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This study investigates the service quality dimensions of hotel resorts in renowned beach destinations of Thailand. It also explores the relationship between review text sentiment expressed in online platforms and the satisfaction ratings provided for those reviews.

The study employs a two-step analysis approach: first, supervised and unsupervised machine learning via support vector machine (SVM) and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) are used to identify service quality dimensions, and second, SmartPLS with PROCESS macro is applied to analyze the moderating roles of quality signals and reviewer’s experience on the relationship between sentiment and satisfaction rating. The dataset comprises 102,179 online reviews from TripAdvisor, focusing on 187 selected hotels rated from 3 to 5 stars.

Eight service quality dimensions were identified, including leisure activities, tangibles and surroundings, reliability, responsiveness, service process, food, empathy and ambience. The study underscores that the service process stands as the sole dimension exhibiting negative sentiment. Furthermore, the analysis revealed a robust positive association between sentiment of review texts and satisfaction, and reviewers’ experience and brand affiliation influenced the relationship between customer sentiment and satisfaction.

Hotel managers should focus efforts on maintaining tangible aspects while enhancing existing service quality level of other dimensions, particularly those related to intangible elements. Independent hotels might implement quality audit to ensure that service quality gaps are monitored.

This study contributes an examination of the moderating roles of quality signals and reviewer’s experience on the relationship between review sentiment and satisfaction rating in online reviews.

This study aims to explore the spatial impact of an increase in the minimum wage on the labor productivity of star-rated hotels in China.

The impact is analyzed by using the dynamic spatial Durbin model.

The authors find a U-shaped link between the increase in minimum wage and labor productivity of star-rated hotels. The long-term impact of a minimum wage increase has a greater influence on labor productivity than its short-term effects. While there is no notable spatial spillover impact observed in the sample of 31 provinces in China, the authors do identify a spatial spillover effect of the minimum wage rises on the labor productivity of star-rated hotels in the central area. Furthermore, they observe heterogeneity across China. The eastern and western regions exhibit a U-shaped relationship, whereas the central region exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship.

The findings of this study allow government agencies to get a more comprehensive comprehension of the actual consequences of minimum wage hikes on the tourism and hospitality sector, thereby establishing a solid basis for them to develop appropriate policies. Moreover, it offers a variety of suggestions aimed at enhancing the quality and efficiency of hotel management.

Research on the effects of minimum wage standards is scant in the hospitality industry. Based on human capital investment theory, this study examines the effect of the minimum wage standard hikes on labor productivity of star-rated hotels from the spatial perspective, filling the existing research gap.

Research suggests the hotel industry has grown to integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs towards addressing issues relating to the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Nevertheless, how the progression of research has influenced the field of CSR and the SDGs remains unexplored. This paper aims to address the knowledge gap.

The research is based on a review of 230 papers from Scopus Indexed Journals – both mainstream and specialty. A content analysis was conducted to identify the major themes and the evolution of CSR research in the hotel industry.

Recent CSR research has tended to shift towards issues such as CSR communication and reporting from its earlier focus on the perceptions and practices of CSR. The SDGs, in general, and environmental sustainability, in particular, remain on the periphery of hotel industry’s CSR initiatives. This raises concern about the ability of CSR programs to facilitate the SDGs by 2030. This study highlights that both stakeholders (e.g. consumers, employees) and business forces (e.g. financial bottom line) can shape the hotel industry’s CSR strategies in contributing to the SDGs and greater sustainability.

The research advances the CSR and sustainability literature by undertaking a comprehensive review of business research on CSR in the hotel industry focusing on the SDGs, and advancing and facilitating discussion on existing knowledge in this field and how the field can be further developed.

This paper aims to answer questions pertinent to whether or not services provided by smart hotels are really what customers are looking for, as well as to ascertain what are some unintended experiences guests may encounter. In essence, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first in the field to acknowledge the paradox of smart service.

