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The study seeks to explore the intricate dynamics among customer relationship management (CRM) practices, guest satisfaction and loyalty in the hospitality context. Additionally, it aims to examine the moderating influence of guest engagement on the relationships between CRM practices and guest satisfaction and loyalty.

An integrated theoretical framework is developed by incorporating CRM practices and guest engagement into the satisfaction-loyalty framework. Two research instruments were adapted from the literature to assess the perspectives of customers and employees in the hotel industry in Kashmir. The customer survey measured guest satisfaction, loyalty, and engagement, while the employee survey focused on CRM practices, including key customer focus and CRM organization. Data was collected using a pen-and-paper survey with convenience sampling across 10 qualifying hotels, each classified as 3-star or above. A total of 270 matched responses from guests and employees were obtained and analyzed using descriptive analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM), and moderation analysis with SPSS and AMOS software. The study utilized a rigorous data matching process to ensure reliability, with guest-employee pairs verified and cross-checked with hotel records.

The results indicate CRM practices play a pivotal role in shaping guest satisfaction and loyalty. Notably, personalization and a targeted customer approach emerged as the most influential factors in enhancing tourist satisfaction. Similarly, prospecting, personalization, and effective knowledge management significantly contributed to visitor loyalty. The establishment of robust relationships is underscored through collaborative active guest engagement. Furthermore, the study highlights the nuanced relationship between satisfaction and loyalty moderated by guest engagement. High levels of guest engagement amplify the positive impact of satisfaction on loyalty, while lower engagement levels attenuate this effect. Moreover, the moderating influence of guest engagement on the relationships between CRM practices and guest satisfaction and CRM practices and guest loyalty was notably strong at elevated guest engagement levels and relatively weaker at lower engagement levels.

While the study findings encourage organizations to prioritize customer relationship development, hospitality entities must emphasize the adoption of CRM philosophy and robust guest engagement measures. Actively involving guests in co-creating services can yield incremental benefits in terms of attracting, retaining, and effectively serving guests.

This study introduces novel dimensions to the existing CRM framework within the hospitality context, specifically exploring the impact of hotel-specific elements (personalization and prospecting) on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, it innovatively investigates the moderating role of guest engagement in the satisfaction-loyalty relationship, expanding its scope to include the relationships between CRM practices and guest satisfaction and guest loyalty.

A comparative study was undertaken analysing what accommodation managers and business guests believed were the factors influencing accommodation selection. It was discovered that business guests rated “bathroom and shower quality”, “standard of bedroom maintenance” and “comfort of mattress and pillow” highly, while accommodation management rated “courteous, polite, well‐mannered staff”, “enthusiasm, and commitment of staff” and “efficiency of front desk” highly. In contrast, both the business guests and accommodation managers indicated that the cleanliness of the hotel was the most significant factor influencing accommodation selection. The research also identified that there was a statistically significant difference in many items in the survey between what management and guests believed were important, which indicates a lack of understanding by management. The ramifications for management who do not provide those items important to guests are lower occupancy rates and guest dissatisfaction. Further, spending time and money on items that are not so important to guests may not be a wise use of resources. Regarding the question of whether managers understand their guests, this research indicates that they do not.

Teaching and learning online during the Covid-19 pandemic has forced university instructors to consider online alternatives to the classroom. It is possible to facilitate students’ learning in the digital environment in similar ways to the traditional face-to-face classroom. The inclusion of e-guests in the digital learning space presents one such opportunity. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of e-guests in online learning.

This paper presents a case study, following a postgraduate class and the role of the e-guest in students’ synchronous online learning.

E-guests facilitated student learning. Their approaches to learning ranged from slides to discussions. Students responded well to this method of learning.

There is potential for enhancing student learning through the inclusion of e-guests, who bring their expertise to the classroom. E-guests from different regions offer students an opportunity to learn from specialists they would not necessarily have access to in the traditional classroom.

E-guests offer one important potential means of enriching online teaching.

This study aims to determine similarities and differences in business travellers' expectations and managers' perceptions of the service provided by guest houses.

Two questionnaires with seven‐point Likert scales were used to measure travellers' expectations of guest house service and managers' perceptions of these expectations. Data was analysed using Statistica Version 6.1 by employing factor analysis and ANOVA tests.

Business travellers deemed secure parking and the professionalism of staff as the most important attributes, while guest house managers thought it would be friendliness of front desk staff and efficient handling of complaints. Both groups indicated that cleanliness of rooms and services performed by staff adequately the first time, were of particular importance. The importance rating of the different service dimensions was not significantly influenced by the business travellers' gender, managerial position, nights of stay or by the guest house grading. Managers mostly overestimated guests' expectations.

The limitation of the study is the relatively small sample used (50 guest house managers and 300 business travellers within one city). Future research needs to examine a broader sample of guest house managers and could compare the expectations of different types of guests.

It is worth noting that guest house managers had overestimated the expectations of business travellers regarding the service provided. Management should focus on service dimensions important to guests and not those based on own opinions.

