Search results

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.

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.

Property developers identify the vital role of social media brand engagement (SMBE) in sustaining their businesses in competitive marketplaces, but it remains underexplored. This paper examines how SMBE mediates the effects of firm-generated content (FGC) and user-generated content (UGC) on brand trust, considering the moderating effects of social media influencer endorsement (SMIE) and self-image congruence (SIC) for luxury residential properties (LRPs).

Around 516 high-income homebuyers in Vietnam who shared information about LRP on social media were targeted to test the research model empirically. The primary data collected from paper-based surveys were analysed using SPSS 26 and AMOS 24.

Results indicate that FGC and UGC positively impact SMBE and consequently significantly affect brand trust. Further, results confirm the moderating roles of SMIE and SIC in the effects of FGC and UGC on SMBE.

Data and sample size were limited to meet the generalisation from different nations and cross cultures.

The authors' findings suggest that marketers should apply the authors' integrated SMBE model to strengthen brand–consumer interactions and increase their sales revenue.

This study is the first in its application of the uses and gratifications theory and self-congruence theory to investigate how SMBE mediates the relationship between FGC and brand trust as well as between UGC and brand trust. Noticeably, this study makes a novel contribution as the first to quantitatively explore the moderating effects of SMIE and SIC in the authors' research model.

This study aims to explore the spatial externalities of apartment vacancy rates on housing rent by considering multiple vacancy durations.

This research uses smart meter data to measure unobservable vacant houses. This study made a significant contribution by applying building-level smart meter data to housing market analysis. It examined whether vacancy duration significantly affected apartment rent and whether the relationship between apartment rent and vacancy rate differed depending on the level of housing rent.

The primary finding indicates that there is a significant negative correlation between apartment rent and vacancy duration. Considering the spatial externalities of apartment vacancy rates, the apartment vacancy rates of surrounding buildings did not show any statistical significance. Moreover, quantile regression results indicate that although the bottom 10% of apartment rent levels showed a negative correlation with all vacancy durations, the top 10% showed no statistical significance related to vacancies.

This study measures the extent of spatial externalities that can differentiate taxation based on housing vacancies.

The findings indicate that landlords have asymmetric information about their buildings compared with the surrounding buildings, and the extent to which price adjusts for long-term vacancies differs depending on the level of apartment rent.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 as well as the European Union Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) are two established management tools to evaluate, report and improve the environmental performance of businesses. The purpose of this chapter is the development and testing of a model on motivations, benefits, barriers and preconditions to the implementation of environmental management system (EMS) in the German hotel sector. One hundred and thirty six hotels have been identified as having implemented either ISO 14001 or EMAS (or both) in their operations. An analysis showed various correlations between motivations and perceived benefits of implementing an EMS, whereas no correlation could be measured between preconditions and barriers. Finally the preconditions, barriers, motivations and benefits were examined based on various characteristics of the hotels surveyed, which revealed significant differences among the different subgroups, such as chain-operated hotels and independently owned properties, or between luxury properties and budget operations.

The objective of this paper is to propose the use of transaction data, hedonic model and internet‐based technologies to provide potential home buyers and sellers with instant and online property appraisal services by real estate‐related firms.

Hedonic price model is performed to estimate the price index of individual housing estate. The values of the coefficients of the attributes may change in response to a changing environment. A professional judgment should be given by appraisers on time intervals to re‐run the hedonic price models, if needed. Once the algorithms have been updated, authenticated users can connect to the system via a secure socket layer. They can browse and search the valuation reports by entering search criteria of premises into the system that filters the results instantly according to the request of users, and a detailed asset valuation report will be displayed in the browser.

This sort of online services is believed to save consumers' time, by offering timely property appraisal services that facilitate property transactions.

Currently, local large property developers, agencies and surveying firms are still relying on manual processes of providing selected transaction data via the web to their prospective customers. The system proposed and developed as described in this paper is an automatic and self‐learning system that produces reliable and authentic results based on large quantity of historical transaction records. The professional judgments of appraisers add flavor to the final valuation of properties. As well as providing information to individual buyers/sellers, the system is most suitable to investors who own a large portfolio of properties as the total capitalization of the portfolio can be computed easily and quickly. REITs are examples of these portfolio owners.

Services Marketing: People Technology Strategy (Eighth Edition) By Pearson, Authored by Wirtz Jochen, Lovelock Christopher, Chatterjee Jayanta, 2017; Service-Marketing: Text and Cases (Second Edition) By Pearson, Authored by Harsh Verma, 2011.

Students will gain an understanding of business models, which has a positive impact on the environment.

This case study intends to help learners understand the concept of segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) in the case of services. The idea of services is different from that of a product as in services; intangible elements dominate the value creation. By exploring the practical scenarios faced by the protagonist, in this case, readers would enhance their problem-solving abilities in similar situations.

Prerna is the founder of Ecoplore, an aggregator cum booking platform for eco-hotels. It onboards hotels only if they are made up of vernacular architecture and maintains at least 33% of greenery on its premises. Listed properties also harvested rainwater, used renewable source of energy, used sustainable options instead of single use plastic, composted organic waste. Most of these properties grow vegetables, fruits and herbs, and the visitors enjoy homemade organic meals. Ecoplore is the only aggregator platform to visit and verify these eco-hotels directly. Ecoplore is an early-stage startup; all customer queries were handled by Prerna, on-call or through a chat box. It included interacting with prospective clients, understanding their requirements, suggesting the most suited options and booking the eco-hotels. Prerna had to spend most of the time interacting with clients. Over time, she comprehended that only a few prospective clients became Ecoplore’s customers, and the conversion rate was low of owing to various reasons like ticket size, clients' age and psychology.

