Japanese, U.S Tourists: Hotel Selections

The author reports the results of an exploratory study concerning the importance placed on attributes of hotel selection by Japanese and American guests and cultural differences between these two groups, which represent the largest market for Korean international tourist hotels. The findings suggest that Hofstede's (1960) four dimensions of cultural values can be used to help marketers better understand their guest's hotel selection criteria.

Adapting the Customer Satisfaction Index to the Lodging Industry: Foreign Customers' Evaluations

As a standard form of measuring customer satisfaction, the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) has been utilized in many countries. By using the Korean Customer Satisfaction Index (KCSI) methodology, this study attempted to investigate foreign customers’ evaluations of luxury hotels in Seoul, South Korea. In doing so, some efforts were made to overcome the methodological problems associated with the KCSI for the lodging industry. Data for this study were collected through a mall intercept survey using a self-administered questionnaire. Precisely 783 responses, collected solely from foreign guests who had stayed at a luxury hotel in Seoul, were included in the study.

The Effects of Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, Organizational Citizenship Behavior on Turnover Intentions

The current study investigated the effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intentions. The study also examined the effect of organizational citizenship behavior on turnover intentions. Frontline employees working in five-star hotels in North Cyprus were selected as a sample. The result of multiple regression analyses revealed that job satisfaction is positively related to organizational citizenship behavior and negatively related to turnover intentions. Affective organizational commitment was found to be positively related to organizational citizenship behavior. However, the study found no significant relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Furthermore, organizational citizenship behavior was negatively associated with turnover intentions. The study provides discussion and avenues for future research.

The Impact of Hotel Size and Service Type on Employee Job Satisfaction

There has been no research on the impact of hotel size and service type on employee satisfaction. Yet the distinction between service types (limited service and full service) has become commonplace and the dynamics and organization of these hotels are decidedly different. This study finds that differences are evident in certain aspects of employee satisfaction based on size and service type.

Challenge to Managers: Changing Hotel Work from a Secondary Choice to career Development

In his discussion - Challenge To Managers: Changing Hotel Work from a Secondary Choice to Career Development - by Leonidas Chitiris, Lecturer in Management, Piraeus Graduate School of Industrial Studies, Athens, Greece, Chitiris marginally alludes at the outset: “Surveys and interviews with hotel employees in Greece with regard to why individuals work for hotels and to what extent their rationale to join the hotel industry affects hotel productivity revealed that the choice to work in hotels is a secondary preference and reflects the opportunity structure in the economy at any given time and the greater the number of those who work in hotels when there are no other employment opportunities, the less likely the chances for overall improved performance. Given the increase in the proportion of unskilled, unmotivated workers, the level of hotel productivity consequently decreases! The author interprets the findings in terms of the economic and employment conditions in the Greek hotel industry. To enhance the rationale of his thesis statement, Chitiris offers with citation: “Research on initial entry into the labor force has shown that new employees reflect idealized expectations and are frequently not very satisfied with their jobs and roles in the work settings.” Chitiris advances the thought even further by saying: “Research on job satisfaction, motivation, and production purports that management can initiate policies that develop job satisfaction and may improve productivity.” The author outlines components within the general category of the hotel industry to label and quantify exactly why there may be a lag between employee expectations and the delivery of a superior level of service. Please keep in mind that the information for this essay is underpinned by the hotel industry in Greece, exclusively. Demographic information is provided. One example of the many factors parsed in this hotel service discussion is the employee/guest relationship. “The quality of service in hotels is affected to a great extent by the number of guests a hotel employee has to serve,” Chitiris offers. Additionally, Chitiris’ characterization of the typical hotel employee in Greece is not flattering, but it is an informed and representative view of that lodging labor pool. The description in and of itself begs to explain at least some of why the hotel industry in Greece suffers a consequently diminished capacity of superior service. Ill equipped, under-educated, over-worked, and under-paid are how Chitiris describes most employees in the Hellenist hospitality field. Survey based studies, and formulaic indices are used to measure variables related to productivity; the results may be inconclusive industry wide, but are interesting nonetheless. Also, an appealing table gauges the reasons why hotel workers actually employ themselves in the lodging industry. Chirtiris finds that salary expectations do not rate all that high on the motivational chart and are only marginal when related to productivity. In closing, Chirtiris presents a 5-phase development plan hotels should look to in improving performance and productivity at their respective properties.

Empowering Catering Sales Managers with Pricing Authority

In the hotel business, catering sales managers often encounter potential clients who expect to negotiate for items such as room rental fees, audiovisual charges, and bartending fees. This article addresses both the advantages and disadvantages of empowering sales managers with the authority to reduce or waive these charges. Thus, hoteliers are advised to extend a structured yield management mindset into the hotel’s function-space area.

