The impact of COVID-19 on hotel customer satisfaction: evidence from Beijing and Shanghai in China

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide better service to hotel customers during the COVID-19 era. Specifically, this study focuses on understanding the changes in hotel customer satisfaction during the epidemic and formulating effective marketing strategies to satisfy and attract guests. Design/methodology/approach As the first victim of the COVID-19 virus, China’s hotel industry has been profoundly affected and customer satisfaction and needs have also changed. Taking 105,635 hotel reviews obtained from Tripadvisor.com in Beijing and Shanghai as samples, this study explores the changes in consumer satisfaction by using text-mining methods. Findings The results suggest that there are significant differences in overall ratings, spatial distribution and ratings of different traveller types before and after the epidemic. Generally, customers have higher “tolerance” and are more inclined to give higher ratings and pay more attention to hotel prevention and control measures to reduce health risks after the COVID-19. Research limitations/implications This paper proves the changes in customer satisfaction before and after the COVID-19 at the theoretical level and reveals the changes in customer attention through the topic model and provides a basis for guiding hotel managers to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Practical implications Empirical findings would provide useful insights into tourism management and improve hotel service quality during the COVID-19 epidemic era. Originality/value This research explores the hotel customer satisfaction in the field of hotel management before COVID-19 and after COVID-19, by using text mining to analyse mandarin online reviews. The results of this study will suggest that the hotel industry should continuously adjust its products and services based on the effective information obtained from customer reviews, so as to realize the activation and revitalization of the hotel industry in the epidemic era.

New insights into the measurement model of a new scale for evaluating restaurant service quality during major infectious disease outbreaks

“…Therefore, this study established a theoretical and practical conceptual structure for the REP-SERV scale and provided new insights into the related theories of restaurant service quality. This study could provide a basis for the restaurant industry to reduce the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, which echoes the current research of many scholars (Chou et al , 2021; Maher et al , 2021; Sun et al , 2022). However, the implementation of restaurant epidemic prevention services is a high-risk task that requires both quality and epidemic prevention (Maher et al , 2021), which echoes the QRM theory.…”

“…In addition, when restaurants in many countries gradually resumed operations in 2021, the risk of COVID-19 virus infection for dining customers increased significantly (Foroudi et al , 2021; Choe et al , 2021). During an infectious disease outbreak, there are many risks in the provision of hospitality services (Choe et al , 2021; Sun et al , 2022), so epidemic prevention service quality management in restaurants must be implemented based on the theoretical concept of QRM to reduce the dining risks for customers and the work risks for employees. When restaurant epidemic prevention services are provided, the quality of the implementation also affects customers’ intentions to dine in that restaurant (Hsu, 2006b).…”

Indirect customer-to-customer interactions and experiential value: examining solo and social diners

“…This result confirms the significant impact of service quality in the restaurant literature (Kim et al, 2009;Taylor et al, 2018). It also supports the unwavering value of service excellence in achieving customer satisfaction during the global pandemic (Hao and Chon, 2021;Jiang and Wen, 2020;Sun et al, 2021).…”

“…In addition, the findings of this study are particularly important during the ongoing pandemic. Since service excellence remains constantly vital to customer loyalty, restaurateurs should be more attentive to hygiene and protective procedures to prevent service failure and promote overall health in the post-pandemic era (Jiang and Wen, 2020; Sun et al , 2021).…”

“…Similarly, Chua et al (2014) observed no evidence of direct linkages among physical environment, service interaction and behavioral intentions in full-service restaurants. They suggested that the results might be attributed to nearly half of the respondents reported their dining purposes as “get a quick meal.” In a lodging context, research studying hotel guests’ behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that solo travelers tend to give lower ratings on their hotel stay than other types of travelers (Sun et al , 2021). These findings suggest that experiential values relying heavily on contextual factors may be perceived differently by certain customer groups.…”