The effect of a hotel's star-rating-based expectations of safety from the pandemic on during-stay experiences

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103223Get rights and content

Highlights

  • This work studies travellers in India undertaking their stay at a hotel during COVID-19.

  • The hotel star-rating in proposed as a signal for pre-stay perceived hotel safety.

  • The role of safety-related expectations in driving during-stay experiences are examined.

  • The work deploys a research design spanning across pre-stay and during-stay phases.

  • Signalling theory and expectation-confirmation model are integrated.

Abstract

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, safety is one of the top priorities for travellers when choosing a hotel. This work examines the effect of customers’ pre-stay expectations of a hotel about its safety-focused services, shaped through its official star-rating, on the during-stay confirmation of those expectations, satisfaction, and revisit intentions. A cross-sectional research design is used spanning temporally from the pre-stay to the during-stay phases. The pre-stay phase was the peak COVID-19 period in India (June–July 2021) to stimulate the safety concerns in the travellers planning their travel, while the during-stay phase was when the planned travel was undertaken with the traveller staying at the planned hotel (October 2021–January 2022). Data were collected from 452 customers and the results supported the proposed model. Further, the star-rating, as a signal for safety-focused services, was found to have a serial effect on revisit intentions, through the pre-stay expectations of safety services, and the during-stay confirmation of expectations and satisfaction.

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on several sectors, including the hospitality and tourism industry (Mehta et al., 2021). More than 60% of hotels globally have been facing challenges to survive since the onset of the pandemic (Schoening and Shapiro, 2020). Pre-pandemic, the global hospitality industry was forecasted to grow to USD 211.54 billion by 2026, with a growth rate of 4.6%1; however, the effects of the pandemic have resulted in a readjustment of these projections. For example, the STR and Tourism Economics estimate that by 2023, the demand for hotel rooms will fall from 57.4% to 51.2%, reflecting the continued anxiety of travellers even if the effects of the pandemic are significantly reduced (Airoldi, 2020).

The criticality of studying a traveller's decision-making process during a pandemic is well-acknowledged (e.g., Zenker and Kock, 2020). Yet, there are limited insights into an individual's motivation to choose a specific hospitality venue during a travel overlapping with the pandemic (Aebli et al., 2022). It is well-known that different needs drive motivations and user decisions, consistent with the importance of those needs in a context (Gnoth, 1997; Herzberg et al., 2007). Hence, it is argued that travel-related decisions have been refocused towards safety needs evoked during a global pandemic. Interestingly, most research in the context of COVID-19 discusses customer resistance to travel, with safety from infection as a primary demotivator (e.g., Chua et al., 2020). However, the bases on which individuals who undertake travel during a pandemic, despite all risks, choose their stay venue, and experience its services remains under-researched (Aebli et al., 2022).

Studies published during the pandemic suggest that projecting an image of safety by hotels is critical in uncertain times (e.g., Hoque et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2021; Rivera, 2020). Indeed, guests are concerned about their safety needs and will likely remain so long after the pandemic (Agag et al., 2022; Li et al., 2020; Villa et al., 2020). This implies that a property's image of effective COVID-19/pandemic mitigation through hygiene-focused services (e.g., sanitisation of the rooms and hotel amenities), medical services (e.g., doctor-on-call, emergency hospitalization), and deployment of modern technologies (e.g., contactless check-in) is helpful for travellers to plan their stay at the hotel. Further, the corroboration of expectations during the stay has important implications for the hotel-customer relationship, including the customer's intention to revisit the hotel (Atadil and Lu, 2021; Jiang and Wen, 2020; Rivera, 2020; Vij et al., 2021).

The expectations of potential customers concerning the service quality of a hotel are often based on its official star-rating in which hotels are given a rating from 1 to 5 (with 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest) (Cser and Ohuchi, 2008; Rhee and Yang, 2015). In recent pandemic-focused research, Nunkoo et al. (2020) argue for the role of hotel star-rating in shaping customers’ expectations about the safety of a hotel as well as their stay experiences. However, the study data was captured at one point in time. Not only are expectations and confirmation two different theoretical entities, but there may also be a temporal gap when the perceptions about the safety of a hotel are formed and when the customer experiences those attributes during the stay (e.g., Gupta et al., 2020; Venkatesh et al., 2011). Thus, a research question that has not yet been addressed in the extant literature is whether hotel star-rating, as a signal of safety-related services, create expectations of safety at the hotel, and how such expectations, if met during actual stay experiences, affect the customer–hotel relationship.

Based on principles of the signalling theory and the expectation–confirmation model (ECM), as well as the tenets of Herzberg's two-factor motivation theory to underpin the need for safety during travel, this study explores the influence of pre-stay expectations of safety based on hotel star-ratings on the during-stay confirmation, satisfaction and revisit intention. The model is evaluated using covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) with data collected from 452 respondents in India. Theoretically, the study offers a unique integration of the signalling theory and the ECM to propose a temporal model spanning from the pre-stay phase to the during-stay phase of a hotel stay. For practitioners, this study examines the customer journey in hospitality service by exploring how hotel star-rating–based safety perceptions can serve as an instrument for maintaining customer loyalty.

