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This paper aims to understand the effect of food and beverage (F&B) services on the operating performance of luxury hotels and to identify the heterogeneous effects of the luxury hotels’ F&B operation on the business performance between Asia and the USA.

Operating performance of luxury hotels in Asia (37 hotels), including Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong and in the USA (72 hotels), including New York, California, Florida, Illinois and Texas was collected from STR reports. This study applied generalized estimating equations models to reach the conclusions.

The emphasis on F&B services exhibits a significant positive effect on the operating performance of luxury hotels in Asia. The occupancy rate and gross operating profit per available room of luxury hotels in Asia have improved with the investment in F&B offerings. Therefore, a distinctive F&B offering should be considered as one of the main products and services rather than a supplementary service in Asia. While devotion to F&B services lacks a significant positive effect on luxury hotels in the USA.

This study is the first effort to identify the importance of luxury hotels’ F&B operation for the overall hotel performance in Asia and the USA by focusing on the entire industry’s operating information.

This study aims to explore the reasons for the rise of independent, stand-alone restaurants and ascertains the benefits of outsourcing food and beverage (F&B) in luxury hotels in India from the perspectives of the strategic partners involved in such an alliance. The study also proposes different formats for F&B outsourcing in luxury hotels.

An exploratory study was carried out by collecting primary data from 16 Hotel General Managers and F&B operations experts through qualitative, semi-structured, personal and in-depth interviews. NVivo12 software was used to carry out a qualitative thematic analysis of the data. The primary data collected were triangulated with secondary data gathered through literature review of academic papers, industry reports and studies on the trends of restaurants in luxury hotels being outsourced.

The study focusses on the antecedents of the rise of stand-alone restaurants in the Indian hospitality industry. To combat the competitive disruption arising because of this trend, the study posits the business model innovation of outsourcing F&B operations in luxury hotels.

The benefits of a strategic alliance from the perspective of both parties – the luxury hotel and Michelin-star chef or branded/marquee restaurant – are elucidated. Further, three broad formats, which can be adopted for speciality restaurant outsourcing are also proposed. Practitioners, researchers and educationists in the hospitality industry would find the implications of this study useful in the context of the present customer-centric business environment where hotels are constantly striving to meet the exponentially rising bar of guest expectations in an increasingly globalised milieu.

The study proposes a preliminary road map for internationalisation of F&B operations through the business model innovation of outsourcing operations of in-house specialty restaurants by luxury hotels in the Indian context.

While much has been written on operational aspects of hotel food and beverage functions, the literature on career paths and background characteristics of successful food and beverage directors is quite sparse. A survey was distributed to all food and beverage directors of four and five star hotels in America to obtain a clear understanding of the career histories of food and beverage directors and to determine if there are any distinguishing characteristics in terms of demographics, education or experience which are possessed by successful food and beverage directors. Nearly all of the food and beverage directors reported having ambitions for higher positions, with hotel general manager the most preferred higher position. The results of the study have implications for hospitality education curriculum development and human resource planning in the luxury full service hotel industry.

An unexpected Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected the tourism and the hospitality industry, including luxury accommodation service providers. While this was not the first virus outbreak to impact the tourism sectors, in this case, its consequences were devastating. In this light, this contribution analyzes the case of an Italian luxury hotel, a winner of numerous awards during the last few years, including the prestigious World Luxury Hotel Award. The researchers compare its pre- and the post-COVID situation. They clarify that the outbreak has resulted in reduced reservations and explain how the upscale hotel responded to the unprecedented crisis by implementing different approaches. The luxury hospitality business decided to defend its brand differentiation and positioning strategy by continue offering improved service quality and by introducing enhanced hygiene and sanitation facilities, in order to deliver customer-centric experiences to their valued guests.

The purpose of the study is to identify critical value-creating elements of luxury services expressed in ratings and reviews posted on third-party sites and examine cross-cultural differences. To this end, the research analyzed online ratings and reviews of luxury hotels posted on TripAdvisor from customers of four European regions (East, North, South and West).

Eight hundred thirty-eight online user-generated ratings and reviews of luxury hotels were analyzed quantitatively using MANOVA and qualitatively using text analysis.

The study findings support (a) that product and physical evidence are the most critical experiential elements of luxury hotels' offerings and (b) cultural differences among tourists from various regions of Europe in their hotel ratings and reviews. Specifically, Eastern and Northern Europeans are more generous in their review ratings than western and southern Europeans. Moreover, eastern Europeans value the hotel's physical evidence/environment whereas western Europeans prioritize the core product (room and food) followed by the physical environment/servicescape. Southern Europeans and Northern Europeans value most the personnel, followed by the physical environment and the core product, respectively.

Cultural differences provide several implications with regard to luxury services segmentation, social media management, service marketing mix development and hotel promotion.

The value of this study originates from studying post–purchase customer behavior in luxury services from a cross-cultural perspective. Moreover, identifying critical aspects of value-creating customer experience in a luxury context adds to the available literature.

New technologies represent an important challenge for all sectors across the world, becoming a relevant opportunity for the luxury hospitality industry as well. This study empirically investigates the effects of openness to change and status consumption orientation in influencing luxury hotel guests' perceived usefulness of voice assistants when integrated with their staying. Specifically, we shed light on the potential interplay between these two constructs in shaping guests' perceived usefulness of these devices. Finding suggests that openness to changes and status consumption represents two potentially alternative aspects that managers could leverage to encourage hotel guests' perceived usefulness and vocal assistant devices. This implies that openness to change on the part of luxury hotel guests may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for these devices to be accepted. Rather, luxury hotel managers should also consider the status consumption orientation of their guests.

Delivering services that create memorable luxury accommodation experiences rely on frontline staff to engage guests on a sensory level rather than merely a functional one. This engagement includes cognitive, emotional, relational and behavioural. Hospitality and tourism industries are people-orientated – people are needed to serve people in order to create desired experiences – and it is very difficult to create satisfaction or to revisit intention in every interaction that takes place. It is this intangible characteristic of the industries, provisions and tangible cues that play an important part in enhancing the overall luxury accommodation experience. Guests are very clear as to what they expect from luxury accommodation experiences: they feel that they are paying for a service that should be personalised, and that staff should realise what they want and need. The human interaction component and the co-creation that occurs between staff and guests is an essential dimension of the industry. The influence of these interactions on guest experiences and the delivery of services will be explored in this chapter.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the luxury accommodation experience is created by investigating the perceptions of the three main participant groups – managers, employees and guests – using case studies from New Zealand.

An interpretivist case-study methodology was used. Eighty-one participants were interviewed (27 managers, 27 employees and 27 guests) from six luxury properties. Thematic analysis was conducted to inform the results.

The key themes identified in creating the luxury accommodation experience are: setting the stage; the ethos of the property; performances of the actors; and co-creation between the participants. Using the themes identified, a conceptual model of the creation of the luxury accommodation experience has been formulated.

The conceptual model can be used to assist managers to deliver a more positive and memorable experience of their properties. Strategies to enhance the luxury accommodation experience include: training; standards of procedure; staff incentives; and the use of effective communication tools.

This study identified the three alternative perspectives of managers, employees and guests regarding how the luxury accommodation experience is created. The luxury accommodation sector contributes to the economies of a number of nations and therefore it is important to highlight how it can be maintained and improved.