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The purpose of this study is to investigate what people with different demographic characteristics such as age and gender expect from hotel room design and examine how design preferences affect purchase intent and desire to stay and word-of-mouth behavior.

The study was based on a quasi-experimental design conducted on 762 participants. The manipulations of room color and design style were prepared using the 3D modeling software, while age and gender were self-reported variables.

The results indicated that age and gender moderate the relationship between hotel guest satisfaction and room design style. Younger guests prefer contemporary design style, while older guests show equal satisfaction with traditional and contemporary styles. Male guests prefer rooms decorated in masculine colors, while women are equally satisfied with masculine or feminine color schemes.

This study was conducted as a hypothetical, computer-aided experimental scenario. A field experiment captured guests’ satisfaction with an experimental hotel room. A substantive cause–effect relationship between hotel room visual servicescape stimuli and satisfaction was established.

Identifying design style and color preferences of a hotel target market is paramount for investment payoff and further supports the customization of hotel services.

This is the first experimental study to manipulate color scheme and type of design in a hotel room and capture their effects on satisfaction and behavior of guests with different demographic characteristics.

The purpose of this research paper is to identify determinants influencing hotel room design now and in the future to offer hotel owners, hotel investors, architects and other partners involved in hotel planning, a framework regarding hotel room design 2030. Based both on theoretical foundations and empirical findings, guidelines for an innovative future hotel room design are evolved and represented by a triangular model.

A detailed analysis of basic and topic-related hotel management literature as well as of promising best practices of leading international hotel companies is supplemented by the evaluation of 27 expert interviews with hoteliers of varying hotel conceptions in Germany, Austria and Spain.

The paper presents qualitative as well as quantitative results of the applied methodology and leads to the emergence of a triangular model for an innovative future hotel room design approach.

Safety and security aspects (both physical and virtual) as well as sustainability as a limiting factor have not been further discussed within the model construction so far.

The theoretical findings and the emergent framework may be customized to the determining factors and specific needs of individual hotels, hotel consortia or hotel chains to meet the needs of hotel room design 2030.

This research paper offers guidelines beyond design aspects by considering target group priorities, technological innovation and economical aspects.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hotel growth model including hotel brand, culture and life cycle phases of the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the fastest growing tourism destination in the United States.

Culture reflecting consuming behaviour of low-context innovators and high-context imitators is measured by the price elasticity of demand (PED). Hotel brand reflecting guests’ hotel class is measured by the income elasticity of demand. Autoregressive distributed lag has been conducted on the Smith Travel Research data in 33 years (1989–2022) to determine the relationship among hotel brand, culture and life cycles.

Skilled labour is the key to make hotels grow. Therefore, increase room rates when hotels possess skilled professionals and decrease room rates when hotels have no skilled professionals. During the rejuvenation in Myrtle Beach (1999–2003), hoteliers increased room rates for innovators due to skilled professionals to increase revenue. Otherwise, a decrease in room rates due to lack of skilled professionals would lead to increase revenue.

(1) Although Myrtle Beach is one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the US, it has a relatively small geographic area relative to the country. (2) Data cover over one tourist life cycle, so the time span is relatively short. Hoteliers can forecast the number of guests in different culture by changing room rates.

To optimize revenue, hoteliers can select skilled labour in professional design hotel brands which could make an increase in demand for leisure transient guests no matter what room rates increase after COVID-19 pandemic.

The study has considered the applied ethical processes regarding revenue management that would maximize both revenue and customer satisfaction when it set up an increase in room rates to compensate for professional hotel room design or it decreases room rates for low-income imitators in exploration and development.

This research highlights that (1) skilled design in the luxury hotel brand is the key for the hotel growth and (2) there is a steady state of the growth model in the destination life cycle.

This paper aims to examine, discuss and intertwine theory and practice related to hotel guests’ home and lodging environments to identify their in-room psychological and physical needs.

The research design is qualitative, with a focus on understanding social phenomena through direct observation, communication and textual analysis; contextual subjective accuracy is stressed over generality. Using interpretative phenomenology, the psychological and sociological aspects of the individual’s journey are deliberated including: travelling through one’s own room; virtual travels from the room via electronic media; the hotel room as a reconstruction of the intimate sphere; the return to, and transformation of, one’s own room; and the accumulation of souvenirs. The tabulated findings are linked to hotel guests’ in-room needs using inductive thematic coding and content analysis.

The psychological and physical in-room needs of individual hotel guests are identified; safety, security and control emerge as paramount. Practical suggestions to complement, expand and enrich guests’ in-room experiences are offered.