For students: This case is aptly designed for marketing students pursuing Bachelor’s in Business Administration and Master of Business Administration courses to understand and apply STP theory and service marketing concepts.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The learning outcomes of this case study are as follows: Students will be able to comprehend and visualize the initial hiccups and operational hurdles faced by digital start-ups in an emerging market. Students will be able to evaluate the importance of digital marketing for promoting start-ups dealing with sustainable products in the service industry, thereby helping them to develop digital marketing strategies to organically promote a service. Students will be able to perform strategic positioning of a start-up based on perceptual mapping methodology. Students will be able to identify the various aspects for identifying and creating a viable business model. Students will be able to use Osterwalder’s business model canvas for identifying the important operational aspects of the start-up. Students will be able to visualize the entrepreneurial challenges in an emerging market.

This case study highlights the dilemma the protagonist, Prerna Prasad, faced in her travel start-up venture, Ecoplore. Ecoplore is an aggregator platform that onboards only eco-hotels. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, Ecoplore is India’s only platform that promotes and onboards only those hotels made up of mud, wood, bamboo, stone or any local architecture and that maintain at least 30% green space on their premises. Ecoplore has been recognized by the United Nations Environment Program for fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal 12 and has also been bestowed with the Gold Award by Indian Responsible Tourism Awards 2019. Prasad had already identified her target market. Prasad took conscious steps towards reaching her target audience, and her first step towards that was designing Ecoplore’s website. Being aware of the importance of content marketing, Ecoplore’s content was curated with fresh and quality write-ups, pictures, blog posts, etc. Ecoplore’s website was also optimized for mobile and desktop versions to deliver a great user experience. Features like easy navigation and the website's speed were also taken care of. Being active on social media platforms, Prasad made sure that the pages of Ecoplore across various social media platforms were well connected with her website. Despite doing so much, it was found that the number of visitors was few after a span of two years. Conversion on the website was low, which ultimately affected the return on investment. Prasad was befuddled as to why the conversions were low despite having a great website that was considered a window to the organization. She faced the challenge of reaching her target audience despite being present online. Upon detailed analysis, Prasad found that Ecoplore was showing up in the search engine research pages (SERP) in only a few keywords, meaning the keyword density was low. Also, the website lacked backlinks, which would eventually help them to rank high on search engine optimization (SEO). This means that Ecoplore will need to revisit its SEO strategy if Prasad wants to promote her organization organically. Now, to increase visibility and ranking on SERP, Prasad had two options before her; first, she could do it organically via SEO or through search engine marketing. She was keen to build the traffic organically, knowing its long-term benefits. As a marketer, what should be Prasad’s strategy? This case study can be used for class discussion purposes for the students pursuing the courses on digital marketing, SEO and digital marketing optimization.

This case study is suitable for students learning the fundamentals of digital marketing (basic and advanced) course, marketing management students and digital marketing workshops. The level of difficulty is medium. The knowledge pre-requirement is marketing management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The purpose of this study is to expand on the existing literature by specifically examining data security incidents within the hospitality industry, assessing origins and causes, comparing breaches within the industry with those of other industries and identifying areas of concern.

A sample of data breach incidents is drawn from the Verizon VERIS Community Database (VCDB). Statistical comparisons between hospitality and non-hospitality industry firms are conducted following the Verizon A4 threat framework.

The results reveal that breaches between hospitality and non-hospitality firms differ significantly in terms of actors, actions, assets and attributes. Specifically, proportions of breaches in the hospitality industry are larger in terms of external actors, hacking and malware, user devices compromised and integrity violations. Additionally, compared to other industries, point-of-sales (POS) system breaches occur at a higher rate in the hospitality industry. The study finds that company size, hacking and malware predict the likelihood of a POS breach.

The study uses secondary data and does not include the entire universe of data breaches.

In the quest to reduce data breach incidents, it is imperative to identify and assess the nature of data breach incidents between industries. Doing so permits the development of targeted industry-specific solutions rather than generic ones. This study systematically identifies differences between hospitality and non-hospitality data security incidents and then suggests areas where hospitality companies should focus future attention to mitigate breach incidents.

本论文延展了现有文献, 检测了酒店业中的数据安全事故, 评估其起因, 比较其他产业和酒店产业数据泄露的区别, 以及找出关键区域。

样本数据为 Verizon VERIS 社区数据库（VCDB）中的数据泄露事件。研究遵循Verizon A4 危险模型, 对酒店业和非酒店业之间事件进行了数据分析比较。

研究结果表明酒店公司和非酒店公司的数据泄露在当事人、行为、资产、和属性方面, 有着很大不同。其中, 酒店业中的数据泄露比例在外部因素、黑客、病毒、用户端失灵、和违反道德方面比较大。此外, 相对其他产业, POS系统在酒店产业中的数据泄露概率较高。本论文发现公司规模、黑客、和病毒对POS数据泄露的影响有着重大决定作用。

本论文使用二手数据, 并未检测整体数据泄露数据。

为了减少数据泄露事件, 产业之间数据泄露事件属性的认定和评价至关重要。因此, 可以针对具体产业具体事件制定出特定的解决方案。本论文系统上指出了酒店和非酒店业的数据安全事件的区别, 以及指出哪些方面, 酒店业应该重点关注, 以减少未来数据泄露事件。