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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.

Although the number of guest houses in China is increasing rapidly, many of them are not performing well in developing customer loyalty. Self-congruity and functional congruity represent two cost-effective but inadequately researched ways for guest houses to maintain customers. In view of the lack of empirical research explaining the post-purchase behavior of guest house customers, the purpose of this study is to develop a congruity-based customer loyalty model for this specialized type of accommodation.

Based on a review of relevant literature, a robust conceptual framework of customer loyalty comprising satisfaction, self-congruity, functional congruity, perceived value and attractiveness of alternates was constructed. By means of an online panel survey, 828 valid questionnaires were obtained from customers who had stayed in a Chinese guest house within the previous year. Structural equation modeling was conducted to test the conceptual model and the hypothesized relationships among the constructs.

Significant relationships were found between the two congruity constructs in guest houses, which both led to positive customer post-purchase behaviors. The authors found that self-congruity, functional congruity and the attractiveness of alternates did not affect customer loyalty directly; rather, they influenced loyalty indirectly through customer satisfaction.

This study developed a unique, congruity-based model of customer loyalty in the context of guest houses. It enhances the body of knowledge regarding congruity in the field of tourism and hospitality, and it discusses relevant implications of the findings for tourism marketing researchers and for owner-managers of guest houses.

虽然民宿增长迅速, 多数民宿在顾客忠诚上表现较差。自我一致性和功能一致性作为民宿维持顾客的有效手段, 在学术上研究较少。鉴于学界缺乏对民宿顾客购后行为的实证研究, 本研究试图构建一个基于一致性的民宿顾客忠诚模型。

在文献综述基础上, 我们构建了一个基于一致性的顾客忠诚模型。用在线样本库的方法调查了过去一年有过民宿住宿体验的顾客, 最终收集了828份有效问卷。

研究发现, 两个一致性表现对顾客的购后行为存在显著影响。同时, 本研究显示, 自我一致性, 功能一致性和替代者吸引力并不直接影响顾客忠诚, 而是通过影响顾客满意影响忠诚。

基于一致性的新视角, 民宿顾客忠诚模型被重塑。本研究可以加深对接待业自我一致性研究的理解, 并为旅游营销研究提供启示。论文最后还讨论了研究结果对民宿研究和管理者的启示。

Aunque el número de casas de huéspedes en China está aumentando rápidamente, muchas de ellas no están funcionando bien en el desarrollo de la lealtad del cliente. La autocongruencia y la congruencia funcional representan dos formas rentables pero inadecuadamente investigadas para que las casas de huéspedes mantengan clientes. En vista de la falta de investigación empírica que explique el comportamiento posterior a la compra de los clientes de la casa de huéspedes, el presente estudio busca desarrollar un modelo de lealtad del cliente basado en la congruencia para este tipo especializado de alojamiento.

Con base en una revisión de literatura relevante, construimos un marco conceptual robusto de lealtad del cliente que comprende satisfacción, autocongruencia, congruencia funcional, valor percibido y atractivo de alternativas. Mediante una encuesta de panel en línea, obtuvimos 828 cuestionarios válidos de clientes que se habían alojado en una casa de huéspedes china durante el año anterior. Se realizó un modelado de ecuaciones estructurales para probar el modelo conceptual y las relaciones hipotéticas entre los constructos.

Se encontraron relaciones significativas entre las dos construcciones de congruencia en las casas de huéspedes, lo que condujo a comportamientos positivos posteriores a la compra del cliente. Descubrimos que la autocongruencia, la congruencia funcional y el atractivo de las alternativas no afectaban directamente la lealtad del cliente; más bien, influyeron indirectamente en la lealtad a través de la satisfacción del cliente.

Este estudio desarrolló un modelo único de lealtad del cliente basado en la congruencia en el contexto de las casas de huéspedes. Mejora el conjunto de conocimientos sobre congruencia en el campo del turismo y la hospitalidad, y analiza las implicaciones relevantes de los hallazgos para los investigadores de marketing turístico y para los propietarios-gerentes de casas de huéspedes.

