Influence of Interpersonal Communication on Hotel Performance: A Case of Classified Hotels along the Kenyan Coastal Tourism Hub

Abstract

Kenya’s coast is a renowned tourism hub, thanks to its natural beaches, a serene environment and world-class hotels. Unfortunately, these hotels’ average check has been inconsistent. Insecurity, seasonality challenges, and frequent travel advisories have been pointed out as some of the contributing factors to the trend. Interestingly, other destinations facing similar challenges bounce back so fast thanks to their inventive approaches to reducing guest churn. It is not clear whether Kenya’s coastal classified hotels have adopted such strategies. This study sought to assess whether communication approaches could improve hotel performance in classified hotels in Kenya’s coastal tourism hub. It targeted hotel guests of the 15 classified hotels in Mombasa County, based on a descriptive research design. A stratified sampling technique was adopted where three strata based on the hotels’ star ratings were formed settling on the 384 guests, 26 for each of the hotels. Both a questionnaire and an interview schedule were developed for data collection. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between interpersonal communication and hotel performance in classified hotels in Mombasa County (R=0.795; P=0.000) These findings serve as a red flag to classified hotel managers to re-innovate interpersonal communication strategies used to maximize hotel performance.