop a theory-based model of utilitarian and hedonic website features, customer commitment, trust, and e-loyalty in an online hotel booking context. Structural Equation Modeling was deployed to test research hypotheses. Findings highlight the importance of creating loyalty by focusing on both hedonic and utilitarian features. Affective commitment is more influenced by hedonic features whereas calculative commitment is driven by utilitarian ones. Both commitment dimensions sway customers’ trust towards the online vendor and trust is an important antecedent of e-loyalty. Findings confirm that web design features are important for online relationship marketing. Both commitment dimensions were found to be precursors of trust whereas affective commitment is the precursor of e-loyalty.
Drawing on the literature in environmental psychology, the current study attempted to reveal dimensions of tourist aesthetic judgment in the context of both nature-based and urban tourist destinations. Two-stage analysis of semi-structured interview data from a theoretical sample of 57 individuals yielded 21 aesthetic dimensions that were categorized into nine themes: Scale, Time, Condition, Sound, Balance, Diversity, Novelty, Shape, and Uniqueness. The identified themes were further conceptualized into a two-dimensional plane along Concrete-Abstract and Subjective-Objective continuums. This research posits that tourism allows a unique “appreciator-object” dyad where individuals are fully immersed in a destination in pursuit of a non-routine and oftentimes novel experience. The beauty of tourism destination is uniquely judged, admired, and appreciated, and the assessment of the beauty goes beyond the visual aspects and engages all senses. The findings make a theoretical contribution to the existing aesthetics literature and bear practical implications for destination planning, branding, and management.
LODGSERV is a 26-item index (alpha = .92) designed to measure consumers' expectations for service quality in the hotel experience. The index confirms the five generic dimensions of service quality hypothesized by Parsuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1986): Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy. This paper describes the development of the index and discusses its use as a management tool.
The Internet has become a major channel for selling a myriad of products and services. To make the on-line shopping experience more vivid, retailers and service providers frequently portray product images and video clips on their Websites. Although the dimensions of e-Service Quality have been studied in various on-line contexts, research focusing on video clips in the context of hotel Websites is limited. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine how consumers evaluate video clips portraying experiential services such as hotels. Our results indicate that consumers evaluate video clips based on six distinct dimensions: user interface, aesthetics, customization/personalization, assurance/trust, flexibility and virtual human interaction.
A theme that emerges in life is that it is advantageous to be good looking. Corroborating this observation, an expansive literature has documented the benefits of facial attractiveness on a range of explicit measures. What is not yet known, however, is whether this association between beauty and positivity also exerts an implicit influence on people's responses. That is, does the "beautiful is good" stereotype operate when attention is not explicitly directed to a person's appearance? Using a modified Stroop task, we explored this issue in the current investigation. The results revealed that facial stereotypes do indeed exert an automatic influence on people's responses, an effect that is elicited by targets of either sex and displayed by both male and female respondents. In addition, female faces elicited positive evaluative responses (i.e., female-positivity effect). We consider the implications of these findings for issues in person perception.
In an era of intense global competition, companies are searching for ways to achieve competitive advantage. The development of visually attractive products and physical settings can aid in the creation of brand differentiation and influence the purchasing behaviour of consumers. Image and style are important within consumer culture, as can be observed in everything from automobiles and home furnishings to clothes and Internet sites. Design appears to have transformed an ever expanding range of goods and spaces into attractive and enchanting commodities and commercial environments. In this paper, it is argued that the appearance of hotels is increasingly characterized by a form of commodified enchantment, the product of an aestheticization process that aims to create novelty, surprise, and excitement. Aesthetic ennoblement has become a reflection of capitalism's drive to produce appealing and fashionable environments that turn pleasure and comfort into profit. In a world increasingly shaped by consumption and commerce, the place of aesthetics is more complex than mere decoration.
If used properly, music can be a useful tool employed by hoteliers. This article synthesizes most, if not all, of the recent and seminal work from a variety of disciplines to outline the positive effects that atmospheric music can have on a hotel's patrons and employees. Specifically, the psychological influences of music in a hotel's physical environments, a hotel's telephone system, and a hotel's proprietary website are discussed. In terms of the physical environment, music can: 1) cause guests to spend more time and money in an establishment; 2) influence buyer/ seller interactions; 3) improve customers' attitudes during a wait; 4) amend guests' perceptions of brand personality and décor; and 5) enhance employee productivity. Regarding telephone interactions, evidence suggests that the proper use of music can bolster customers' satisfaction with the telephone encounter. Lastly, emerging research indicates that website music can enhance viewers' arousal, interest, satisfaction, and learning.
There is a growing belief that investing in industrial design is beneficial to company performance. This article sheds more light on how and when integrating industrial design in the product development process can enhance a company's competitive position. The basic premise is that the impact of industrial design on company performance is not unconditional, but dependent on industry evolution and design strategy. We opted to define industrial design in a general way, namely as the activity that transforms a set of product requirements into a configuration of materials, elements and components. This activity can have an impact on a product's appearance, user friendliness, ease of manufacture, efficient use of materials, functional performance, and so on.
The empirical data incorporated in this study stems from two Dutch manufacturing industries, namely home furniture and precision instruments. Home furniture and precision instruments were selected because the strategy of integrating industrial design in the product development process is rather mature in the first‐named industry and emerging in the second. We collected data from firms investing considerably in industrial design (n = 23) and firms investing little to nothing in industrial design (n = 24), using a semistructured questionnaire that was administrated during face‐to‐face sessions with senior managers.
Two out of the three research hypotheses were supported. It was found that the extent to which firms integrate industrial design in new product development projects has a significant and positive influence on company performance (Hla), in particular when the strategy of investing in industrial design is relatively new for the industry involved (Hlb). There was no systematic pattern indicating that design innovation is more important in industries where the use of design is mature than in industries where the use of design is emerging (H2). Instead, we found that design innovation has significant positive performance effects in both types of industries. One important managerial inference from our study is that new product development managers should consider the changing nature of competition during industry evolution while developing strategies that encompass the use of industrial design in new product development. Another important managerial inference is that, besides being innovative in the field of products, being innovative with respect to design and design strategy can help to enhance competitiveness regardless of industry evolution.