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In‐room entertainment technology continues to evolve in the hotel industry. However, given the multitude of entertainment products available in the market place today, hoteliers have little clarity of guests' willingness to pay for those in‐room entertainment technology amenities. In this highly competitive environment for travelers, lodging managers should better understand what in‐room entertainment technology amenities their guests will purchase. The purpose of this study is to explore accepted pricing levels for in‐room entertainment technology amenities by hotel guests.

A sample of 2,500 US travelers was drawn randomly from a national database by rent‐a‐list.com for this study. An online survey was distributed. The response rate was 16.32 percent with 408 respondents.

Findings showed that guests want most of the in‐room entertainment technology amenities as complimentary. However, they are willing to pay for gaming consoles in their guest rooms.

This is the first paper that investigates the phenomenon of in‐room entertainment technology amenities. Implications are vital for hotel firms that aim to install the amenities.

Wine is widely regarded as a ‘complicated’ product and for the majority of consumers the purchasing of wine in the retail situation evokes considerable risk. Marketers are therefore constantly and increasingly trying to demystify wine in order to reduce the perceived risk levels of consumers in the purchase situation. Most previous research in the area of perceived risk literature tended to focus on the concept of risk and its measurement rather than on risk‐reduction. This study examined the preferred risk‐reduction strategies (RRS) employed by identified wine‐related lifestyle segments in the Australian wine market and linked these strategies to the wine retail environment. Relying on favourite brands or so‐called ‘safe brand’ buying was found to rank highest as a risk reduction strategy in the commercial (under $15 per bottle) and premium‐to super‐premium ($15‐$25) price ranges while the opportunity to try before buying ranked highest in the ultra‐premium ($25) price range. The results obtained have major implications for retailers and form the foundation for a competitive advantage. It also indicates the direction for future research in this strategically important area of wine consumer behaviour.

This research aims to investigate how Chinese leisure travelers value hotel amenities when they book hotel rooms in Hong Kong.

The research method was based on a conjoint analysis approach. Conjoint models were developed to determine how people make decisions and what they really value in products or services.

Price had the highest average importance value, followed by airport/local area shuttles, wireless internet, breakfast and quality of coffee/tea. Price, airport/local area shuttles and wireless internet were rated as being relatively more important than breakfast and quality of coffee/tea.

This research has some limitations in terms of the generalizability of its findings to all hotels and travelers. First, only four hotel amenities were considered. Second, the research focused on Chinese leisure travelers staying in hotels in Hong Kong. Finally, the sample only consisted of leisure travelers.

This research shows that providing complimentary breakfast and free access to quality coffee/tea when a hotel already provides a shuttle service and free wireless internet does not add much value to the overall hotel product from the customer’s point of view. Moreover, it provides insights into how hotel professionals can customize and select the amenities they provide to impress their customers.

This research has significant implications for hotel managers’ efforts to formulate and implement strategies or tactics in their daily operations or long-term plans through the selection of hotel amenities.

Recent research into last mile e‐grocery logistics has revealed that goods reception mode is one of the key issues for the operational efficiency of home deliveries. Hitherto, the research has considered home delivery concepts using attended reception and concepts enabling unattended reception based on customer‐specific reception boxes and delivery boxes. Customer‐specific reception boxes are installed in the consumer’s home yard or garage, while delivery boxes are insulated boxes that are returned to the retailer. Focuses on a third possible concept for unattended deliveries, namely shared reception boxes. Due to shared usage, the utilisation level of the facility is higher than in the case of customer‐specific unattended reception concepts. Analyses the operational cost levels of home delivery concepts using both attended and unattended reception, using real point‐of‐sales data and vehicle routing tools. The results show that transportation costs using the shared reception box concept are 55‐66 per cent lower in comparison with the current standard concept with attended reception and two‐hour delivery time windows. On the basis of our analysis, the cost reduction alone justifies the two‐to‐five‐year payback period of the investment required, even if there is only a fairly small number of deliveries per day. Surprisingly, the payback period is longer when customer density increases.

The purpose of this study is to examine hotel guests’ attitudes toward guest room technologies (GRTs) and determine whether hotel guests’ characteristics and attitudes regarding GRTs vary according to hotel guest typologies.

The data were gathered from a sample of 508 hotel guests who had stayed in a hotel in the past 12 months via a self-administered survey on Qualtrics survey software. The analysis of the study consisted of two main research steps: identification of cluster groups via the K-means cluster analysis algorithm and discriminant analysis; and performing a series of chi-square analyses to determine whether hotel guests’ characteristics and attitudes vary according to obtained hotel guest typologies.

Results indicated significant attitudinal (e.g. internet payment preference) and demographic (e.g. age) differences among the obtained hotel guest typologies regarding their attitudes toward GRTs.

The results provide valuable guidance and a pragmatic approach for those hotel managers that aim to generate tailored marketing strategies for guest segments that are interested in GRTs.

This study concentrates on GRTs with a market segmentation approach by using advanced statistical procedures. It contributes to the body of related research literature by offering empirical evidence where the study evaluates the impact of the availability of new GRTs on guest decision-making based on the principles of the theory of planned behavior. Practitioners will be able to use the presented findings to generate marketing and pricing strategies with respect to the technological needs and wants of each typology.

