Hotel Categorization And Hotel Importance

Table of Content

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

2.1 Hotel Properties

2.2 Hotel Star-Categorization

2.3 Hotel Property Importance, Hotel Categorization and Hotel Overall Result Rating

2.4 Propositions

3. Research Methods 3.1 Research Design and Inquiry 3.2 Information Collection

4. Conclusion

Bibliography

1. Introduction

The hotel industry is a competitive market where hotel management’s goal is to decrease the vacancy rate and to increase the customer return rate. On the other hand, hotel guests have certain expectations for hotel service, albeit they are often disappointed with one or more of many hotels properties that stretch from value and service to amenities [Heung, 2000, p.308]. In the age of the Internet, both

However, within the same categorization level, each hotel would be better or worse off than competitors in each of many hotel properties. In the early years, Knutson [1988, p. 84] surveyed frequent travelers in the U.S. to figure out why they would select certain hotels initially and would come back to the same hotel. The author compared six hotel properties (clean/comfortable room, convenient location, safety & security, prompt/courteous service, friendliness, and room rates) among three hotel segments (economy, mid-price, and luxury) from the perspectives of both business and pleasure travelers, and noticed that the importance of hotel properties varied, albeit its difference was minimal in some cases, depending on the hotel categorization and the travelers type. One consistent finding was that the category of clean/comfortable room was the most important property regardless of different traveler types and different hotel segments, followed by either location or security. Choi and Chu [1999, p. 178] researched consumers’ perceived importance on the service quality (staff service quality, room quality, general amenities, business services, value, security, and international direct dial [IDD] facilities) of Hong Kong hotels across three hotel categorization: high-tariff A(equivalent to 5-star), high-tariff B (4-star), and medium-tariff (3-star). According to the research outcome, in general, a higher categorization level leads to the higher properties importance value. Except for the property categories of security and IDD facilities, the rest of the properties followed this condition. For high-tariff A & B hotels, room quality and staff service quality were considered to be the top two critical properties, whereas for medium-tariff hotels, security and then, room quality were two most salient properties. Qu et al. [2000, p. 69], desiring to find important