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This chapter conceptualizes a framework that can be applied to examine the service experiences of business tourists at luxury hotels. A synthesized literature review results in the identification of three service constructs − surprise, recovery, and sweetness − that constitute the service experiences. In the development of five propositions and in views of emotional appreciation and reciprocity, the chapter posits that emotional value from these three constructs of service experiences can enhance business tourists’ attitude of gratitude and consequently their willingness to pay a price premium. The proposed conceptual framework extends the three service constructs to, and integrates them with, a value–attitude–behavior model.

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.

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.

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.

To explore the impact of luxury hotel brands’ technologies on guests’ perceived value enhancement and its consequences, this study aims to examine how task–technology fit (TTF) and luxury–technology fit (LTF) affect luxury hotel guests’ perceived value enhancement, satisfaction and brand loyalty.

A scenario-based online survey was conducted with existing and potential luxury hotel guests. The relationships among TTF, LTF, value enhancement, satisfaction and loyalty were examined using partial least square structural equation modeling. Moreover, the respondents were asked their preferred service agent (human staff vs technology) in a luxury hotel to further understand luxury hotel guests’ perception toward technological services in a luxury hotel setting.

The results reveal that both TTF and LTF have significant impacts on the luxury hotel’s value enhancement, and the impacts of TTF and LTF on value enhancement are moderated by the guests’ technology optimism. The findings of this study suggest that the luxury hotel brands must consider the fit between the image of their brand and the technology to increase guests’ perceived value enhancement, satisfaction and loyalty.

Applying categorization theory, this study extended the concept of brand extension to technology implementation. The findings advance the current understanding of how technology affects luxury hotel consumers’ perceived value enhancement, and how consumers’ optimism influences the impacts of TTF and LTF on value enhancement.

By examining the effects of TTF and LTF on luxury hotel guests’ perceived value enhancement, this study would shed light on luxury hotel brands’ technology implementation strategies. By understanding how TTF and LTF affect consumers’ perceived value enhancement, luxury hotel brands will be able to better design their technology implementation plans.

Even though luxury hotel brands are well known for offering high-level and personalized services through interpersonal interactions between employees and consumers, they have been actively implementing a variety of technologies to enhance guest experience and satisfaction. This study investigates the role of technological innovations in a luxury hotel setting. Particularly, this study examines how technologies improve guests’ perceived value of a luxury hotel and lead to satisfaction and loyalty.

The purpose of this paper was to determine whether luxury hotel managers and customers have the same understanding of service quality and satisfaction and whether there is a disparity between services offered by luxury hotels and the way customers actually experience them.

This paper used interviews with managers and guests of 5-Star hotels in Taiwan and qualitative analysis to understand definitions and perceptions of luxury, service quality and satisfaction.

The major findings of the study were that: there were no fundamental disconnects in the respective understandings of managers and guests; however, the two groups used different language to describe luxury, service quality and satisfaction; the managers evaluated satisfaction in terms of services provided, but the guests conceptualized satisfaction in terms of value received for the price of lodging; and luxury, service quality and satisfaction were closely related in the minds of the managers and guests and were not independent constructs.

Recommendations are made based on marketing communications theory, that is all factors identified in this study can be considered to be part of the brand identity of the hotel; local culture can introduce variables that may be outside the scope of international standards; and information on local expectations and preferences can inform advertising and public relations efforts of the hotel.

This study is significant because little research into luxury hotel customer satisfaction has been done using qualitative methodology, which provides a richer understanding of the experiences of the participants than can quantitative design.

To remain competitive in an ever-changing marketplace, many accommodation managers are constantly upgrading their portfolio of service offerings for guests. Luxury suites with butler service were created as an extra component of luxury to the accommodation model. This inclusion was a welcomed innovation for guests who were willing to pay top dollar for top-of-the-line services and the ultimate in exclusivity. Butlers act as the luxury service delivery mechanisms in accommodations, going above and beyond to meet and exceed guest expectations. This chapter makes a unique contribution to the compendium of knowledge on luxury hospitality and tourism by providing insights from the supply side of luxury accommodation brands in the Caribbean and Pacific regions. A comprehensive review of the literature on the topic coupled with semi-structured interviews were conducted in the Maldives, Jamaica, St. Barts, The Bahamas, St. Lucia, Antigua, Cayman Islands, Barbados and Mexico. With an expressed need to examine the operationalisation (Miller & Mills, 2012a, 2012b) and subjectivity constructs (Godey et al., 2012a, 2012b) on Luxury Management in Hospitality and Tourism, this chapter aims to provide an excellent addition to the discourse. It also aims to address a major gap in the literature as there is a lacuna of recent research on Luxury Management in Tourism in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) from two major tourism dependent regions of the world – the Caribbean and the Pacific.