An understanding of business travellers' expectations could lead to their needs being more closely addressed and satisfaction levels being raised.

Guest history is a valuable service and marketing tool. In particular, it is likely to become a strategic device for the development of brand loyalty in the 1990s. Reports on a nationwide Australian study of 121 hotels′ use of guest history, and describes some of the key opportunities for optimizing the guest history function. The findings suggest that while guest history is being widely utilized by hotels, the extent of that utilization is limited. Three major areas for developing strategies to optimize the guest history function were found to include: specific guest history training modules; an internal service orientation emphasizing the organization‐wide usage of guest history to service the customer better; and further enhancement of the use of guest history for increasing brand loyalty.

The conventional customer lifecycle fails to acknowledge the “sleeping” stage between regular patronage and churn, particularly prevalent in the hospitality industry. This study constructs an awakening model to regain “sleeping” guests.

342 questionnaires from Macau using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) were analyzed. The model was compared across different membership levels through multigroup analysis.

The results indicate that the point policy can awaken “sleeping” guests by influencing their perceived value, regret, and integrated satisfaction with a shorter “sleeping” period. Two path coefficients showed significant differences among basic and elite members.

Companies with loyalty programs should implement a transitional period before resetting points, leveraging altruistic point policies to awaken “sleeping” guests via direct communication. This strategy mitigates the negative impact of finite point expiration policies, enhancing customer re-engagement and point utilization.

Our study focuses on a crucial facet of hotel marketing—customer regain strategies. By identifying customer segments who have not revisited the hotel group for more than twelve months, we confirm the concept of “sleeping” guests. This term offers a nuanced perspective, distinguishing “sleeping” guests from generic lost customers. The “sleeping” guest segment provides valuable insights for enhancing targeted and effective marketing activities in the highly competitive hotel industry.

This study aims to investigate the influence of customer satisfaction and brand loyalty on hotel guests’ repurchase intentions when they experience consumer confusion.

A quantitative research method was used in the study and the data were collected through a survey. A survey was used to collect data from 406 hotel guests staying at four and five-star hotels. The structural equation model was used to test the influence of consumer confusion on hotel guests’ repurchase intentions.

The findings of the study show that while consumer confusion has a negative effect on hotel guests’ repurchase intentions, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty have a positive influence on their repurchase intentions. Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty tend to have a partial mediating role in the relationship between consumer confusion and repurchase intention.

The findings show the need for the hotel management to provide simple, concise, yet sufficient information enabling tourists to differentiate their offerings to reduce confusion.

Previous research has largely neglected the role of guests’ loyalty and satisfaction with the hotel brand. This research shows that guests’ loyalty and satisfaction with the hotel brand play an important role in terms of the repurchase intention and in reducing confusion.

In the tourism sector, fully unmanned and partially unmanned hotel models serving customer segments from different income groups are increasing. Analyzing examples of unmanned hotels worldwide and their practices is crucial for understanding the automation systems used, the smart technologies employed, and the opportunities and challenges these hotels present, as well as for gaining insights into their impacts on the tourism sector.

The data used in this research were obtained from secondary sources. One of the qualitative research methods, document analysis, was used for the analysis of these sources. The content analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data. A seven-stage systematic review process was used in the research. This seven-stage review process consists of the following stages: (1) determining the review objectives and formulating research questions; (2) identifying search terms and selection criteria; (3) conducting a search for unmanned hotel applications before clarifying exclusion and inclusion criteria; (4) evaluating the quality and relevance of unmanned hotel applications; (5) identifying content analysis review variables; (6) conducting content analysis; and (7) analyzing and reporting the findings.

In traditional hotel management, the innovations brought by digitalization and automation are transforming the guest experience and increasing operational efficiency. Unmanned smart hotels are equipped with various technological solutions, such as voice-controlled AI assistants, smart room control systems, AI-based concierge services, and robotic room service. These hotels are redefining roles and expectations within traditional hotel management, while simultaneously reducing costs and enhancing efficiency. Analyses indicate that unmanned smart hotels particularly appeal to specific customer segments, such as business travelers, and are becoming increasingly popular. These hotels offer advantages such as allowing guests to perform self-check-in, control their rooms, and receive necessary services via robots.

The universe of the research consists of all currently operating unmanned hotels worldwide. As a result of the research, 18 examples of unmanned smart hotels were identified. Hotels within the same chain with identical applications and processes were considered as a single example. Therefore, the research sample consists of 18 hotels.

By integrating these technological advancements, the hospitality and tourism industries can mitigate the impact of staff shortages, maintain high service standards, and improve operational efficiency. This approach allows businesses to adapt to changing workforce dynamics while continuing to deliver exceptional guest experiences. In conclusion, the significance and impact of unmanned smart hotels in the travel industry are growing. These hotels have the potential to shape the role of technology in the hospitality sector and influence future trends. Therefore, the adoption and development of unmanned smart hotels are important considerations for hotel operators and industry experts.

This study aims to investigate Vietnamese hotel workers’ use of national stereotypes in cross-cultural service encounters. The study extends the existing knowledge on service failures and recovery attempts by illustrating how national stereotypes could inform these decisions through the lens of the script theory.

