Why do hotels find reducing their carbon footprint difficult?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric S.W. Chan
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Risky Investment ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
Full Picture ◽  
Managerial Perceptions ◽  
Environmental Measures ◽  
Hotel Managers

Purpose The term “carbon footprint” emerged during the early 2000s, but many hotels remain unaware of what they should do to implement a comprehensive programme to reduce carbon footprint despite having some environmental measures. This study aims to investigate the barriers to reducing hotel carbon footprint and to explore why many hotel managers remain bystanders. Design/methodology/approach In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with hotel executives to understand what hinders hotels’ implementation of comprehensive programmes to reduce their carbon footprint. The NVivo 11 software package was used to organise data and code the transcribed interviews to identify patterns and themes. Findings The findings identified several main barriers. They were (1) a lack of understanding, (2) a lack of owner initiative, (3) difficulty with measurements, (4) a lack of stakeholder coordination and support, (5) a lack of a strong mediator, (6) balancing interests and (7) risky investment. The findings of this study suggest some specific strategies for overcoming these barriers. Research limitations/implications The study sample was restricted to the Hong Kong hotel executives interviewed; therefore, the findings will not reflect the full picture of managerial perceptions. Drawing on the foundations laid by this study, researchers could collect quantitative data from hotels in other countries to conduct a cross-cultural study. Originality/value Very few studies have investigated barriers to carbon-footprint reduction programmes. Specifically, none have been published in the hotel environmental management literature. This study represents a preliminary step towards understanding the barriers that prevent hotels from implementing the programmes.

The needs of Muslim hotel customers: evidence from Russian guests

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Shnyrkova ◽  
Marina Predvoditeleva
Keyword(s):  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Hospitality Management ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Context ◽  
Hotel Managers

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify Halal hotel attributes demanded by the Russian Muslim travelers. Following this, the study aims to investigate whether gender and types of travelers influence the demand for Halal hotel attributes. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted to localize the list of Halal hotel attributes for the Russian business context. A self-administrated online questionnaire was designed, distributed and collected from 191 Russian Muslim customers, who have stayed at Halal hotels in the past 12 months. Data analysis includes a t-test and analysis of variance. Findings The study revealed a list of Halal attributes demanded by Russian Muslim customers. Also, the findings indicate that the list of the attributes demonstrated the differences in the requested attributes between gender and types of travelers. Research limitations/implications The study came across three main limitations. The first was that the respondents surveyed were leisure tourists. Second, the majority of the respondents have university degrees. Third, the research sample is limited to approximately 200 respondents. This research primarily contributes to tourism and hospitality management, and consumer behavior literature, as this is the first study yielding insights on a new demographic: Russian Muslim tourists. Practical implications The study provides a clear understanding of the Halal hotel attributes demanded by Russian Muslims that can help hotel managers to accommodate the needs of this group while, at the same time, meeting the requirements of guests of different religions. Social implications The study contributes to improving social relationships within the Russian Federation as it improves society’s understanding of the life principles of Muslims. Originality/value This is the first study investigating the demand for Halal attributes by Russian Muslim tourists. By partly covering the empty research field on this topic, the study provides meaningful direction to future research of the Russian hotels’ Halal services from both supply and demand perspectives.

scholarly journals Friends and fellow travelers: comparative influence of review sites and friends on hotel choice

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
Customer Engagement ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Special Occasion ◽  
Credible Information ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Hotel Managers

Purpose – This paper aims to examine when travelers are more influenced by friends (word-of-mouth [WOM]) with limited knowledge of hotels but an understanding of the traveler, and when by review sites (electronic word-of-mouth [eWOM]) which have immense experience of hotels but cannot know the individual traveler. Sites such as TripAdvisor® offer millions of reviews, and travelers often reduce that to a manageable amount by focusing on reviews by writers who show homophily, i.e. are similar to them in terms of travel interests. These sites represent a form of eWOM recommendation; what is not clear is how much they replace or augment traditional WOM. Design/methodology/approach – Dual-method content analysis of semi-structured interviews with a heterogeneous purposive sample of regular users of TripAdvisor (N = 30), followed by a survey of TripAdvisor users (N = 237). Findings – Friends were considered the most credible information source, although friends showing greater homophily were more valued than others. However, in some circumstances, subjects found eWOM more credible: when they wanted greater certainty in their hotel choice, so complete information was important; when the hotel was for a special occasion or special people; and for feelings of empowerment. Most subjects compared all sources rather than relying on one. Originality/value – This study reminds hotel managers that while eWOM is accessible and analyzable, it may not fully represent guests’ opinions; hotels’ marketing strategy should balance it with other recommendation networks. As guests compare sources, consistency in all forms of customer engagement is also essential.