This study aims to examine nature-based tourists’ experiences in tree houses using user-generated content in Web reviews. The research objectives were to identify the main dimensions of tree house experiences and test whether these dimensions vary according to different traveller-type market segments.

A sample of 722 Web reviews was analysed using mixed content analysis methods. Leximancer software provided computer-assisted qualitative data analysis that identified the main themes, after which further qualitative analysis identified the key narratives associated with experiences.

The results reveal that tourists are extremely satisfied with their stays in tree houses. The main themes that encompass the dominant narratives are tree house, Costa Rica, staff, morning, walk, wildlife, rainforest, opportunity to learn, trip, experience and recommendation. The narratives vary according to type of traveller.

The valuable insights gained emphasise the advantages of using user-generated content in tourism studies. The results also offer a better understanding of the key dimensions of this type of nature-based tourism, including a graphic representation of the main themes and concepts in guests’ narratives. In addition, the findings emphasise that nature-based tourists are not a homogeneous group and that they can be segmented according to type of traveller.

Town house hotels are a small but expanding segment of the UK hotel sector. Little has been published about them and the article sets out to provide a background and some characteristics of the sector. Indicates definitions together with some assessment of the size of the sector. Presents operational characteristics such as food and beverage services, security, design, staffing and pricing strategies. Considers marketing approaches, as well as the question of hotel classification and grading. Concludes that recent developments indicate a continued growth of a product which aims to differentiate itself from its competitors by personal service and good value.

The Case Valdesi (Waldensian Houses) are non-profit structures, managed by the Diaconia Valdese, that propose a value-based and value-driven model of hospitality. There are nine hospitality facilities (six guest houses, two hotels and one hostel) located in different Italian venues, open to individual travellers, families or groups who look for unconventional tourism experiences such as slow-paced visits to artistic and natural attractions, retreats, informal symposia, as well as creative projects. The guest houses welcome international students and volunteers who provide hospitality services. They host refugees and asylum seekers when needed and encourage connections and mutual exchanges among people with diverse life experiences. Moreover, they use the hospitality revenues to support educational and social welfare projects. This chapter will present the Waldensian model of hospitality through a case study based on observations and qualitative data collected during fieldwork, proposing it as one of the possible sources of inspiration for the creation of human destinations.

Monitoring and assessment are essential in the measurement of tourism business performance. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how monitoring and assessment procedures can be applied in the hospitality business.

A case study and micro examples provide a framework for the monitoring and assessment of business performance in the hospitality business.

This chapter provides reasons why the tourism business uses control measures to monitor business performance. This is complemented with practical steps in the assessment procedures and guidelines for assessments. Different types of assessment procedures together with the characteristics of performance management provide a well-rounded overview to tourism business owners on how to conduct monitoring and assessment.

Due to the explorative nature of the monitoring and assessment case study, more empirical studies are needed to investigate and test performance measurement from a developing country perspective.

Discussions from the case study support the steps and practical guidelines in the monitoring and assessment of the tourism business.

The case study offers new practices into prospective entrepreneurs’ measurement and understanding in the monitoring and assessment of business performance.

This paper aims to examine the types of user misbehaviours in the sharing economy (SE) context. SE offers a fruitful study setting due to the scope of potential misbehaviour and the expanded role of consumers.

The study drew on online archival data from the AirbnbHell.com website, where people share their stories about their Airbnb-related negative experiences. The authors reviewed 405 hosts’, guests’ and neighbours’ stories and coded the identified forms of misbehaviours into categories. The typology thus developed was validated in the context of the Uber Rides service.

User misbehaviours in the SE context can be distinguished based on the domain in which the user role is violated and the nature of violated norms. These two conceptual distinctions delineate a four-fold typology of user misbehaviours: illegal, unprofessional, unbefitting and uncivil behaviours.

