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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the correlation between customer experience and brand equity for a homestay establishment in Eastern Taiwan.

Visitors staying at Yuehetang Rural Residence (YRR) during the month of January 2013 were surveyed, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis and typical correlation.

Visitors demonstrated a very high level of overall satisfaction with their homestay experience (4.43-4.84), especially in terms of YRR’s ability to evoke feelings of being moved or touched, and of pleasure, excitement and satisfaction. Similarly, YRR’s brand equity was rated very high (3.98-4.67). Responders particularly felt that YRR’s image of prioritizing environmental protection and the quality of its lodgings were unique sources of added value and, therefore, factors in creating its healthy brand equity, despite the fact that it was rated low in terms of visibility to homestay-hunting customers. The correlation coefficient between experience and brand equity was 0.742, indicating a high degree of positive correlation. The correlation between customer loyalty and brand equity was also quite high, followed by, in decreasing order of strength, the correlations between brand equity and the environment-friendly image, the quality of lodging, organic farming and visibility.

YRR’s core business value is environmental protection, a factor which, in today’s increasingly environment-conscious world, has unsurprisingly contributed heavily to its brand equity and customer loyalty. YRR and other homestay operators can utilize the findings of this paper to enhance visitor experience and their own brand equity.

This paper is one of the first articles in the homestay experience field that offers content that environmental protection is an important factor to brand equity. It also offers numerous theoretical and practical implications.

This empirical study investigated the relationships among leisure behaviors and life satisfaction of Thai labors in Taiwan. Convenience sampling and several statistical techniques were adopted. The key findings were (1) Leisure preference, participation, constraint, satisfaction, and overall life satisfaction are influenced by one's socioeconomic background. (2) Because of living in a new country, Thai labors' past and current leisure participations although are strongly related, they are different. In addition, the relation between their leisure preference and participation was found significant when living in Thailand but not when living in Taiwan. (3) The constraints preventing Thai labors from participating in leisure activities in Taiwan were found. They significantly reduced one's leisure participation and satisfaction. (4) A positive relationship between Thai labors' leisure participation and leisure satisfaction in Taiwan was found along with the finding that their leisure satisfaction was also positively related to their life satisfaction.