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