The role of trip purpose and hotel star rating on guests’ satisfaction and WOM

Abstract

The study aims to understand how guests' trip purpose and hotel star rating influence the effects of the value for money perceived at hotels and service quality on guest satisfaction and WOM recommendation. Design/ Methodology/ Approach Using TripAdvisor, 25 Singaporean hotels were randomly selected for the study, which yielded hotel reviews from 2040 respondents. Hierarchical and logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationships proposed in the study. Findings Results indicate significant differences between leisure and business guests' perception of value for money and service quality at hotels with various star ratings. While perceived value for money and service quality were found as significant predictors for both leisure and business guests' satisfaction and WOM, the effects were moderated by the hotel star rating. Despite the significant effect of hotel star rating on guest satisfaction, the study found no significant relationships between hotel star rating and WOM for leisure and business guests. Practical Implications The findings suggest that managers in the hotel industry should understand the purpose of guests' trip and offer services based on their expectations. As the star rating of a hotel creates certain expectations for both leisure and business guests, providing an appropriate level of services and assuring value for money in accordance with the hotel rating, contributes to guest satisfaction and WOM recommendation.

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“…Thus, customer satisfaction or the lack of it could serve as a control mechanism for companies to identify which attributes should improve to achieve this satisfaction [15]. Rajaguru and Hassanli [16] affirm that the quality of the service is considered an important predictor of success in the tourism industry. In addition, it must be considered that, in order to have good results, continuous customer feedback must be made on this variable [17,18].…”

“…Although quality of service and satisfaction are related concepts [16,19,20], they are different. Thus, Parasuraman et al [21] define the quality of services as a judgment related to the superiority of the service.…”

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