本论文主要研究酒店顾客对客房科技（GRTs）的态度以及检验顾客特点和背景情况对GRTs的态度是否有不同的影响。

研究样本包括508位在过去12个月内消费过的酒店顾客, 样本通过在线自助式问卷来采集。本论文的分析步骤分为两步：（1）通过K-means聚类分析和判别分析以确立群组, 以及（2）一系列Chi-square分析以判定酒店顾客特点和态度是否根据获得的顾客背景情况而有差别。

研究结果表明在获得的酒店顾客背景情况中, 态度型因子（比如网络支付喜好）和人口统计类型因子（比如年龄）对于酒店顾客GRTs态度有显著差异。

研究结果对酒店经营者针对不同细分市场对GRTs的喜好来制定个性化营销战略有着珍贵指导和实践的启示意义。

本论文主要通过一系列高级统计操作来研究GRTs以及市场细分方法。研究结果对相关文献有着显著价值, 对以计划行为理论 （Theory of Planned Behavior）为基础, 检验新型GRTs对顾客决策行为的影响提供了实践研究。行业实践者能够借鉴研究结论来制定与科技需求和细分市场需求相关的营销和定价战略。

酒店技术；客房技术；房间内部技术；市场划分；付款意愿；决策

纸张类型–研究论文

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in hotels contributes to satisfaction and loyalty from the consumer perspective, considering the online dimension of recommendations.

A quantitative research based on a structured questionnaire and using a personal survey method was developed. Surveys were conducted on 386 guests from Spanish hotels. Causal methodology by testing structural equation model was applied.

Significant relationships are obtained in the sequence “ICT use perception – satisfaction with ICT – overall satisfaction with the hotel – dimensions of loyalty” and the mediating effect of positive electronic word-of-mouth intention between ICT satisfaction and general intention to recommend the hotel is confirmed.

Future research can replicate these relationships in other tourist services and employ multidimensional scales to measure word-of-mouth behaviour.

The novelty of this work is that it studies the relationships between ICT, satisfaction and loyalty in hotel services, paying particular attention to positive word-of-mouth behaviour, both conventional and online.

El propósito de este trabajo es investigar la contribución que tiene la adopción de las TIC en los hoteles en la satisfacción y la lealtad, desde la perspectiva del consumidor y considerando la dimensión online de las recomendaciones.

Se desarrolló una investigación cuantitativa basada en un cuestionario estructurado y empleando el método de la encuesta personal. Se realizaron 386 encuestas a huéspedes de hoteles españoles. Se aplicó la metodología causal testando un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales.

Se obtienen relaciones significativas en la secuencia “percepción de los clientes del uso de las TIC – nivel de satisfacción con las TIC – nivel de satisfacción general con el hotel – dimensiones de la lealtad” y se confirma el efecto mediador que tiene la intención del boca-oreja online entre la satisfacción con las TIC y la intención general de recomendar el hotel.

En futuras investigaciones se pueden replicar estas relaciones en otros servicios turísticos y emplear escalas multidimensionales para medir la conducta de boca-oreja.

La novedad de este trabajo radica en el estudio de las relaciones entre las TIC, satisfacción y lealtad en los servicios hoteleros poniendo especial atención en la conducta de boca-oreja positivo, tanto convencional como online.

Product design is a dynamic factor that triggers customers’ experiential value which eventually escalates their satisfaction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of product design dimensions on customer satisfaction with the mediating role of affect.

A survey on 225 smartphone users has been conducted to test the conceptualization empirically. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed using SPSS Amos-22.0 to confirm the hypotheses.

The results indicate that affect fully mediates the relationship between symbolic dimension and satisfaction. Whereas, partial mediation of affect is observed in the relation between functional dimension and satisfaction.

The framework of this research contributes towards the practice by facilitating managers in evaluating the impact of experiential value which product design dimensions create to influence customer satisfaction.

This study is first of its kind to analyze how design dimensions create experiential value to influence customer satisfaction. It contributes to the literature by giving empirical evidence that affective responses like pleasure and arousal play an important role in assessing product design dimensions that influence customer satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a benchmark for hotel operators to understand in-room technology trends and the impact of in-room technology on business performance.

The survey questions are based on existing literature and suggestions from the American Hotel and Lodging Association Technology and E-commerce Committee. The authors collected 206 usable samples from managers, vice presidents, presidents, owners and executives from hotel companies and utilized cross-tab analysis and multiple regression analysis.

The results demonstrate that installing specific in-room technologies can have a significant effect on enhancing the customer experience and increasing revenue. The study also presents the most commonly installed in-room technologies those hoteliers plan to install in the near future.

Proper strategies are recommended to help hospitality managers understand the impact of different in-room technologies on the hospitality industry; particularly as they relate to guest experience and profitability.

By identifying the most popular in-room technologies currently available and examining which in-room technologies can be effective at enhancing guest experience and increasing revenue, this study fills the gap between the findings of previous studies and the observations from industry practitioners.

The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal took great pains to interpret the intention of the parties to the different site agreements, and it came to the conclusion that the agreed procedure was not followed. One other matter, which must be particularly noted by employers, is that where a final warning is required, this final warning must be “a warning”, and not the actual dismissal. So that where, for example, three warnings are to be given, the third must be a “warning”. It is after the employee has misconducted himself thereafter that the employer may dismiss.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).