This inquiry adopts a qualitative approach with data-driven from online customer reviews and semistructured interviews. Thematic analysis was undertaken to interpret review comments.

Results point to a new phenomenon, which is coined as the smartness paradox. In particular, customers on one hand enjoy an array of smart-infused experiences that jointly offer patrons a sense of a futuristic lifestyle. On the other hand, smart devices superimpose a number of hindrances that bring guests dismay and annoyance.

This investigation brings smart service failure to the fore to highlight several key failure themes that could jeopardize the entire operation with debased customers’ satisfaction and loyalty inclination.

The smartness-paradox framework used in the present inquiry entails both approach and avoidance consequences customers enact depending on their smart experiences.

Proenvironmental hotels and hotels with green initiatives are emerging as a method to address environmental issues and respond to tourists’ environmental concerns. To better understand what can encourage reservations in proenvironmental hotels, this study aims to investigate the connection between the performing arts watching experience and the preference for such a hotel.

Five scenario-based experiments were conducted. A total of 1,024 participants for the five studies were recruited with the help of Credamo, a commonly used Chinese data collection platform.

The results indicated that viewing performing arts could increase tourists’ preferences for proenvironmental hotels. This phenomenon occurred due to the fact that performing arts watching experience can induce a psychological state of self-transcendence in individuals, which, in turn, can raise their levels of altruism, and ultimately lead to proenvironmental hotel choices. This effect will not occur, however, when people watch performing arts with either an extrinsic motivation or in an analytical state.

The findings of this study provide hotel managers with a novel approach to market the proenvironmental attributes of their hotels and to promote tourists’ proenvironmental behaviors.

This study proposes performing arts viewing experiences as a novel way to encourage proenvironmental hotel choice. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the impact of the performing arts watching experience on tourist behavior.

Engaging in webcare, i.e. responding to online reviews, can positively affect consumer attitudes, intentions and behavior. Research is often scarce or inconsistent regarding the effects of specific webcare strategies on business performance. Therefore, this study tests whether and how several webcare strategies affect hotel bookings.

We apply machine learning classifiers to secondary data (webcare messages) to classify webcare variables to be included in a regression analysis looking at the effect of these strategies on hotel bookings while controlling for possible confounds such as seasonality and hotel-specific effects.

The strategies that have a positive effect on bookings are directing reviewers to a private channel, being defensive, offering compensation and having managers sign the response. Webcare strategies to be avoided are apologies, merely asking for more information, inviting customers for another visit and adding informal non-verbal cues. Strategies that do not appear to affect future bookings are expressing gratitude, personalizing and having staff members (rather than managers) sign webcare.

These findings help managers optimize their webcare strategy for better business results and develop automated webcare.

We look into several commonly used and studied webcare strategies that affect actual business outcomes, being that most previous research studies are experimental or look into a very limited set of strategies.

By conducting a longitudinal study, this study aims to investigate how the role of hotel attributes in destination competitiveness changed through the stages of pre-, amid and recovery from the crisis.

First, the latent Dirichlet allocation method was used to identify hotel attributes from 15,137 online reviews, and then a sentiment analysis was performed to determine tourist satisfaction with the subject attributes. Second, separate asymmetric impact competitor analyses were conducted for the three stages of the crisis, and their results were compared with understand how the role of the hotel attributes changed throughout the crisis.

The results revealed that the impacts of hotel attributes on tourist satisfaction and destination competitiveness differed significantly at each stage of the crisis.

This research expands the existing literature by offering valuable insights by elucidating the changing characteristics of hotel attributes at each crisis stage. The results extend the body of knowledge in destination management by providing evidence on the validity of asymmetric impact competitor analysis.

