HGE401: Hotels and the Guest Experience

Page | 2
201716109 16/06/2017
HGE401: Hotels and the Guest Experience

Topic: In the hotel business, you are accommodating a variety of travellers with various
demands, needs and expectations. Delivering a consistent and distinctive customer
experience in a central concern for managers of hotels. These consumer experiences are
derived through a unique combination of responses to physical environment dimensions and
human interaction dimensions.

Critically evaluate the conceptual model for the structure of the customer experience (as
outlined in Figure 3.2 of Hudson and Hudson 2013, page 49) and offer examples of
contemporary strategies that hotels use to improve their customers’ experience.

Executive Summary

Purpose of this report:

Main problems:

Key Findings and conclusions:

Recommendations summarised:

Table of Contents

1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………

Page | 3
201716109 16/06/2017
HGE401: Hotels and the Guest Experience

List of Tables and Figures

1. Introduction:

2. Human interaction

The hotel's products and services are not the only factors to achieve a positive customer
experience, but also about the human interaction (Yuan & Wu, 2008). Indeed, the interaction
among people seemingly creates a difference when people ‘s lives revolve around technologies
such as phones and computers (Bharwani and Jauhari, 2013). It is undeniable that customers
are very diversified, some people prefer experiencing new services and technologies, but others
want to experience real interactions with other people. Furthermore, businesses often find it
difficult to meet customers’ expectations if their services do not promote social interactions.
Many companies often focus and invest too much in technology, however, ignore the
interaction between employees and customers, resulting in huge costs and losing potential
customers (O'Donnell et al., 2003). It is believed that interaction among people has a great
impact on the company's service environment (Lin et al, 2008). Indeed, people working in hotel
service always aim for consumer satisfaction and expectation, and a positive interaction
between the company and the consumer will increase the likelihood of achieving that goal
(Levy, Hudson, and Getz, 2011). There are two types of interaction in consumer service to be
distinguished in the hotel service: employee-to-customer interactions and customer- to-
customer interactions.

2.1 Staff to guest encounters

Regarding the staff to guest encounters, the emotional connection between customers and
employees will increase the customer experience and loyalty. Some studies reveal that in a
competitive market, companies often find ways to embrace new experiences and use it to

Page | 4
201716109 16/06/2017
HGE401: Hotels and the Guest Experience

achieve high levels of customer service (Walls, 2009). As Bitner (1990) observed that when
employees make customers feel special or caring, the company will achieve customer
satisfaction and service satisfaction in return. In terms of human interaction aspect, there are
four important factors that affect the experience of consumers when they interact with the
hotels’ staffs: attitude, behavior, proactive service, and appearance.

First of all, when the behavior and attitude of employees are connected to the consumer, it
creates a positive consumer’s experience (Pullman and Gross, 2004). In fact, the authenticity of
the employee is what the customer will judge through their attitude. To enable an interactive
environment, customers will observe the level of positive emotions of employees to evaluate
the authenticity of the service or product (Hoch, 2002). Besides, a study from Brown et al
(1996) indicates that employee attitudes bring customer satisfaction and positive employee
behavior will increase the effectiveness of the service which employees want to convey to their
guests. Another study by Hansen et al (2003) claims that when an employee reaches
satisfaction from their customer, the customer will usually maintain a long-term relationship
with that employee as the result of their good behaviors. Thus, the attitude as well as the
behaviors of the staff are important factors in creating a good experience for customers.

In proactive service, employees will have to anticipate what customers intend to do or the
problems that the customers will encounter in order to get prepared in advance, subsequently
working out the appropriate solutions to those problems (O'Donnell et al., 2003). This would
probably make the customers feel special and remember the most. Eventually, it will create
long-lasting memories and positive connections to the service of that hotel. For example, the
preparation of a birthday party or a wedding for customers from employees, this will give
customers a meaningful and special experience for them (Worsfold et al., (2007). Indeed, the
immediate effective response to the issues from employees will give the customer a sense of
security and have a good time, which creates a unique customer experience.

Another thing that affects the customer’s experience is the employee's appearance, such as the
way that the staff dress and the grooming standards. Particularly, the uniforms must be neat

Page | 5
201716109 16/06/2017
HGE401: Hotels and the Guest Experience

and consistent with the different roles so that customers can easily identify the role and
function of each employee (Bharwani and Jauhari, 2013). Employees are the representatives of
the company, thus, a polite and timely appearance will meet the expectations of the customer.

2.2 Guest to guest encounters

Considering the guest to guest encounters, apart from the interaction with the staffs in the
hotel, the consumers also mention their experiences at the hotel when interacting with other
customers. According to Angulo (2016), she believes that “people look to themselves before
they look to brands” (p. 2). For customers, to assess whether they have good experience or not,
there are four criteria set as the following: demeanor, behavior, appearance, and socialization.