As the focus is limited predominantly to the debate and rationalisation of concepts and the methodology is exploratory as opposed to scientific, the validity of the findings may be questioned; primary data triangulation modifies this criticism. Future researchers are advised to consider the evidence when developing hypotheses to establish a theory of lodging. Research on improving the quality of facilities and services should centre on an analysis of the concept of “being in one’s own room”, followed by an analysis of the transposition to “being in a hotel room” from both physiological and psychological perspectives.

Referring to the developed hierarchy, accommodation/lodging providers are recommended to increase their efforts to exceed the expectations of individual guests. Guest profiling should focus on individual needs and preferences, ideally at the booking stage.

Accommodation/lodging providers are encouraged to demonstrate social awareness and empathy through individual social responsibility efforts to enhance the experiences and quality of life of their guests.

The paper makes a valuable contribution by debating and connecting philosophical and psychological literature to the practical needs of hotel guests. It recognises and concludes that, as they are merely temporary residents, hotel guests’ experiences embrace a series of journeys through different, individual interiors. Based on this premise, an innovative hierarchy of hotel guests’ in-room needs is developed.

This paper aims to identify potential avenues for innovation in urban hotel management by analyzing self-reported data from visitors regarding their experience with interior design.

A qualitative exploratory computer-assisted content analysis was conducted to identify the impact of interior design on the guest experience. Leximancer 4.0 software analyzed 2,562 reviews from urban hotels collected through a reservation website.

The findings reveal that data reported by guests on interior design play a crucial role in shaping guest experiences, both positively and negatively. The esthetic appeal of interior design is shown to impact resting and comfort, affecting overall performance significantly. The study also highlights how different star categories of hotels and variations in visitors' purposes for their stay lead to distinct guest experiences and different opportunities to innovate.

The study’s results provide evidence for researchers and practitioners of the potential of the guest-reported interior design experience as a valuable source for fostering innovation. In addition, in the hotel industry, innovation may eventually be attained through interior design renovation.

Self-reported data from guests on interior design is an effective tool for innovation. Making interior design a priority throughout the establishment and ongoing management of a hotel is crucial. By integrating interior design, not only can potential negative experiences be avoided, but greater guest satisfaction can also be achieved during their stay, promoting memorable experiences that align with the hotel category and customer expectations.

This research emphasizes the importance of interior design as a catalyst for innovation and improved social experiences in the hospitality industry. Innovation in interior design can improve hotel performance in several dimensions, including attracting more visitors to the hotel and the area, increasing tourism revenue for local businesses and contributing to the broader societal goal of reducing environmental impact and promoting sustainability.

This article adopts a guest-centered methodology to provide valuable insights for hotel managers to leverage interior design as a tool for innovation in the hospitality industry after showing that interior design enhances guests' experiences, comfort and hotel differentiation.

The increasingly competitive hotel industry and emerging customer trends where guests are more discerning and want a personalized experience has led to the need of innovative applications. Personalization is much more important for hotels, especially now in the post-COVID lockdown era, as it challenges their business model. However, personalization is difficult to design and realize due to the variety of factors and requirements to be considered. Differences are both in the offer (hotels and their rooms) and demand (customers’ profiles and needs) in the accommodation domain. As for the implementation, critical issues are in hardware-dependent and vendor-specific Internet of Things devices which are difficult to program. Additionally, there is complexity in realizing applications that consider varying customer needs and context via existing personalization options. This paper aims to propose an ontological framework to enhance the capabilities of hotels in offering their accommodation and personalization options based on a guest’s characteristics, activities and needs.

A research approach combining both quantitative and qualitative methods was used to develop a hotel room personalization framework. The core of the framework is a hotel room ontology (HoROnt) that supports well-defined machine-readable descriptions of hotel rooms and guest profiles. Hotel guest profiles are modeled via logical rules into an inference engine exploiting reasoning functionalities used to recommend hotel room services and features.

Both the ontology and the inference engine module have been validated with promising results which demonstrate high accuracy. The framework leverages user characteristics, and dynamic contextual data to satisfy guests’ needs for personalized service provision. The semantic rules provide recommendations to both new and returning guests, thereby also addressing the cold start issue.

This paper extends HoROnt in two ways, to be able to add: instances of the concepts (room characteristics and services; guest profiles), i.e. to create a knowledge base, and logical rules into an inference engine, to model guests’ profiles and to be used to offer personalized hotel rooms. Thanks to the standards adopted to implement personalization, this framework can be integrated into existing reservation systems. It can also be adapted for any type of accommodation since it is broad-based and personalizes varying features and amenities in the rooms.