To fully understand the impact of a crisis (e.g. COVID-19) on destination competitiveness with a focus on the hotel sector, this research conducted a longitudinal study that covers three stages of the crisis (i.e. pre-, amid and post-crisis). Moreover, unlike previous studies, this research considers the asymmetric relationships between service attributes and overall tourist satisfaction, as well as competitors’ information.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of strategic leadership (SL) on business operational resilience (OR) in the hotel industry in Egypt, namely, during and after the pandemic. This investigation also aimed to explore the mediating function of crisis response strategies (CRSs) and organisational e-readiness (Oe-R) in this relationship.

The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study using a questionnaire as the primary data collection method. Using partial least squares structural equation simulation (PLS-SEM), the study used a comprehensive sample that targets the general managers of all five-star hotels in Egypt.

Results indicated that SL has a positive impact on CRSs and Oe-R. Furthermore, the results reveal a positive influence of Oe-R on both CRSs and hotel OR. On the other hand, CRSs do not influence hotel OR. The findings showed that CRSs fully mediate the link between SL and OR. However, CRSs do not serve as a mediator between Oe-R and OR. Furthermore, the findings showed that Oe-R partially mediates the link between SL and both OR and CRSs.

The study yields unique and valuable theoretical and practical insights to guide hotel leaders and managers towards adaptive recovery and resilience in turbulent and crisis-ridden environments by demonstrating that the combined mediating function of CRS and Oe-R is more effective in strengthening the relationship between SL and OR.

This study represents a pioneering investigation that establishes a correlation between SL and OR, either through direct or indirect means. The research examines the involvement of CRSs and Oe-R as collaborative mediators in this relationship. Previous studies undertaken in the hotel industry and service sector have not investigated this specific element.

Drawing on the theory of memory-dominant logic, this study aims to examine how the substantive staging of the servicescape, experience co-creation, experiential satisfaction and experience intensification affect experience memorability and hedonic well-being in the case of unmanned smart hotels.

An online survey was used, with the target respondents being hotel guests people aged 18 years and older who had been recent guests of the FlyZoo Hotel in Hangzhou, China. Data were collected online from 429 guests who had stayed in the hotel between April and June 2023. Data analysis was undertaken using structural equation modelling.

The results suggest that all the proposed four constructs are positive drivers of a memorable unmanned smart hotel experience. The relationship between the memorability of the hotel experience and hedonic well-being was found to be significant and positive.

Unmanned smart hotels should ensure that all smart technologies function effectively and dependably and offer highly personalised services to guests, allowing them to co-create their experiences. This will lead to the guest receiving a satisfying and memorable experience. To enable experience co-creation using smart technologies, unmanned smart hotels could provide short instructional videos for guests, as well as work closely with manufacturers and suppliers to ensure that smart technology systems are regularly updated.

This study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of a novel phenomenon and extends the concept of memorable tourism experiences to the context of unmanned smart hotels.

This paper aims to identify the role of coproduction and value-in-use in the overall hotel experience value, and its effects on cognitive-affective satisfaction and loyalty. The country chosen is Spain, in the context of the “new normal,” where the increase in tourist flow after the COVID-19 pandemic has been very relevant, setting up the chance to better assess and discuss value creation in a post-pandemic era.

The causal model is validated with partial least squares (PLS) in a panel of 405 hotel guests (applying sampling quotas by sex, age and region).

The chain of effects is verified with stronger links at the end and with a greater weight of value-in-use compared to coproduction. Hotels’ efforts to adapt to the pandemic situation work better if a customized, unique experience is offered and if intensive communication is with and not just to the guest. The role of experience value is key for the cocreation to produce results for satisfaction and loyalty.

This study contributes to the value creation literature by highlighting the respective roles of coproduction and value-in-use as drivers of the satisfaction−loyalty chain, and by introducing the guest’s overall hotel experience value into this chain. This is viewed against the backdrop of the contextual changes that have occurred since 2020 in the Spanish hotel industry. The post-pandemic context “forces” the client to actively participate. Analysis of the implications of this kind of new cocreation on the overall customer experience is relevant for both tourism scholars and managers.