Hotel Human Resources Directors Identify Ethical Issues

Hotel human resources directors report that the most important ethical issues they face are a lack of work ethic, drug use, and employee theft. When asked about ethical problems experienced in their own hotels. Managers’ report that employees' lack of respect for each other, racial and gender conflicts, guest abuse, dishonesty, and homosexual issues are the biggest problems. The author discusses these ethical dilemmas and suggests ways they can be addressed.

Determinants of Mid-scale Hotel Brand Equity

The traditional brand management in the hotel industry is facing a great challenge as numerous brands provide many choices to hotel guests. In such competitive environments, hotel firms realize that capitalizing on one of the most important assests they own- the brand- is critical to achieve a premier growth goal not only rapidly but also in a cost- effective way. THe purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of cutsomer-based hotel brand equity for the mid-priced U.S. lodging segment by assessing the impacts of four-widely accepted brand equity dimensions: brand awareness, brand associations, percieved quality and customer loyalty. 277 travelers participated in this study at the airport in a Midwestern city. Perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand associations were found to be the core components of brand equity, while brand awareness, a seemingly important source of brand equity, did not exert a significant influence on building brand equity of mid-priced hotels. The result of this study sheds insight about how to create, manage, and evaluate a distinctive and successful hotel brand.

Pricing in the Hospitality Industry: An Implicit Markets Approach

The authors apply economic theory to an analysis of industry pricing. Data from a cross-section of San Francisco hotels is used to estimate the implicit prices of common hotel amenities, and a procedure for using these prices to estimate consumer demands for the attributes is outlined. The authors then suggest implications for hotel decision makers. While the results presented here should not be generalized to other markets, the methodology is easily adapted to other geographic areas.

Planning Buy-Sell Agreements In The Hospitality Industry

In the article - Planning Buy-Sell Agreements In The Hospitality Industry - by John M. Tarras, Assistant Professor, School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at Michigan State University, the author initially observes: “The vast majority of hospitality firms (restaurants, hotels, etc.) would be considered closely-held corporations. As such, they have unique planning problems compared to large, publicly-traded hospitality firms. One area of special concern to the closely-held hospitality firm is the planning and adoption of a buy-sell agreement.” The above thesis statement outlines the heart of the article; the buy-sell agreement in regard to smaller [closely held, as Tarras calls them] corporations. The theory is narrow and pro-active, spanning the gap between personal-to-corporate stock manipulations. “The primary purpose of a buy-sell agreement is to contribute to the orderly transfer of a shareholder's stock in a hospitality firm upon some future incident [typically retirement, withdrawal of a shareholder, disability, or death], as Tarras defines the concept. “The hospitality firm or the other shareholders would be committed to purchase the departing shareholder's stock at an agreed upon price and method, and to ensure that ample cash will be obtainable for such an impending sale. The buy-sell agreement provides a market for the shareholder or the shareholder's estate for the sale of otherwise illiquid stock,” the author further provides as canons of buy-sell agreements. In defining the buy-sell agreement with restrictive clauses, Tarras demonstrates, “…many closely-held hospitality firms desire to limit ownership to those individuals, either family or principal corporate employees, who are essential to the well-being of the firm.” Tarras says, another element of the buy-sell agreement is to furnish the departing shareholder with liquidity. “…there typically is some form of cash down payment with the remainder denoted by an interest-bearing promissory note [usually 5 to 15 years],” he informs. “The departing shareholders may require that the hospitality firm pledge the assets of the firm and that the remaining shareholders personally guarantee the promissory note.” “…the most frequent reason for establishing buy-sell agreements is for estate planning purposes,” Tarras says. There are tax advantages and liabilities for both the seller and buyer of stock via the buy-sell agreement, and the author enumerates many of these. One, big advantage of the buy-sell agreement is that it provides for the running of the company with a minimum of disruption through the stock-cash transition process, Tarras offers.

An Industry View of Experiential Learning

With the downsizing of hotel companies in the 1980s and 1990s. internships became a way of supplementing staff during peak seasons and auditioning students for full-time positions upon graduation. The authors surveyed corporate directors of human resources on specific activities and tasks associated with experiential learning in the guest services areas of hotels.

Mobility of General Managers as Lodging Size, Service Vary

Hotel Managerment has usually been viewed as a single labor market which allows considerable movement between properties of different sizes and service levels. The authors question this assumption and support the hypothesis that general managers in one type of hotel will have spent a large majority of their careers in hotels of the same type.