The trustworthiness of the stories could not be assessed.

The presented typology can be used as a mapping tool that facilitates detection of the full scope of misbehaviours and as a managerial tool that provides ideas for effective management of misbehaviours that correspond to each category.

The paper presents the first empirically derived comprehensive typology of user misbehaviours in SE settings. This typology enables classification of a broad set of misbehaviours, including previously overlooked unprofessional behaviours carried out by peer-service providers. The study also puts forward a revised definition of consumer misbehaviours that encompasses the impact of misbehaviours on parties not directly involved in the SE-mediated exchange.

The purpose of this paper is to map the service quality (SQ) of Airbnb, to provide additional insight for such top player of short-stay accommodation in the sharing economy context.

A mixed-method approach is used in two phases. In the qualitative phase, 112,138 online review comments of Airbnb guests were analyzed to generate the service attributes. In the quantitative phase, an online survey (n = 814) was conducted to calculate the performance and importance values of extracted attributes to plot them in an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) matrix.

A holistic image of the Airbnb extracted service attributes was presented through the IPA plot. Four types of SQ strategies were proposed, considering the actions priority. “Price reasonability” was the most important service attribute of Airbnb for guests, whereas “Check-in flexibility” was the best performed one.

The results shed light on the most relevant SQ attributes of Airbnb and proposed suitable strategies that can prioritize relevant stakeholders’ actions and decisions. The study significantly contributes to all decision makers involved in the short-stay accommodation sharing industry to further understand and develop SQ.

This research, using a comprehensive hybrid method, opens a lens to see more clearly the positioning of different attributes of Airbnb service from importance and performance viewpoints. As a contribution, the SQ of Airbnb was mapped by conducting an IPA for the first time in the literature.

This chapter examines how hospitality and tourism researchers can use ‘expressive text’ (or writing) to express the lived quality of an experience in order to ‘show what an experience is really like’ rather than ‘tell what it is like’. Expressive text refers to written language forms such as narrative, poetry and metaphor that can be used as tools in research to vividly represent the meaning and feeling conveyed in an experience. The expressive text-based approach to researching lived experience provides a textual link between experience and its expression. For this reason, it is especially useful when working with lived experience accounts of phenomenological and hermeneutic research.

The expressive text-based approach suggested here is still a relatively under explored arena within hospitality and tourism research. As a relatively under explored arena, the rich insightful knowledge that can be gained from understanding practitioner experience is rarely a central focus of scholarly writings about the workplace in hospitality and tourism contexts. However, in order to be fully appreciated as a discipline in its own right and to advance knowledge of the field, understanding the typical and significant attributes of hospitality and tourism work will be decidedly helpful.

One of the difficulties of working with lived experience accounts is finding a suitable research approach that helps to both retain the lived elements of the experience and ensure the rigour of the inquiry. An expressive text-based methodological framework that has a phenomenological and hermeneutic philosophical underpinning is argued to be suitable for this purpose. Therefore, the focus of this study is to discuss such a methodology and explain the reasons for its content, style and structure in researching lived experience. The approach that is proposed here consists of a five-tiered textually expressive methodology that is employed to contextualise, portray and interpret the lived experience meanings in order to understand the significance of the experience in relation to relevant discourses in hospitality and tourism studies, and to consider implications for policy and professional practice. The guiding questions of the five-tiered framework cover the following issues: (1) What is the context of the lived experience? (2) What is the lived experience of this practice like? (3) What is the meaning of this experience for the practitioner? (4) What is the significance of the experience in contributing to the advancement of knowledge within the field? (5) What are the implications for practice and professional development?

To illustrate uses of this methodology in research, the study here includes an example showing portrayals and interpretations of the typical and significant lived nature of hospitality reception work. This shows and communicates the full meaning of the episode, circumstances or situation. The chapter then concludes with some reflections on benefits as well as tensions in working within an expressive text-based phenomenological and hermeneutic framework.