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The purpose of this paper is to explore small hotels guests' perception of social responsibility (SR), to relate their SR perceptions with their motivation for choosing small hotels instead of large ones, and to check whether motivation is further related to guests' satisfaction. System thinking is used for better attainment of SR through linking the environmental and social dimension of hotel guests' SR perceptions.

The paper starts with a theoretical background for the conceptual model. The empirical quantitative research was conducted in 2013. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The hypotheses were analysed with structural equation modelling.

The findings show that guests of small hotels perceive SR predominantly through its environmental and socio-local perspective. The guests with stronger perception of SR are more motivated to choose small hotels for their vacations, and at the same time, demonstrate a higher level of satisfaction with their choice.

The research is limited to guests of small hotels only and to two dimensions of SR: environmental and socio-local.

Results of the study should encourage the small hotel operators to implement system thinking when reviewing their existing SR actions and adding some new ones. Relevant SR actions in small hotels, based on managers' system thinking, should become an important part of strategic, managerial and operational decisions.

The purpose of this study is to assess the comparative influence of two empathy dimensions (cognitive and emotional attributes) on emotional service experience and behavioral intention among business and leisure hotel guests. Studies relevant to empathy dimensions are relatively scarce in tourism and hospitality.

The current study reviewed the concepts of empathy, and empirically compared perceptions of empathy attributes between the two groups. The survey was intended to examine how well the hotel employees emotionally handle hotel guests’ incidents or inquiries related to any discomforts through personalized attention. The data were collected from 330 hotel guests who had actually complained about service failures while staying at the hotel during the record-breaking summer of 2013 in terms of number of visitors to Jeju. An active empathetic listening (AEL) tool has been taken to measure the hotel guest’s cognitive views and behavioral intentions, as well as emotional empathy measures under the empathic concern and emotional contagion.

The results revealed that empathetic dimensions strongly influenced the service experiences of hotel guests. While the emotional service experience of business guests was almost completely determined by the cognitive empathy, the emotional service experience of the leisure guests was mainly governed by the emotional empathy.

These outcomes suggest that the empathetic services through a “purpose of visit”-oriented manner might enhance the guest’s overall emotion positively.

According to the prior literatures and empirical findings in hospitality and tourism, empathy can be seen as subscale in SERVQUAL instrument. This paper focus on insights of empathy dimensions, and it was revealed that the interaction of both the cognitive and emotional dimensions of empathy conjointly determines the overall emotional service experience and intention of hotel guests.

The effects of the US guest worker program on the home country have not been documented. Jamaica has been a popular source of employees for the hospitality industry. This paper aims to evaluate the effects of the US guest worker program on Jamaica, the Jamaican hotel industry, and Jamaican guest workers.

Data from structured interviews with key persons in the Jamaican government, hoteliers in Jamaica, and Jamaican guest workers in the USA were analyzed to demonstrate the impact of this program from three viewpoints. Content analysis and frequency were the research methods that were used to analyze the findings.

Strong support for the workers by the Jamaican government was documented. While the Jamaican hoteliers are affected by a shortage of good workers, they accept the program because of the advantages to the workers and the economy. Advantages of the program from the workers' perspectives were the economic value of the program and the ability to learn about different cultures.

The paper's limitations include the small number of guest workers due to the limited accessibility. The value of the program to a small nation was documented.

This topic is on the minds of lawmakers, employers, and workers yet there is no other documentation of the advantages and disadvantages of the program to the three groups.

Due to their very different contexts, the responses made by property hosts to online reviews can differ from those posted by hotel managers. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of the responding behavior of hosts on peer-to-peer property rental platforms.

This study applied a comprehensive framework based on the theory of planned behavior. Empirical models are constructed based on 89,967 guest reviews with their associated responses to reveal the responding pattern of property hosts.

Unlike hotel managers, property hosts are more likely to reply to positive than to negative reviews; moreover, when they do choose to respond to negative reviews, they are likely to do so negatively, in a “tit-for-tat” way. This study also finds that one reason for the difference of responding patterns between property hosts and hotel managers is the hosts’ lack of experience of consumer relationship management and service recovery.

This study provides a good start point for future theoretical development regarding effective responding strategy on peer-to-peer property rental platforms, as well as some useful implications for practitioners.

This study is an early attempt to analyze the impact of the particularity of emerging platforms on the responding behavior of service providers based on a comprehensive conceptual framework and empirical model thus provides a good starting point for the further investigation of effective response strategies on these emerging platforms.

Guest experience and satisfaction have been central constructs in the hospitality management literature for decades. In recent years, the use of big data as an increasing trending practice in hospitality research has been characterised as a modern approach that offers valuable insights into understanding and enhancing guest experience and satisfaction. Recognising such potential, both researchers and practitioners need to better understand big data’s application and contribution in the hospitality landscape. The purpose of this paper is to critically review and synthesise the literature to shed light on trends and extant patterns in the application of big data in hospitality, particularly in research focusing on hotel guest experience and satisfaction.

This research is based on a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis literature review of academic journal articles in Google Scholar published up to the end of 2020.

By data types, user-generated content, especially online reviews and ratings, was at the centre of attention for hospitality-related big data research. By variables, the hospitality-related big data fell into two crucial factor categories: physical environment and guest-to-staff interactions.

This paper shows that big data research can create new insights into attributes that have been extensively researched in the hospitality field. It facilitates a thorough understanding of big data studies and provides valuable insights into future prospects for both researchers and practitioners.