File Control: The Heart Of Business Computer Management

In his study - File Control: The Heart Of Business Computer Management - William G. O'Brien, Assistant Professor, The School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University, initially informs you: “Even though computers are an everyday part of the hospitality industry, many managers lack the knowledge and experience to control and protect the files in these systems. The author offers guidelines which can minimize or prevent damage to the business as a whole.” Our author initially opens this study with some anecdotal instances illustrating the failure of hospitality managers to exercise due caution with regard to computer supported information systems inside their restaurants and hotels. “Of the three components that make up any business computer system (data files, programs, and hard-ware), it is files that are most important, perhaps irreplaceable, to the business,” O’Brien informs you. O’Brien breaks down the noun, files, into two distinct categories. They are, the files of extrinsic value, and its counterpart the files of intrinsic value. An example of extrinsic value files would be a restaurant’s wine inventory. “As sales are made and new shipments are received, the computer updates the file,” says O’Brien. “This information might come directly from a point-of-sale terminal or might be entered manually by an employee,” he further explains. On the intrinsic side of the equation, O’Brien wants you to know that the information itself is the valuable part of this type of file. Its value is over and above the file’s informational purpose as a pragmatic business tool, as it is in inventory control. “The information is money in the legal sense For instance, figures moved about in banking system computers do not represent dollars; they are dollars,” O’Brien explains. “If the record of a dollar amount is erased from all computer files, then that money ceases to exist,” he warns. This type of information can also be bought and sold, such as it is in customer lists to advertisers. Files must be protected O’Brien stresses. “File security requires a systematic approach,” he discloses. O’Brien goes on to explain important elements to consider when evaluating file information. File back-up is also an important factor to think about, along with file storage/safety concerns. “Sooner or later, every property will have its fire, flood, careless mistake, or disgruntled employee,” O’Brien closes. “…good file control can minimize or prevent damage to the business as a whole.”

Protecting Your Assets: A Well-Defined Credit Policy Is The Key

In - Protecting Your Assets: A Well-Defined Credit Policy Is The Key – an essay by Steven V. Moll, Associate Professor, The School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University, Professor Moll observes at the outset: “Bad debts as a percentage of credit sales have climbed to record levels in the industry. The author offers suggestions on protecting assets and working with the law to better manage the business.” “Because of the nature of the hospitality industry and its traditional liberal credit policies, especially in hotels, bad debts as a percentage of credit sales have climbed to record levels,” our author says. “In 1977, hotels showing a net income maintained an average accounts receivable ratio to total sales of 3.4 percent. In 1983, the accounts receivable ratio to total sales increased to 4.1 percent in hotels showing a net income and 4.4 percent in hotels showing a net loss,” he further cites. As the professor implies, there are ways to mitigate the losses from bad credit or difficult to collect credit sales. In this article Professor Moll offers suggestions on how to do that. Moll would suggest that hotels and food & beverage operations initially tighten their credit extension policies, and on the following side, be more aggressive in their collection-of-debt pursuits. There is balance to consider here and bad credit in and of itself as a negative element is not the only reflection the profit/loss mirror would offer. “Credit managers must know what terms to offer in order to compete and afford the highest profit margin allowable,” Moll says. “They must know the risk involved with each guest account and be extremely alert to the rights and wrongs of good credit management,” he advocates. A sound profit policy can be the result of some marginal and additional credit risk on the part of the operation manager. “Reality has shown that high profits, not small credit losses, are the real indicator of good credit management,” the author reveals. “A low bad debt history may indicate that an establishment has an overly conservative credit management policy and is sacrificing potential sales and profits by turning away marginal accounts,” Moll would have you believe, and the science suggests there is no reason not to. Professor Moll does provide a fairly comprehensive list to illustrate when a manager would want to adopt a conservative credit policy. In the final analysis the design is to implement a policy which weighs an acceptable amount of credit risk against a potential profit ratio. In closing, Professor Moll does offer some collection strategies for loose credit accounts, with reference to computer and attorney participation, and brings cash and cash discounts into the discussion as well. Additionally, there is some very useful information about what debt collectors – can’t – do!

An Examination of Stock Performance: The Three Top-Performing Lodging Firms August 1987 - January 1990

A study published in the Fall 1988 issue of the FIU Hospitality Review revealed that the top three lodging stock performers during the period July 1982 to January 1988 were Prime Motor Inns, Inc., Marriott Corporation, and Hilton Hotels Corporation. The author has completed a follow-up study in an attempt to determine how selected lodging firms have fared since the summer rally of 1987 (which preceded the stock crash of October 19, 1987) until more recent times.