This research aims to investigate the effect of personal values on customer satisfaction and whether positive experiences lead to positive word of mouth (WOM) about the luxury hotel service from the Confucian perspective.

This research developed a structural equation model for testing. Research data collected from Confucian participants who have used luxury hotel services in Vietnam, where Confucianism is the dominant cultural paradigm.

The results show that there is a positive relationship between Confucian customer personal values and satisfaction, as well as between customer satisfaction and positive WOM; personal values had no effect on positive WOM.

This research implies that the personal values of Confucian consumers constitute the lens through which they view the world, thus the service personal values reflect their priorities on luxury hotel service consumption. A key to success for luxury hotel service providers lies in providing services that enhance Confucian customer personal values, which allow service providers to intercommunicate with the Confucian consumers’ core.

This research is significant because there is little research on personal values from the cultural mechanism of Confucian culture. This research also comes up with a richer understanding of the relationship between customer personal values and behaviors within the luxury hotel segment.

Luxury consumption research has focused more on the consumers of goods than services, despite the trend that consumers are more interested in luxury services, such as luxury hospitality services, than ever before. Additionally, the results regarding the factors that can influence consumers’ luxury service product purchase intentions can be further tested. The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that contribute to consumers’ luxury hotel stay repurchase intentions, to further develop the luxury hospitality service consumption literature and to identify implications for practitioners to consider.

To contribute to the luxury consumption literature, this research incorporates a “luxury hotel brand attachment” variable into a luxury consumption value model to examine consumers’ intentions to repurchase luxury hotel stays when traveling for tourism purposes. The authors draw on a survey of over 450 luxury hotel consumers.

The findings confirm that luxury hotels’ perceived functional value, hedonic value and symbolic/expressive value affect consumers’ emotions, which in turn affects their luxury hotel attachment and repurchase intentions. In addition, luxury hotel attachment moderates the influence of emotion on repurchase intention.

Luxury hotels need to review their customers’ emotions during their stay and their attachment with the hotel. These factors can influence customers’ repurchase intentions. To stimulate customers’ emotions, luxury hotels need to offer functional value (e.g. attentive service staff), hedonic/expressive value (e.g. position as a form of self-indulgence) and symbolic value (e.g. conspicuous lobby). However, managers should know that having superior perceived functional value does not influence customers’ repurchase intentions directly. These characteristics may be commonly shared by most luxury hotels. Furthermore, they do not need to be too worried about providing financial value (e.g. value-for-money).

This study conceptualizes tourists’ luxury hotel stay intentions by examining the influence of perceived luxury value (i.e. functional value, financial value, hedonic value and symbolic/expressive value), tourists’ emotions and luxury hotel brand attachment. In addition, this research explores how luxury hotel brand attachment can moderate the relationship between consumers’ emotions and their repurchase intentions. Several implications of the study are identified, and avenues for future research are suggested.

In the past decade, the luxury hotel industry in China has experienced rapid growth. To date, few scholars have investigated what consumers value about their experiences in luxury hotels generally, let alone specifically in the Chinese context. As a result, little is known about what Chinese consumers value in luxury hotel services. To bridge this gap, this paper aims to (1) develop a five-factor luxury hotel value framework from a value co-creation perspective; and (2) assess the relationship between these value dimensions and Chinese consumers’ intentions to stay in luxury hotels.

In total, 492 Chinese luxury hotels consumers participated in the study. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the proposed measurement model, and a hierarchical linear regression was used to test the relationship between luxury hotel value and purchase intentions.

The authors assessed five dimensions of luxury hotel value in the current study: utilitarian value, symbolic value, hedonic value, relational value and financial value. The regression results indicate that for Chinese luxury consumers, hedonic value is the most important predictor of luxury hotel purchase intentions, followed by financial value and utilitarian value. Interestingly, symbolic value and relational value do not significantly influence Chinese consumers’ luxury hotel purchase intentions.

Luxury hoteliers in China can use the value framework when making decisions about market segmentation and brand positioning and to gain a deeper understanding of what motivates target consumers’ purchase intentions. They can also use such knowledge to tailor their product offerings to the preferences of target consumers.

The current study is the first empirical test of a luxury hotel value framework from a value co-creation perspective in the Chinese market. Taking Chinese luxury consumers’ unique characteristics into consideration, the authors further investigate the relationships between various dimensions of luxury hotel value and Chinese consumers’ purchase intentions.