Similar to the interaction between employees and customers, customers also want other
fellow-customers to be open and friendly in terms of demeanor and behavior (Walls et al.,
2011). The interaction between customers will greatly affect the image of the company. More
specifically, Tilikidou et al (2014) point out that if the company has a lot of open-minded
customers and enjoys social interaction, it will increase the customer experiences. Conversely,
customers’ characteristics could be another decisive factor in a sense that there are different
types of people in the world, thus, there will be some consumers who do not want to
communicate with each other and always have the attitude of meditation (Walls et al., 2011).
Although this has a small impact on the company, but if the number of such kind of customers
is increasing, it could be problematic. Another critical point is the appearance or in other words
the dress of the guests around. Literally, when customers come to five-star or four-star luxury
hotels, they often expect people around them to dress properly and elegantly (Peterhans,
2010). Besides, customers will expect to communicate with people who are dressed polite
rather than those with improperly dressed in a luxury hotel. Moreover, several studies have
confirmed that the impact of social and individual behavior will influence directly to the
customer experience (Bitner, 1992). More specifically, these effects are usually based on
physical environmental factors such as ambient size, emotion, and physiology, in which the
customer will respond to that (Hognas, 2015). A social environment is a significant dimension in

Page | 6
201716109 16/06/2017
HGE401: Hotels and the Guest Experience

service context because people in the same environment can influence each other just like
consumers. For instance, a swimming pool, a lounge or a garden, are the spaces that the guests
will come to connect with other visitors to the hotel. A small society will be formed in these
spaces and thus create interesting experiences for guests through the stories they receive from
other travellers (Ward, 1974). The above factors are the customer rating when they enter a
hotel. These perspectives will determine the expectations and experiences of the customers
during their stay at the hotel.

3. Conclusion:

Both structures include the dimension of the staff as well as the fellow guests asserting that
consumers want more than buying a product or using the service of the company. They
expect a meaningful experience through relationships and conversations not only with the
employees, but also with the customers around them (Carlson, 1997).

4. Recommendation:
1) Because employees and customers may have different orientations and cultures,
employees need to have knowledge of consumers’ values across the globe to meet
their expectations.

5. References:

Yuan, Y.-H. E., & Wu, C. K. (2008). Relationships among experiential marketing, experiential
value, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 32, 387–
410.

Lin, M-Q, Huang, L-S. and Chiang, Y-F. (2008). The moderating effects of gender roles on service
emotional contagion. The Services Industries Journal, 28(6), 755-767.

Levy, S., Hudson, S. and Getz, D. (2011). A field experimental investigation of managerially
facilitated consumer-to-consumer interaction. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing,
28(6), 656-674.

Page | 7
201716109 16/06/2017
HGE401: Hotels and the Guest Experience

Bitner, M. J. (1990). Evaluating service encounters–the effects of physical surroundings and

Carlson, R. (1997). Experienced cognition. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associations.

Bitner, M. J. (1992). Servicescapes: The Impact of Physical Surroundings on Customers and

Bharwani, S., & Jauhari, V. (2013). An exploratory study of competencies required to co-create
memorable customer experiences in the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 25(6), 823-843.

Angulo, N (2016). The value of human interaction: Why digital isn't always better. Retrieved 3
June, 2017 from: http://www.marketingdive.com/news/the-value-of-human-
interaction-why-digital-isnt-always-better/420677/

O'Donnell, D., O'Regan, P., Coates, B., Kennedy, T., Keary, B., & Berkery, G. (2003). Human
interaction: the critical source of intangible value. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 4(1),
82-99.

Walls, A. (2009). An examination of consumer experience and relative effects on consumer

Pullman, M. E., & Gross, M. A. (2004). Ability of Experience Design Elements to Elicit
Emotions and Loyalty Behaviors. Decision Sciences, 35(3), 551-578.

Hoch, S.J. (2002). Product experience is seductive. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 29 No. 3,
pp. 448-454.

Brown, S., Cowles, D. & Tuten, D. (1996). Service recovery: its value as a retail
strategy.International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 7, No. 5: 32–46.

Hansen, H., Sandvick, K. & Seines, F. (2003). Direct and indirect effects of commitment to a
service employee on the intention to stay. Journal of Service Research, Vol. 5, No. 4:
356-68.

Worsfold, K., Worsfold, J., & Bradley, G. (2007). Interactive Effects of Proactive and Reactive
Service Recovery Strategies: The Case of Rapport and Compensation1. Journal of
Applied Social Psychology, 37(11), 2496-2517.

Page | 8
201716109 16/06/2017
HGE401: Hotels and the Guest Experience

Walls, A., Okumus, F., Wang, Y., & Kwun, D. J. W. (2011). Understanding the consumer
experience: An exploratory study of luxury hotels. Journal of Hospitality Marketing &
Management, 20(2), 166-197.

Tilikidou, I., Delistavrou, A., & Sapountzis, N. (2014). Customers’ ethical behaviour towards
hotels. Procedia Economics and Finance, 9, 425-432.

Peterhans, S. (2010). Standards, Training, and Guests' Perceptions in Luxury Hotels.

Hognas, S. (2015). The Importance of the First Impression in Hotel Customer Service.VAASA
University of applied sciences, pp. 8-45.

Ward, S. (1974). Consumer socialization. Journal of consumer research, 1(2), 1-14.

Page | 9
201716109 16/06/2017