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The relationships between luxury and tourism are manifested in meaningful customer experiences which are focused on exclusive products and services. This paper aims to examine the visual communication of hotels in the Middle East to identify what luxury features are represented.

The digital communication of four luxury hotels in the United Arab Emirates was analysed based on a visual content and semiotic analysis of their Instagram’s posts (N = 1,866).

Results show that customers and views of the hotel and from the hotel are the most representative features of the social media communication of luxury hotels.

Theoretical and practical implications derived from the results are described, and opportunities for further research are identified in relation to digital marketing communication and the effect on consumers in hospitality and tourism.

This study aims to analyze the importance and performance of customer-facing technologies in luxury hotels. The study also assessed differences between and within the four generations in the importance-performance analysis (IPA).

Data were collected using a Qualtrics panel of recent luxury hotel customers in the USA belonging to all four generations. The cross-generational IPA was conducted using t-tests and (ANAOVA).

The IPA matrix concentrated most technology items in either low importance – low performance or high importance – high performance quadrants. One-way ANOVA revealed significant differences between generations on the importance ratings of all technology items except wireless charging power solutions and on the performance ratings of all technology items. Furthermore, post hoc tests indicated that millennials rated luxury technology most favorably among the four cohorts, followed by generations Z, X and Baby Boomers. In addition, significant differences between the importance and performance of many technology items within each generational cohort were observed. Overall, Wi-Fi was unanimously ranked across generations as the most important technology among luxury guests, but it was the only one that scored lower in performance than importance.

The findings of this study contribute to hospitality scholarship in two primary ways: the importance and performance of technology and generational differences. The results advance the understanding of the impact of generational factors on customer-facing technological adoptions in the luxury hotel sector.

Technologies that are pervasive in the home also become vital offerings for hotels. The more pervasive technology, the more a luxury hotel must work to ensure that it performs at optimal levels. Additionally, which technologies are most important to targeted generations are provided so practitioners may budget for their implementation.

This research is a pivotal step forward in unraveling the intricate interplay between generational factors and technological evaluations, providing a foundation for future research and practical applications in a rapidly evolving technological landscape in the hospitality industry.

Luxury fashion brands have started differentiating their investment strategies and enlarging their sectors of activity, for instance, entering tourism. The overlay between traditional behaviors and innovative strategies has left a mark on the cities and neighborhoods. This chapter explores the spatial distribution of luxury tourism infrastructure in Milan. This transition does not affect only preeminent locations, such as monumental squares and high streets, but also places traditionally excluded from the “luxury circuits.” The location of 5-star hotels and premium tourism facilities in Milan (Michelin restaurants and spas) differ from the general tourism infrastructure. The study identifies polarization in the touristic offer and a parallel influence in the real estate market.

This paper aims to examine the influence of social media communications, particularly firm-generated content (FGC) and consumer-generated content (CGC) on predicting consumer purchase decisions (CPD) through the lens of perceived brand authenticity (PBA). This paper also investigates the moderating influence of brand prestige (BP) and brand familiarity in the luxury hotel sector.

This study collected data from 390 consumers who were regularly using social media platforms, traveled frequently and stayed in luxury hotels. Following stringent data filtering, 371 responses were analyzed via structural equation modeling.

The findings indicate that FGC and CGC significantly strengthened PBA. However, CGC was the effective driver that directly influenced CPD. Likewise, PBA directly and indirectly substantially impacted CPD. Finally, BP’s direct and moderating effects significantly influenced CPD in the luxury hotel sector.

This novel study contributes to signaling theory, social media communications and branding literature in the luxury hotel sector.

This paper aims to evaluate and structure the basic heuristics consumers use in evaluating word-of-mouth (WOM) about luxury hotel brands while analyzing the impact of deception in online consumer reviews.

The research used a two-study mixed-methods approach, using interpersonal deception theory and social proof theory as lenses to conduct our analysis. For the first study, a qualitative conceptual mapping analysis was conducted, examining online consumer reviews to identify key concepts and their relationships in the context of luxury hotel brands. In the second study, the themes were further examined using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to analyze their causal complexity and association between variables to determine how they influence the perceived helpfulness of online reviews for luxury hotel brands.

The results underline the importance of functional, objective variables, such as the number of reviews and stars, as social proof heuristics and other factors, including clout, authenticity and analytic tone, as interpersonal communication heuristics. Therefore, consumers use a combination of social and interpersonal communication heuristics to extract information from reviews and manage deception risk.

