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Cross-selling becomes critical for business success as pent-up travel demand drives travelers to spend more on vacations. The primary purpose of this research is to identify if an unexpected discount leads to consumers' additional purchases online. This research proposes effective cross-selling strategies across hospitality sectors.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate factors that influence travelers' add-on spending. Study 1 determined the psychological mechanism of unexpected discounts on hotel customers' additional spending by individual thinking styles. A 2 (discount: none vs surprise) x 2 (thinking style: holistic vs analytic) quasi-experimental design was utilized. Study 2 applied the identified pricing strategy by individual thinking styles to cruise line add-on selling. A 2 (discount: none vs surprise) x 2 (product type: hedonic vs utilitarian) x 2 thinking style (holistic vs analytic) quasi-experiment was used.

The findings indicate that an unexpected discount increases holistic thinkers' overall travel spending, regardless of add-on types. Although the unexpected discount effect on analytic thinkers' overall spending was significant, an unexpected discount enhanced their intentions to purchase a hedonic add-on.

Hospitality operators can improve cross-selling strategies with a surprise discount offer. Offering add-on items in the same transaction with a cabin booking will increase add-on purchases. Hotels can make add-on purchases more appealing by emphasizing the experiential aspects of a hotel stay.

This research broadens knowledge of cross-selling by linking add-on purchases to discount pricing on a primary product. The findings provide new strategies to stimulate add-on purchases and maximize profitability.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to measure normative and informational influence in online traveler reviews.

Through proper scale development techniques and a two-sample validation process, the resulting 2-factor, 11-item scale yields a valid and reliable measure of social influence.

The resultant scale provides a tool for researchers to investigate the process whereby different characteristics of online reviews influence travel decisions.

Customer reviews are prevalent and powerful sources of influence on travel decisions. However, it is unclear how social influence manifests in today’s online purchasing environment. For several decades, the domain of social influence has played an important role in the advancements of consumer behavior and hospitality/tourism research. In particular, normative and informational influences are applicable, since online reviews contain numerous informational and normative cues. These principles were formulated under much different conditions than today’s purchasing environment. This research provides a way to measure normative and informational influence in the online review environment, thus enhancing the understanding of how reviews influence purchase decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which consumers will exert more effort to avoid risk (negative reviews) versus seek reward (positive reviews) when making a restaurant decision.

This study investigates the influence of distance and review valence on restaurant decisions. A 2 (base restaurant review valence: negative, neutral) × 2 (target restaurant review valence: neutral, positive) × 2 (distance: 30 min, 60 min) between-subjects factorial design was used.

People exert more effort to seek a reward versus avoid a risk. People will drive any distance to dine at a restaurant with positive reviews. However, the tendency to avoid a restaurant with negative reviews declines as distance increases.

This study emphasizes the critical role of positive reviews in the restaurant industry. This research provides guidance to operators to manage online reviews effectively. The marketing strategy taking into account review valence and distance allows the business to attract new customers and grow its customer base.

This research synthesizes asymmetry effects and prospect theory with the level of risk associated with the outcome. This research is theoretically noteworthy since the finding of a reverse asymmetry principle is in contrast with the traditional belief of risk-avoidance when comparing gains and losses.

In 1999, Shoemaker and Lewis declared customer loyalty as “the future of hospitality marketing”. This paper aims to evaluate the state of research and practice in hotel loyalty and reward programs in the subsequent 15 years to determine if the tenets set forth have occurred. The loyalty circle provides a conceptual framework within which to evaluate progress and trends in hotel loyalty marketing.

Three approaches were used: a comprehensive review of hotel loyalty and reward program literature from 2000 to 2015, a classification and analysis of program benefits for major hotel companies and in-depth interviews with industry professionals.

The literature shows a progression from process-focused research to a greater emphasis on brand relationships. Communication is neglected compared to the other loyalty circle components. Reward programs still depend largely on financial benefits but have added greater flexibility and customization of rewards.

The literature search was limited to hotels and did not consider other hospitality segments. The sample of interviews was small and may not represent the opinions of all loyalty professionals.

The findings have practical implications for developing more effective loyalty programs and theoretical implications for expanding research horizons.

Shoemaker and Lewis (1999) was a landmark article that led to a period of prolific research on hospitality loyalty. During that time, loyalty programs were progressing and permeating the industry. This study applies the loyalty circle to provide a framework within which to evaluate both research and practice in hotel loyalty marketing.

This study aims to report the results of a survey of diners’ behavior during production and consumption of dining services with three objectives. The first objective is to create customer segments that represent distinct patterns of customer participation in hospitality service encounters. The second objective is to profile these identified customer segments in terms of demographics, attitudes and behaviors. The third objective is to evaluate the relationship between customer participation segments and service outcomes.

Data were collected through an online survey of American casual dining customers. The data were analyzed using principal components factor analysis, cluster analysis on the factor scores, discriminant analysis that validated the group differences among clusters and multivariate analysis of variance on the cluster variables to determine the source of differences between groups.

