Trends and opportunities in lodging research

Citation

Smith, S., Kubickova, M., Bufquin, D. and Weinland, J. (2018), "Trends and opportunities in lodging research", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 186-187. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-08-2018-027

Trends and opportunities in lodging research

The objective of this special issue is to communicate the latest research findings impacting lodging professionals around the world. While this issue only presents a small sample of the current research efforts related to the lodging industry, the diversity among the topics demonstrate active research efforts across the discipline. The special issue informs leaders, managers, professionals, researchers, educators and policymakers about the latest research findings to shape the work that they do in an applied way.

This special issue includes six academic articles that deal with current trends in the lodging industry. The first article “How’d you sleep?” Measuring business travelers’ sleep quality and satisfaction in hotels was authored by Hsiangting Shatina Chen, Kimberly Severt, Yeon Ho Shin, Adam Knowleden and Tyra Hilliard. This study investigated the differences between business travelers sleep experience when staying at upscale hotels compared to experiences at mid-scale hotels. Utilizing a self-reporting survey, the authors found that participants reported lower satisfaction with mid-scale hotels caused by several factors, than guests staying at upscale hotels.

The second article, by Kristen Malek, Sheryl Kline and Robin DiPietro, investigates the direct relationship between training at a management level and the impact upon their direct employees’ turnover intention. While studying the workforce of two luxury hotels and utilizing exploratory factor analysis, the authors observed that employee perception of their manager affected their turnover intention. Further, as manager training increased, employee turnover intention decreased.

In the third article, Francisco Muñoz-Levia, Xavier Mayo-Muñoz and Andrea De la Hoz-Correa analyze the factors that affect consumer adoption of the lodging shared economy. Their article, “Adoption of home sharing platforms: a cross-cultural study identified ease of use and perceived usefulness affect intent to use,” which, in turn, affect actual use of home sharing platforms. The authors collected 418 international responses and utilized structural equation modeling for the analysis.

Giulio Ronzoni, Edwin Torres and Juhee Kang in “Dual branding: a case study of Wyndham” identify the factors that affect a properties implementation of a dual branding strategy. The authors, using interviews with hotel managers, were able to elaborate upon the organizational, operational, technical, financial and economic challenges experienced in the process.

Barbe and Pennington-Gray address, the topic of managing crisis communications via social media in using situational crisis communication theory to understand Orlando Hotels’ Twitter Response to three crises in the Summer of 2016. This study included three crises and sought to assess the crisis communication strategies used by lodging companies affected in each crisis. A review of the messages posted to Twitter accounts revealed insight into the communication practices of lodging companies and recommends strategies which hoteliers might consider.

Finally, Seung Hyun Lee determined that for dissatisfied hotel guest preferred discounts, followed by corrective actions and loyalty points to compensate for an unsatisfactory stay. The article, “Guest preferences for service recovery procedures: conjoint analysis” also identifies an additional factor that is effective in dealing with dissatisfied guest, including upper-level management leading upgrades and service recovery efforts.

Scholars and practitioners alike can look forward to a continuing stream of investigation concerning lodging industry topics. We hope that our readers find all the articles published in this special issue timely, relevant and useful.