The paper contributes to the consumer–brand relationship literature by assessing the heuristics consumers use in evaluating online reviews and provides additional information for research in online reputation management.

This study’s results can help marketing practitioners and brand managers manage their online reputations better. It can also aid managers in improving their messaging on hotel websites to entice consumers to complete bookings. Heuristics play an essential role in such messaging and understanding them can help marketers appeal directly to their target market.

This study contributes to the literature on consumer–brand relationships by providing a framework of heuristics that consumers use when evaluating luxury service brands and contributes to WOM and online reputation research by highlighting factors that may make online reviews more helpful.

This study aims to identify and classify potential hospitality industry human resource (HR) risks in the luxury hotel context.

Data has been collected from five-star hotels in Antalya, one of the most popular tourism destinations in Turkey. The study conducted focus groups to examine how hotel managers and lower-level staff perceive such risks. Using these focus group discussions, the participants' perceptions of HR risks were explored and elicited.

Participating hotel managers' and employees' perceptions were utilized to build up an outline for examining the risks associated with human resources management (HRM) practices in hotels. The evaluation shows that HR risk types in luxury hotels vary highly and that each type of risk requires close examination.

Recognizing HR risks play a key role for hospitality industry leaders and managers in attaining their organizations' goals and objectives, offering a practical framework in identifying and governing their HR risks, allowing them to make better strategic choices regarding their HR risk management (RM) plans.

This study extends the hospitality literature by exploring new ways of identifying and classifying HRM risks in luxury hotels.

The search for luxurious hospitality experiences increasingly coincides with the imperative to mitigate negative impacts in the pursuit of greater sustainability. This is a task often understood as being complex particularly in the context of luxury hospitality which often resonates with conspicuous consumption. This chapter uses a case study approach to analyze the complex relationship between luxury tourism and sustainability. The study focuses on the development of “luxury” from a materialistic perspective toward an experience economy and relates this to the concept of sustainability and agreements relevant to the tourism industry. The environmental impact of luxury hospitality is then discussed. The case study on properties in Costa Rica, South Africa, the Maldives, Vietnam, and French Polynesia focuses on philosophy, facilities, energy and waste consumption, food and beverage, conservational and educational activities, and alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The focus is on the properties and shows limitations in that it is not applicable to the whole tourist journey and experience. All properties understand luxury as based on experiences and involvement in nature. Measures to mitigate environmental impact and foster conservational and educational activities are mainstream practices. Comparing the cases with academic literature on luxury, sustainability, ecotourism, and environmental policies underline that sustainability-driven luxury hospitality shows valuable steps toward a more sustainable product but is ultimately faced with the dilemma of taking into consideration and ultimately mitigating the impacts of the entire travel value chain.

What is the impact of workers' tattoos and piercings on hospitality work? While body-art is prohibited in some hotels, it is encouraged in others. Also, an even more ambiguous situation arises when body-art is neither accepted nor prohibited, depending on labour market conditions and managers' individualistic preferences. In this chapter, we explore how this ambiguity imposes challenges on employment and career planning. We first seek to understand how managers' perceptions and decisions concerning worker body-art change in different hotel categories. To do so, we draw on interviews with 25 General and Human Resource Managers in 18 upper market hotels, three lifestyle boutique-hotels and four luxury hotels. Then, we offer pragmatic suggestions on career planning.

Using a video revealing unhygienic practices in Chinese five-star hotels as the case study, this study aims to understand the impact of service failure online exposure on hotel revenue performance in terms of seriousness, magnitude and duration, as well as to identify the hotel-characteristics and hotel-responsiveness factors that influence revenue recovery.

This study uses the actual Revenue per Available Room data of ten hotels involved in the incident and five different market segments during 2016–2019. Event study method is used to investigate the effect of online exposure on hotel revenue performance.

This study confirms the significant negative effect of online exposure and that hotels take nearly nine months to fully recover. The results indicate that hotel size, hotel age and response strategy play an important role in reducing negative impacts. Moreover, this study reveals the dynamic spillover effects of online exposure on different hotel market segments. These effects change from a competitive to a contagious effect with a decrease in class ratings.

Low-class hotel managers should take effective actions to avoid possible negative spillovers from others’ service failure incidents. Hotel managers could consider the synergy of different strategies rather than a single response strategy to minimize losses.