The evidence showed that restaurant customers can be segmented into meaningful groups according to their reported behaviors and that level of participation is related to perceived service outcomes.

The findings suggest that service providers can use customer participation segments to understand those customers’ service needs and wants. They can then design service strategies tailored to the needs of target customer groups.

This study is the first to identify distinct segments based on hospitality customers’ roles and behaviors in service delivery. This study makes a significant contribution to the hospitality marketing literature by advancing the trend to improve service quality through a non-traditional approach, that is, by building partnerships with customers.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how consumers simultaneously process multiple cues for different dining occasions when making a restaurant decision.

This paper investigates the influence of priming (review prototype), effort (distance) and involvement (occasion) on restaurant evaluations, willingness to drive and willingness to pay for a restaurant meal. A 2 (prototype: negative, positive) × 2 (distance: close, far) × 2 (occasion: casual, special) between-subjects factorial design was used.

The paper finds that each variable influences a different outcome, whereby people rely on a review prototype for restaurant evaluation and choice, a distance cue for willingness to drive and a dining occasion for willingness to pay.

This paper suggests that restaurant marketers can highlight exemplary service through online reviews, increase profitability by promoting special occasions and geographically expand their market by attracting people to drive for a special dinner.

This paper evaluates the simultaneous interactive effects of multiple cues in service settings. It demonstrates that situational cues moderate the effect of primary cues in online reviews.

Because communication channels are inherently unique, they may differentially affect customers depending on their preferred communication style. Therefore, the information that firms provide might not have the intended effect, which is to increase program loyalty. The purpose of the current study is to present a marketing communication model that focuses on promoting program loyalty via self-congruity with the communication style of information channels.

The study introduces a self-congruity theory-based structural equation model, which is validated through an online sample of 575 respondents. The model begins with communication style and investigates its impact on satisfaction and loyalty in relation to hotel loyalty program members.

The model confirms that different forms of communication have varying levels of relevance to program loyalty. Communication style, information quality, self-congruity and satisfaction are all significant predictors of program loyalty.

Management can cultivate a community of loyal program members through the recognition of self-image congruence and its relationship with communication style, along with a solid understanding of target markets.

Despite the apparent influence that communication has on loyalty, very little research evaluates the typologies (firm-created and customer-created), dimensions (electronic and in-person) and attributes of information in terms of their effects on program loyalty.

The purpose of this study was to explore the marketing effectiveness of hotel Facebook messages in terms of promoting favorable attitudes and behavior intentions among potential hotel guests

An online experiment was conducted with a three (message format) × three (message content), between-subjects factorial design in which three message formats, i.e. word/text, picture and weblink, and three types of message content, i.e. brand, product and interactive, were manipulated.

The findings indicate that the most effective message format is dependent upon its purpose. Picture messages are most effective for promoting the brand, whereas weblink messages influence intentions to book hotels based on product attributes. Electronic word-of-mouth intention is an important outcome of Facebook marketing, which can be strengthened by word messages and weblink messages about products.

The major limitation of this study is that the study used pseudo Facebook pages and messages created for each experimental condition. Facebook pages can take many forms, so the findings may not generalize to other Facebook pages.

The findings of this study suggest several important practical implications for the hotel industry to leverage Facebook marketing. To foster favorable attitudes and build brand awareness, hotel marketers should include picture messages that prominently feature the brand image. To motivate booking a particular product, word messages describing product features should be provided, along with a weblink that takes the customer directly from product information to a hotel-booking engine.

Although preliminary research has been conducted on Facebook marketing activities, little is known about the effectiveness of Facebook messages. For example, do different types of messages have different effects on marketing effectiveness? What message type is most effective? Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate empirically the effects of different message types on marketing effectiveness. The results of this study will shed light on how hotels can post the most persuasive message content in the most effective message format on their Facebook pages to enhance their fans’ attitudes and increase their purchase intentions.

Casinos offer a variety of dining experiences to appeal to the tastes of different customers. The aim of this paper is to investigate the indirect impact of dining by restaurant type on gaming by worth segment.

Data from two hotel‐casinos were analyzed using time series regression analysis. Variables representing restaurant covers at steakhouse, buffet and casual dining venues were used to predict slot coin‐in for five customer worth segments.

Steakhouse dining was a significant predictor of slot coin‐in for high worth players, buffet and casual dining were related to low‐worth gaming volume, whereas medium‐worth players were impacted by a range of dining options.

Regression analysis does not imply causality, and the results may not hold for other casino properties or sample time periods.

The findings have implications for the optimal restaurant mix at casinos and the types of offers that are given to different customer worth segments. This study also helps casino operators evaluate the profitability of each type of restaurant they operate.

The research fills a gap in the casino literature by segmenting customers using the same metric as casino operators, namely gaming worth. It provides new insight into indirect dining‐gaming relationships by investigating different restaurant types.