Section snippets

Hotel star-rating and service quality

A hotel star-rating system is provided to each hotel's individual property by the competent authority based on the types of services offered and the overall service quality, with higher ratings reflecting higher service standards (Dioko et al., 2013; Nunkoo et al., 2020). Some hospitality brands consciously secure different ratings for their properties across geographies, sometimes under a different brand name, to target specific customer segments (Claver et al., 2006). This is because

Integrating signalling theory and ECM

Signalling theory suggests that signals of a brand/organization are the observable attributes that are/can be deployed to communicate unique values to the customers (Spence, 1973). Such signals are used by organizations for communicating the quality of their products/services (Sekar and Santhanam, 2022). Signals are used by firms because processing the information about ‘intricate’ details of a product/service is a complex task for an individual and may lead to information asymmetry (Spence,

Construct measurement

To operationalise the constructs in this study, the questionnaire items were generated by aggregating items from different sources in the existing literature. The aggregated items were shortlisted and refined based on the discussion with three subject-matter experts: two academicians with significant publications in hospitality literature and one practitioner who was a top manager at a prominent hospitality chain. To measure the items of SRSS, we chose items from Zemke et al. (2015) and

Control variables

Spector (2021) recommended using control variables to eliminate the effect of extraneous factors on the main observed relationships. Since customer demographics, such as age, gender, education, marital status, and income (Lu and Pas, 1999) can have possible intervening effects on the outcomes of the study (see Table 1), they were modelled as control variables.

Initial checks

Before evaluating the psychometric properties of the measures, the normality assumption of the variables was evaluated by examining

Discussion

This study comprises a temporal examination of the effect of pre-consumption (here pre-stay) variables such as the expectation of safety service (ESS), a hygienic need for a traveller, shaped through the star-rating of a hotel as a signal of safety (SRSS), on during-consumption (here during-stay) variables such as confirmation of safety services (CSS), satisfaction, and revisit intention (RI). The context of the study was travellers in India undertaking travel during the COVID-19 period in

Theoretical contributions

This research makes several theoretical contributions. Recent research (e.g., Atadil and Lu, 2021) focuses on customer perceptions towards safe stays in hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic. These works have explored the dimensions underlying a safe hotel image – for example, perceptions of hygiene control, medical preparedness, use of self-service technology, and privacy – as well as the implications thereof for the visit intention of the customers. However, none of these works has moved beyond

Practical implications

Based on the findings presented here, the study offers several practical contributions. Given the importance of hotel star-ratings in setting safety expectations, perceived experiences, and revisit behaviour, hotel (chain) management could deploy niche marketing campaigns conveying the message about their safety services. Notices indicating that star-ratings are earned through exemplary safety services, or that the safety record of the hotel, in terms of infections, is reflected in its

Limitations and future research directions

Despite its theoretical and practical contributions, this research is subject to some limitations that should be addressed in future studies. First, as the focus of this study was on the impact of pre-stay expectations on during-stay experiences, ideally respondents should have been contacted for the second time during their stay at the hotel, rather than at a time after their visit, when some early memories of the stay, if long, would have faded. However, due to the limitations of online data

Declaration of competing interest

None.

References (122)

  • J. Gnoth

    Tourism motivation and expectation formation

    Ann. Tourism Res.

    (1997)
  • A. Gupta et al.

    All that glitters is not green: creating trustworthy ecofriendly services at green hotels

    Tourism Manag.

    (2019)
  • A. Gupta et al.

    How pre-adoption expectancies shape post-adoption continuance intentions: an extended expectation-confirmation model

    Int. J. Inf. Manag.

    (2020)
  • F. Hao et al.

    COVID-19 and China's hotel industry: impacts, a disaster management framework, and post-pandemic agenda

    Int. J. Hospit. Manag.

    (2020)
  • M. Hitzeroth et al.

    Renewable energy projects: acceptance risks and their management

    Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.

    (2013)
  • A.A. Israeli

    Star-rating and corporate affiliation: their influence on room price and performance of hotels in Israel

    Int. J. Hospit. Manag.

    (2002)
  • J.J. Kim et al.

    The impact of hotel attributes, well-being perception, and attitudes on brand loyalty: examining the moderating role of COVID-19 pandemic

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2021)
  • J. Kim et al.

    Effects of COVID-19 on preferences for private dining facilities in restaurants

    J. Hospit. Tourism Manag.

    (2020)
  • T. Lam et al.

    Predicting behavioral intention of choosing a travel destination

    Tourism Manag.

    (2006)
  • C.K. Lee et al.