This study theoretically broadens knowledge about the negative impact of online exposure on Chinese hotel revenue. Additionally, the findings examine the dynamic spillover effects on hotels in different segments. Furthermore, they extend the existing findings on the negative impact of online public opinion crises.

本研究以一段揭示中国五星级酒店不卫生行为的视频为案例, 旨在了解网上曝光的服务失败事件在严重程度、规模和持续时间方面对酒店收入绩效的影响, 并确定影响收入恢复的酒店特征和酒店回应因素。

本研究使用了2016–2019年期间10家涉及酒店和5个不同的细分市场的实际每间可用房收入（RevPARs）数据。采用事件研究法（ESM）来研究网上曝光对酒店收入绩效的影响。

本研究证实了网上曝光的显著负面效应, 酒店需要近9个月的时间才能完全恢复。结果表明, 酒店规模、酒店年龄和回应策略在减少负面影响方面发挥了重要作用。此外, 本研究还揭示了在线曝光对不同酒店细分市场的动态溢出效应。这些效应随着酒店星级的下降而从竞争效应变为传染效应。

低星级酒店管理者应采取有效行动, 避免其他酒店的服务失败事件可能带来的负面溢出效应。酒店管理者可以考虑不同策略的协同作用, 而不是单一的回应策略来减少损失。

本研究从理论上拓宽了关于网上曝光对中国酒店收入绩效的负面影响的知识。与此同时, 本研究的结果考察了不同细分市场的酒店的动态溢出效应。此外, 还扩展了现有的关于网络舆情危机的负面影响的研究结果。

Este estudio utiliza los datos reales de ingresos por habitación disponible (RevPAR) de 10 hoteles implicados en el incidente y cinco segmentos de mercado diferentes durante 2016-2019. Se utiliza el método de estudio de sucesos (ESM) para investigar el efecto de la exposición en línea en el rendimiento de los ingresos de los hoteles.

Utilizando como caso de estudio un vídeo que revela prácticas antihigiénicas en hoteles chinos de cinco estrellas, este estudio pretende comprender el impacto de la exposición online de fallos en el servicio sobre el rendimiento de los ingresos hoteleros en términos de gravedad, magnitud y duración, así como identificar las características y los factores de respuesta del hotel que influyen en la recuperación de los ingresos.

Este estudio confirma el importante efecto negativo de la exposición online, tardando los hoteles casi nueve meses en recuperarse totalmente. Los resultados indican que el tamaño del hotel, su antigüedad y la estrategia de respuesta desempeñan un papel importante en la reducción del impacto negativo. Además, este estudio revela los efectos indirectos dinámicos de la exposición online en diferentes segmentos del mercado hotelero. Estos efectos cambian de un efecto competitivo a un efecto contagioso con una disminución de las calificaciones de la categoría o clase hotelera.

Los revenue managers de los hoteles de categoría baja deberían tomar medidas eficaces para evitar posibles repercusiones negativas de los fallos en el servicio de otros hoteles. Los directores de hotel podrían considerar la sinergia de diferentes estrategias en lugar de una única estrategia de respuesta para minimizar las pérdidas.

Este estudio amplía teóricamente los conocimientos sobre el impacto negativo de la exposición online en los ingresos de los hoteles chinos. Además, los resultados examinan los efectos indirectos dinámicos en hoteles de diferentes segmentos. Además, amplían los resultados existentes sobre el impacto negativo de las crisis de opinión pública online.

What role do consumers play in constructing their own luxury experiences? Challenging the dominant product-focus in luxury conceptualizations, this research note conceptualizes agentic luxury in the context of luxury services. Drawing on extant luxury research, the purpose of this article is to develop how consumers may take on more active roles in enacting their own luxury services experiences.

This research note is conceptual but builds on managerial insights from the luxury service sector to conceptualize the concept of agentic luxury.

Our research note develops a conceptual definition of agentic luxury and provides seven research propositions for its impact on luxury service encounters. These propositions detail how consumers engage in constructing their luxury experience; the roles of consumers and luxury service providers in the experience; and boundary conditions of agentic luxury. The authors further develop the role of customer-as-designer and highlight similarities and differences for agentic luxury between luxury goods and services.

The authors combine the recognized specificities of the largely goods-dominated luxury sector with service research to show how luxury service providers can engage customers for more complete and engaging luxury service experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research note is the first to conceptualize agentic luxury. The authors show how agentic luxury fills a gap in the current literature, and our propositions advance the relevance of agentic luxury for luxury service research.