Search results

This paper aims to propose an operation policy of multi-capacity room service robots traveling within a hotel. As multi-capacity robots can serve many requests in a single trip, improved operation policy can reduce the investment cost of robots.

Using a mathematical model-based optimization technique, an optimal set of robots with minimum installation cost is derived while serving the entire room service demands. Through testing a variety of scenarios by changing the price and function of robots to be installed, insights that consider the various situations are offered.

Though the increase in capacity saves much time for room service at a lower capacity level, the amount of time saved gradually decreases as the capacity increases. Besides, the installation strategy is divided into two cases depending on the purchase cost of robots.

Currently, the studies focusing on the adoption of service robots from an operations view are rarely be found. To reduce the burden of investment cost, this study takes the unique approach to improve the operation policy of service robots by using the multi-capacity robots.

This study guides the hotel to install an adequate set of robots. The result confirms that the optimal installation set of robots is affected by various factors, such as the room service information, the hotel structure and the unit execution cycle.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, people avoid face-to-face contact and interest in non-contact service is growing. This paper deals with the efficient way to implement non-contact delivery through logistic robots, a timely and important topic.

The article examines the usage and relative importance of quality measurements in the UK’s largest service companies. The authors analyse the relationship of both internal and customer‐based quality measurements to the importance placed on accreditation to an ISO 9000 standard. The effect of process structure is explored by categorising the service firms as being in front‐room or back‐room dominant service sectors. The authors find that the service firms, which consider accreditation to be important, have a different emphasis on quality than other service firms do. Significantly, their emphasis shifts from one that is in line with their process structure to a more balanced one, where both internal and customer‐based quality measurements receive similar attention. This leads them to conclude that accreditation to an ISO 9000 standard can make a profound difference to the way quality is perceived and measured in large service firms.

This study aims to explore how attribute performance and hosts’ service quality attributes affect room sales on peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms from the cue congruence perspective.

More than 9.53 million reviews concerning 258,473 listings located in 35 major cities worldwide were collected from Airbnb. Data was collected from December 2019 to December 2020 and was analysed using a generalised linear model.

Results show that when attribute performance and hosts’ service quality attributes give positive signals, Airbnb room sales are significantly higher than when the two kinds of cues give inconsistent or negative signals; when attribute performance gives positive signals and hosts’ service quality attributes give negative signals, room sales are higher than when the former gives negative signals and the latter give positive signals; surprisingly, when both kinds of cues give negative signals, room sales are higher than when attribute performance gives positive signals and hosts’ service quality attributes give negative signals.

This paper adds useful insights on understanding of cue congruence (incongruence) effect on room sales of P2P accommodation platforms. This study has practical implications for hosts, online platform managers and guests regarding how to use online strategies and promotions on the Airbnb platform.

This study is an early attempt to explore how the combination of attribute performance and hosts’ service quality attributes affects Airbnb room sales under the conditions of consistency and inconsistency.

This paper presents hyper‐lib, a model for an electronic library. The hyper‐lib philosophy is based on reproducing the spatial environment of a physical library, in order to exploit users' knowledge of the physical domain in using the electronic system. In the library environment, rooms, shelves, books and services are reproduced by simulating a three‐dimensional environment, where the user can interact with a collection of documents as if he or she were in a physical library. In addition to the physical library features, the hyper‐lib introduces a number of new properties, which result from its non‐physical nature and allow some of the limitations of traditional libraries, such as availability of books and delivery time, to be overcome. The hyper‐lib books are available in electronic form, following the hyper‐book model, which is based on the book metaphor. A formal definition of the hyper‐lib model as a dynamic system is given. The hyper‐lib model is defined in terms of structural and functional components. Moreover, the functional behaviour, i.e. how the system evolves under the effects of the functional components, is presented. The library structural components include the book collection, the librarian, the access mechanisms etc. The functional aspect is indispensable for describing the use of a dynamic and interactive system. In particular, a number of operators, which represent user services, allow the user to change the system state. We distinguish among general services, which are offered in any room of the library, and specific services, which are specific to a particular object or room in the library, such as the librarian, the catalogues, the hyper‐books, the book shelves etc.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the understanding of innovation in service ecosystems by focussing on the role of values resonance in relation to the integration of brands, service systems and experience rooms.

An empirical, explorative case study of an innovative service system is carried out using a narrative approach and presented in the form of a saga.

Insights gleaned from the empirical study are used for conceptual developments. Analysis of the empirical case study is presented as four lessons linked to values, brands, service systems and experience rooms.