    The impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions for 2009 H1N1 influenza on travel intentions: a model of goal-directed behavior

    Tourism Manag.

    (2012)
  • M. Li et al.

    Contactless but loyal customers: the roles of anxiety and sociability in the hotel service context

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2022)
  • X. Lu et al.

    Socio-demographics, activity participation and travel behavior

    Transport. Res. Pol. Pract.

    (1999)
  • E. Martin-Fuentes

    Are guests of the same opinion as the hotel star-rate classification system?

    J. Hospit. Tourism Manag.

    (2016)
  • L. Masiero et al.

    Determining guests' willingness to pay for hotel room attributes with a discrete choice model

    Int. J. Hospit. Manag.

    (2015)
  • M. Nilashi et al.

    Revealing travellers' satisfaction during COVID-19 outbreak: moderating role of service quality

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2022)
  • R. Nunkoo et al.

    Service quality and customer satisfaction: the moderating effects of hotel star-rating

    Int. J. Hospit. Manag.

    (2020)
  • H. Oh

    Service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer value: a holistic perspective

    Int. J. Hospit. Manag.

    (1999)
  • V.A. Quintal et al.

    Risk, uncertainty and the theory of planned behavior: a tourism example

    Tourism Manag.

    (2010)
  • H.T. Rhee et al.

    Does hotel attribute importance differ by hotel? Focusing on hotel star-classifications and customers' overall ratings

    Comput. Hum. Behav.

    (2015)
  • M.A. Rivera

    Hitting the reset button for hospitality research in times of crisis: covid19 and beyond

    Int. J. Hospit. Manag.

    (2020)
  • S. San-Martín et al.

    The firms benefits of mobile CRM from the relationship marketing approach and the TOE model

    Spanish J. Marketing-ESIC

    (2016)
  • H. Shin et al.

    Reducing perceived health risk to attract hotel customers in the COVID-19 pandemic era: focused on technology innovation for social distancing and cleanliness

    Int. J. Hospit. Manag.

    (2020)
  • U.I. Siddiqi et al.

    Restaurant hygiene attributes and consumers' fear of COVID-19: does psychological distress matter?

    J. Retailing Consum. Serv.

    (2022)
  • A. Aebli et al.

    A two-dimensional approach to travel motivation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

    Curr. Issues Tourism

    (2022)
  • D.M. Airoldi

    CBRE: US Hotel Occupancy Won'fitfully Recover until Late 2022

    (2020)
  • I. Ajzen et al.

    Attitudes and the attitude-behavior relation: reasoned and automatic processes

    Eur. Rev. Soc. Psychol.

    (2000)
  • I. Alnawas et al.

    Examining the key dimensions of customer experience quality in the hotel industry

    J. Hospit. Market. Manag.

    (2019)
  • H.A. Atadil et al.

    An investigation of underlying dimensions of customers' perceptions of a safe hotel in the COVID-19 era: effects of those perceptions on hotel selection behavior

    J. Hospit. Market. Manag.

    (2021)
  • R.P. Bagozzi et al.

    A general approach to representing multifaceted personality constructs: application to state self‐esteem

    Struct. Equ. Model.: A Multidiscip. J.

    (1994)
  • R.P. Bagozzi et al.

    On the evaluation of structural equation models

    J. Acad. Market. Sci.

    (1988)
  • T. Belver-Delgado et al.

    The influence of website quality and star-rating signals on booking intention: analyzing the moderating effect of variety seeking

    Spanish J. Marketing-ESIC

    (2020)
  • A. Bhattacherjee

    Understanding information systems continuance: an expectation-confirmation model

    MIS Q.

    (2001)
  • R.N. Bolton et al.

    A longitudinal analysis of the impact of service changes on customer attitudes

    J. Market.

    (1991)
  • J. Bulchand et al.

    Improving hotel ratings by offering free Wi‐Fi

    J. Hospitality Tourism Technol.

    (2011)
  • S.J. Chang et al.

    Common method variance in international business research

  • Y.-H. Chen et al.

    Impact of signals experience on trust trusting behavior

    Cyberpsychol., Behav. Soc. Netw.

    (2010)
  • C.G. Chi et al.

    Evolving effects of COVID-19 safety precaution expectations, risk avoidance, and socio-demographics factors on customer hesitation toward patronizing restaurants and hotels

    J. Hospit. Market. Manag.

    (2022)
  • B.L. Chua et al.

    Tourists' outbound travel behavior in the aftermath of the COVID-19: role of corporate social responsibility, response effort, and health prevention

    J. Sustain. Tourism

    (2020)
  • G.A. Churchill et al.

    An investigation into the determinants of customer satisfaction

    J. Market. Res.

    (1982)
  • E. Claver et al.

    Does quality impact on hotel performance?

    Int. J. Contemp. Hospit. Manag.

    (2006)
  • Cited by (4)

    View full text