Advances in technology and in subsequent guest-related amenities have the potential to improve the guest experience and also increase both guestroom revenues and ancillary room revenues. Innovative technologies will be one of the prime differentiators of hotel companies in the twenty-first century. However, it is important for hoteliers to answer questions such as which technology amenities do their guests desire when choosing overnight accommodations? Further, what are the importance levels assigned by guests of these various technology amenities? This study aims to answer the question of how leisure travelers may differ or be similar to business travelers with regard to in-room technology amenities.

The target population of this study consisted of 2,500 US residents whose email addresses were randomly drawn from a national database company. A series of t-tests and ANOVA were conducted to answer the research questions.

High-speed internet access and guest device connectivity were perceived more important by business travelers than by leisure travelers.

Recognizing guests’ technology needs and answering those needs are important for hotel operators to remain competitive. While some segments perceive more value in certain technologies, for others it might be an indifferent amenity.

The amount of time guests spend in their rooms directly correlates to increased revenues from in-room dining, in-room amenities offered and, in general, all pay-for-use products and services such as the internet and movies. Therefore, with the right assortment and offering of technology amenities, hotels will increase their revenues from these ancillary revenues. Moreover, a hotel property with the right mixture of desired in-room amenities and services can charge higher rates for their guestroom sales.

The results of this study provide insights into the changing attitudes toward in-room entertainment technology that many hotel developers should take note of.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of key hotel attributes on the room rates of selected hotels in the Greater Gaborone Region, Botswana.

Using hedonic pricing analysis, the effect of eight attributes collected from 80 standard double rooms on Booking.com in the area was analysed using quantile regression.

The estimated results from quantile regression suggested the importance of the 10th quantile as the best predictor of hotel room price distribution. Overall, the presence of a fitness centre and the availability of meeting and conference facilities were positively significant for the lowest- and premium-priced hotels, respectively.

The study advanced the literature in hedonic pricing models by confirming the applicability of hotel room rate attribute research in unexplored environments.

Hotel managers should be aware of the influence of key attributes, such as meeting and conference space availability and locational factors, on the pricing decisions of room rates in the Greater Gaborone Region. The study also presented opportunities for business-to-business marketing between hotel and tour operators in the region.

The study is one of the few that uses quantile regression in the hedonic pricing analysis of hotel room rates.

This exploratory study aims to focus on the challenges arising from the interactions between wheelchair users, individuals using crutches and blind people with the hotel environment as well as on the efforts to overcome these challenges.

The sample was gathered through a snowballing technique. The study utilizes in‐depth semi‐structured interviews of 45 participants: 20 used wheelchairs; ten were dependent on crutches; and 15 were blind. The data were subject to thematic content analysis.

Interpreted by the social model of disability, the results suggest that the challenges participants confront derive from the physical design of the environment as well as staff behaviors. Differences were found between the hotel experiences of people with various types of disabilities.

The sample was limited to Israeli participants.

The paper offers recommendations for hotel management with regard to specific physical as well as interpersonal means to alleviate apparent difficulties faced by people with disabilities in their hotel experiences.

This study broadcasts the genuine voice of people with disabilities. The findings are of special relevance to hospitality researchers, educators, executives, and hotel staff.

The purpose of this study is to identify Halal hotel attributes demanded by the Russian Muslim travelers. Following this, the study aims to investigate whether gender and types of travelers influence the demand for Halal hotel attributes.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to localize the list of Halal hotel attributes for the Russian business context. A self-administrated online questionnaire was designed, distributed and collected from 191 Russian Muslim customers, who have stayed at Halal hotels in the past 12 months. Data analysis includes a t-test and analysis of variance.

The study revealed a list of Halal attributes demanded by Russian Muslim customers. Also, the findings indicate that the list of the attributes demonstrated the differences in the requested attributes between gender and types of travelers.

The study came across three main limitations. The first was that the respondents surveyed were leisure tourists. Second, the majority of the respondents have university degrees. Third, the research sample is limited to approximately 200 respondents. This research primarily contributes to tourism and hospitality management, and consumer behavior literature, as this is the first study yielding insights on a new demographic: Russian Muslim tourists.

The study provides a clear understanding of the Halal hotel attributes demanded by Russian Muslims that can help hotel managers to accommodate the needs of this group while, at the same time, meeting the requirements of guests of different religions.

The study contributes to improving social relationships within the Russian Federation as it improves society’s understanding of the life principles of Muslims.

This is the first study investigating the demand for Halal attributes by Russian Muslim tourists. By partly covering the empty research field on this topic, the study provides meaningful direction to future research of the Russian hotels’ Halal services from both supply and demand perspectives.