The paper extends a conceptual framework of innovative resource integration in service ecosystems. The paper also contributes four propositions to inform theory: values resonance is a basis for service innovation, the innovative integration of brands based on values resonance can foster innovation, the integration of resources across service system boundaries grounded in values resonance can enable innovation and the integration of experience rooms into a coherent servicescape based on values resonance can support novel forms of resource integration and value co-creation efforts in service ecosystems.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and document existing lighting systems and lighting levels, to compare findings to the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) lighting standards (Rodgers, 1998) and to make lighting recommendation for energy and cost savings.

Lighting examinations and field measurements were conducted at a large, existing Midwestern institutional food-service facility that has been continuously operational since 1976. Lighting levels of the dining room, checkout line, buffet, kitchen, storage room and conference room were measured and then compared to the IES lighting standards. Recommendations were then made for energy and cost savings.

The average light levels in the dining room, checkout line, buffet, storage room and conference room exceeded the industry-recommended light levels. The energy and cost savings were calculated for this study, and the energy- and cost-saving strategies recommended included delamping, replacing lamps and luminaires and installing occupancy sensors. If existing lighting can be updated in an energy- and cost-saving manner, institutional food-service facilities might be made appropriate through renovation, thus extending the life of these facilities.

This study has practical implications for the many existing institutional food service facilities in workplaces across the USA that could save energy and costs through renovated lighting systems.

This research constitutes an in situ case study, which gathered empirical lighting data at an existing institutional food-service facility and made recommendations for lighting renovations. Although lighting systems influence dining and kitchen environments, lighting has not always been fully considered in institutional food-service facilities.

This study aims to examine the effect of using word-of-mouth and online housing website strategies for student housing selection and building services satisfaction during COVID-19.

The study adopted mixed-methods research approach. An online survey of 975 public and private university students experience on room selection prior to school re-opening in Ghana was used. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multiple regression model (MRM) were used to estimate the satisfaction of using online websites and word-of-mouth strategies (renting housing based on personal recommendation) on student room pricing and building services availability. Telephone interviews were further used to support the results of EFA and MRM.

The study reveals that most students were satisfied with the word-of-mouth strategy than online review marketing strategy for room selection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondly, online student housing review marketing strategy provided higher rent which did not reflect the services available. Furthermore, students were more interested in the nature of rooms, lavatories and kitchen in their choice of room than availability of internet, study area, television (TV) room and gym center.

The study suggest that student housing managers require to market their facilities as-it-is than to use one room as an advertising justification for all rooms which does not usually provide a true reflection of the existing situation of room. Again, housing which rely on online marketing strategies need to provide compensation for students who feel they have been misled by their advertisement.

The provision of compensation to students and availability of COVID-19 protection measures determine student room selection. Asides, the introduction of online marketing strategies in student housing in sub-Saharan student housing market is new, and, consequently, this study on it is a novelty.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a mobile service, based on anonymous location-based data, to help students find available reading rooms on a university campus. To evaluate this mobile service, both a usability test and a technology acceptance test were carried out.

The research followed a design science approach, including developing a prototype and evaluating the developed prototype.

The results from the usability test indicated good usability of the developed mobile service. The results from the technology acceptance test demonstrated students’ intention to use this mobile service. Most respondents indicated that they would like to use this mobile service to find available reading rooms when they are on campus.

The results imply that there are other contexts where anonymous location-based data are also useful. A similar mobile service can be developed for other contexts, such as, hospital complexes, shopping malls, and airports.

To the authors best knowledge, the authors have not found any mobile services aiming at counting the density of people residing in a room by using anonymous user location-based data on a university campus. This research fills this gap by developing the mobile service, called finding reading rooms.

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.

Building on the three-factor theory, this study aims to unravel how the role of hotel attributes such as basic, excitement and performance factors could differ in accordance with different hotel star ratings and distinct customer segments.

This study explores the asymmetric effects of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction by extracting 412,784 consumer-generated reviews from TripAdvisor across different cities in China.

By taking into account the origins of customers and hotel star ratings, the study uncovers that guests’ expectations of hotel performance differ with respect to their origins (domestic and international guests) and the star ratings of the hotels being reviewed, thereby moderating the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction.

The study compares and contrasts the determinants of customer satisfaction for domestic and international guests in the context of Chinese hotels. Care should still be exercised when generalizing the insights gleaned from this study to other contexts.

The findings from this study translate into actionable guidelines for hotel operators to make informed decisions regarding service improvement.

The study extends previous work by offering a deeper understanding of the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction. Specifically, this study provides a deep understanding of the different hotel attributes such as basic, performance and excitement factors in explaining customer satisfaction among different hotel customer segments. Findings from this study can not only inform hotel operators on the significance of various hotel attributes in determining customer satisfaction but also guide the formulation of business strategies to retain customers by inducing delight and not frustration.