This study aims to explore the perspectives of patrons and the underlying factors influencing luxury consumption in British Michelin-starred restaurants. While numerous studies have investigated consumers' purchase behavior of luxury items, there is limited research focusing on the utilization of premium restaurant services. Additionally, the hospitality literature has rarely addressed the emergence of discreet luxury consumption. Therefore, this research aims to examine the experiences of British Michelin-starred restaurants by incorporating online reviews from some of the most renowned establishments in the country. The initial objective of this study was to identify the predominant themes within British Michelin-starred restaurant experiences. Furthermore, the authors sought to analyze whether these main themes varied across different market segments based on guest types.

Using text mining tools, the authors analyzed a sample of 4,393 online reviews. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using the Leximancer program, which identified the dominant themes. Additionally, the authors performed an analysis to identify the major narratives associated with different types of guests.

The results of this analysis demonstrate that guests express a high level of satisfaction with their experiences at British Michelin-starred restaurants. The dominant themes within the narratives include food, wine, restaurant, time, reservation and innovation. It is important to note that these narratives vary depending on the type of guest.

Previous studies have highlighted the importance of market segmentation in Michelin-starred restaurants. This research addresses this need by specifically categorizing British Michelin-starred restaurants based on traveler type and the main concerns of their customers. The extensive data the authors collected and the authors' approach to utilizing guests' testimonials instead of traditional surveys contribute significantly to the field of academia and restaurant management.

Following Airbnb’s recent turn to the luxury market, this paper aims to explore how Airbnb hosts construct meanings of luxury as enacted in their hosting practices.

Semi-structured interviews with 46 Airbnb hosts were undertaken using purposing sampling.

Study findings reveal that social and personal meanings of luxury manifest in host practice, with “home feeling” representing the epicentre of the luxury peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation experience.

Although this study draws from host views, it represents a first attempt to empirically examine perceptions and applications of luxury within P2P accommodation. The study provides a conceptual framework which may serve as a point of departure for further research into which luxury service dimensions guests value.

The findings of the study carry implications to the wider hospitality context. Specifically, hospitality practitioners need to reconceptualize luxury hospitality provision to promote a “homotel” accommodation model which highlights the offering of physical and social luxury dimensions in addition to elements of personalized service and home-like hedonic benefits.

The study offers a conceptual framework of the luxury P2P accommodation servicescape, which identifies two distinct luxury offerings that may be informative to both P2P accommodation providers and hospitality practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the impact of perceived information and communication technology (ICT) on creation of brand equity within service firms, more specifically upscale hotels. The relationships between ICT and three brand equity dimensions, i.e. brand image, perceived quality, and brand loyalty are examined.

The empirical research was conducted in 20 upscale hotels in Rome-Italy, collecting data from 335 guests.

Advanced ICT directly influences perceived quality and image, while the impact of ICT on loyalty is mediated by perceived quality. Additionally, positive and significant relationships are found between the three brand equity dimensions.

The lack of significance of ICT impact on loyalty needs further attention. Future studies could center on this specific relationship, examining whether hotel companies that implement technology efficiently are able to deal with loyalty.

Managers are encouraged to invest in advanced technologies as their adoption and subsequent perception among guests can shape brand image and perceived service quality, thus influencing brand equity from the consumer perspective.

The contributions of this paper are fourfold. First, the ICT and customer-based brand equity concepts are studied together in the hotel context. Second, the inter-relationship among the three brand equity dimensions is analyzed. Third, the model is tested from the guest perceptive, as customers themselves can provide the most valuable inputs for business strategies. Finally, the work contributes to the service field by providing an empirical evidence on the potential and impact of advanced technology.

This study aims to bridge the gaps in the extant literature on memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) and Airbnb by exploring the sources of negative memorable Airbnb experiences among Finnish guests.

This study used a qualitative approach and used data collected through semi-structured interviews. The sampling criteria for selecting participants were that they must be Finnish nationals who had booked and stayed in an Airbnb accommodation within the past 36 months. The participants were selected using a criteria-based snowball sampling technique. A qualitative empirical study was conducted using self-structured interviews that were completed by 18 Finnish tourists who had stayed at an Airbnb property in the past three years.

Three main sources constitute the conceptual framework of a negative memorable Airbnb experience: unclean accommodations, unpleasant host behaviour and poor customer service.

Airbnb management should make efforts to reduce guests’ negative experiences. This goal can be achieved by developing service-quality-management policies and strategies that are standardised, clear and universally applicable to all hosts. In addition, Airbnb management should recruit qualified customer service personnel and equip them with service recovery skills through training and control mechanisms. Such training should focus on upgrading their ability to handle complaints.

This study responds to the need to examine negative incidents that are a part of MTEs and the sources of negative memories. The originality of this study includes the extension of the existing literature on MTEs and Airbnb, as a conceptual framework of negative memorable Airbnb experiences that comprises three main components: unclean rooms, unpleasant host behaviour and poor customer service has been proposed.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of backpackers’s evaluation of service quality provided by hostels by developing a battery of items to assess perceptions of the overall hostel experience.

Scale development took a mixed approach that combines qualitative and quantitative research. First, the authors performed a content analysis of reviews provided by guests in hostel booking web sites, in-depth interviews with hostel managers and focus groups with guests, to develop a battery of items to assess the hostel experience from the guests’ perspective. Then, a quantitative survey (n = 222) was conducted, to explore the dimensionality of service quality in this sector. Lisbon hostels are the target of this study, as they received several awards based on the online reviews of backpackers.

The results revealed that service quality is a multidimensional concept and includes six dimensions, namely, social atmosphere, location and city connection, staff, cleanliness, security and facilities. Regression results revealed that the social atmosphere appears to be a core service dimension crucial to create a sense of hostel guest’s overall quality.

The findings suggest that service quality scales should incorporate the specific characteristics of the hotel industry. The quality of the staff and the social atmosphere are of utmost importance to enhance the hostel backpacker experience.