In this qualitative study, 34 service providers were interviewed about their experience in dealing with guests from different countries in Vietnamese hotels.

Service providers categorised guests based on their countries of origin to predict their behaviour prior to guest arrivals. When the guest’s behaviour matches the expectations, the service encounters went smoothly by following existing scripts. If there is a discrepancy between the guest behaviours and expectations, it could lead to service failure and the need for new scripts. Appropriate interventions in this process could turn anecdotes into accumulated understanding of guest behaviour for better service and guest experience as a new application of national stereotypes.

This study advances cross-cultural service encounter research by integrating national stereotypes and script theory. It sheds new light on how national stereotypes could inform service delivery and recovery attempts in service organisations.

本研究旨在调查越南酒店员工在跨文化服务遭遇中使用民族刻板印象的情况。研究通过脚本理论的视角阐释了国家的刻板印象如何为这些决定提供信息, 扩展了现有的服务失败和恢复尝试的知识。

在这项定性研究中, 采访了34家服务提供商, 了解他们在越南酒店与来自不同国家的客人打交道的经历。

服务提供商根据客人的原籍国对他们进行分类, 以预测他们在客人抵达前的行为。当客人的行为符合预期时, 通过遵循现有脚本, 服务接触会顺利进行。如果客人的行为和期望之间存在差异, 可能会导致服务失败, 并需要新的脚本。作为国家刻板印象的新应用, 在这一过程中进行适当的干预可以将轶事转化为对客人行为的累积理解, 以提供更好的服务和客人体验。

本研究通过整合民族刻板印象和脚本理论, 推进跨文化服务遭遇研究。它揭示了在服务组织中, 国家的刻板印象如何影响服务提供和恢复尝试。

Este estudio tiene como objetivo investigar el uso de los estereotipos nacionales por parte de los trabajadores hoteleros vietnamitas en el encuentro intercultural de servicios. El estudio amplía el conocimiento existente sobre los fallos en el servicio y los intentos de recuperación al ilustrar cómo los estereotipos nacionales podrían influir en estas decisiones a través de la teoría del guion.

En este estudio cualitativo, se entrevistó a 34 proveedores de servicios sobre su experiencia en el trato con huéspedes de diferentes países en hoteles vietnamitas.

Los proveedores de servicios clasificaron a los huéspedes en función de sus países de origen para predecir su comportamiento antes de su llegada. Cuando el comportamiento de los huéspedes coincide con las expectativas, los encuentros con el servicio se desarrollaron sin problemas siguiendo los guiones existentes. Si hay una discrepancia entre los comportamientos y las expectativas de los huéspedes, podría provocar un fallo en el servicio y la necesidad de nuevos guiones. Las intervenciones consideradas apropiadas en este proceso podrían convertir las anécdotas en una comprensión acumulada del comportamiento de los huéspedes, lo cual mejoraría el servicio y la experiencia de los huéspedes como una nueva aplicación de los estereotipos nacionales.

Este estudio avanza en la investigación de encuentros de servicio interculturales mediante la integración de estereotipos nacionales y la teoría del guion. Además, arroja nueva luz sobre cómo los estereotipos nacionales podrían influenciar la prestación de servicios y los intentos de recuperación en las organizaciones de servicios.

This study proposes a conceptual model and aims (1) to understand how co-creation experience influences guest engagement, (2) to analyse the effect of satisfaction and affective image between co-creation experience and guest engagement, and (3) to analyse the effect of guest engagement on behavioural intentions.

A questionnaire-based online survey was conducted targeting U.S.-based hotel customers. Developed on Qualtrics and distributed via Mechanical Turk, the survey garnered 465 useable responses from individuals who had visited international chain hotels within the last year. Data analysis was performed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) in IBM SPSS Amos.

The findings revealed significant direct effects of co-creation experience on affective image and guest satisfaction, with guest satisfaction notably influencing guest engagement, and guest engagement directly influencing behavioural intention. However, both co-creation experience and affective image showed minimal direct impact on guest engagement. The study also highlighted the importance of indirect effects and total effects in understanding the dynamics between the constructs analysed.

The findings revealed significant direct effects of co-creation experience on affective image, with affective image notably influencing guest engagement, and guest engagement directly influencing behavioural intention. Although satisfaction had direct effects on guest engagement, co-creation experience showed minimal direct impact on guest satisfaction and on guest engagement.

This study advises managers to use co-creation primarily to enrich guest experiences and establish emotional connections rather than as a tool for directly enhancing engagement. It recommends that managers invest in strategies to enhance guest engagement beyond co-creation given the direct link between guest engagement and behavioural intentions, and the minimal direct impact between co-creation, guest engagement and satisfaction.

This study demonstrates that affective image is a pivotal mediator between co-creation experience and guest engagement. The findings provide valuable implications for hospitality practitioners in designing and managing co-creation experiences, emphasizing the importance of fostering a positive affective image in the value co-creation process to attain positive behavioural outcomes.