Adopting environmentally friendly mechanisms in the hotel industry

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludmila Novacka ◽  
Kamil Pícha ◽  
Josef Navratil ◽  
Cafer Topaloglu ◽  
Roman Švec
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Hotel Industry ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Geographical Differences ◽  
Environmental Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Environmental Measures ◽  
Hotel Managers

Purpose This paper aims to assess how a hotel geographical location in different parts of Central and Eastern Europe influences the complexity of perception of pro-environmental behavior. Design/methodology/approach To find out, whether hotel location in a specific country influences the complexity of environmental practices, this study used two closely connected multivariate statistical techniques analyzing gradients: principal components analysis and partial redundancy analysis. The research comprises data collection from seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In all, 25 randomly selected hotels (based on star rating) from various countries were approached to complete a questionnaire. Environmental practices were studied based on motivations, perception of barriers, perception of support from different levels of public sector, will of managers to promote pro-environmental measures based on sufficient funding, perception of legislation and perception of various other important factors. Findings The study reveals significant differences between hotels in Central Europe and Eastern Europe in the perception of the complexity in implementation of the environmental practices by hotel managers. The character of the present study, however, needs to address the identification of particular aspects that are relevant to the geographical differences among the studied countries. Research limitations/implications Research was limited to a selection of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. There is still probability that managers in hotels from Poland and Croatia could possess different preferences. Other limitation of this study is that only special part of hotels were asked – hotels certified by star grading, out of our scope remained other hotels. It is also known that important factor is precise location of hotel within country – hotels in established tourism destination behave other way that those outside recreational areas. These factors deserve further study within this topic. There are many aspects of sustainability and environmental protection regarding hotel industry. As we have found in our principal correspondence analysis, different environmental measures were different location in biplot – some were affected by country, the other by star grading and affiliation to hotel chain. The complexity deserves to be studied in depth. Practical implications The importance lies first in the identification of the aspects that are governed by geographical differences among the countries studied. These aspects are the initiatives and support from the government and the local governments, which counteract the perception that there is a lack of financial resources and the return on investments is slow. So, based on the data, which included information from various types of hotels from seven CEE countries, the activities of national and local authorities were identified to be the main differentiating variable. The support of the environment-friendly conduct of business in the hotel industry is appreciated by hotel managers from Central Europe. On the other hand, hotel managers from Eastern Europe do not feel any significant support from either national or other public institutions. The second factor of differentiation is represented by the perception of the lack of funds. Hotel managers from Eastern Europe feel strongly about funds limitation. The coherence of both those factors is obvious in the results, as they show the same direction but opposite orientation. It has already been discussed above. When looking at the results, the authors find the perception of availability of funds to be a fundamental difference between hotel management in Central Europe and in Eastern Europe. The lack of funds is perceived more intensively in Eastern Europe than in Central Europe, particularly because of a stronger awareness of direct or indirect support for such activities by national and other public institutions in Central Europe. Social implications The differentiation of the aspects mentioned above comes from the social and culture policies, company policies and business cultures between these two sub-realms. Pro-environmental actions are apparently promoted less publicly in Eastern European countries than in Central European countries. The reaction to the trend for demand of greener hotels is stronger in the West, and its hotels are more likely to have legislation requirements and public support as an incentive to adopt pro-environmental measures in their business operations. Originality/value The study is based on data obtained from seven countries. The results revealed a problem of the macro-environmental influence on hotels’ potential to implement environmentally sustainable approaches and procedures throughout the industry.

Budget and midrange hotel managers’ perceptions of and responses to Airbnb

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 588-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaid Alrawadieh ◽  
Daniel Guttentag ◽  
Merve Aydogan Cifci ◽  
Gurel Cetin
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strategic Measures ◽  
Cutting Rate ◽  
Perceived Impacts ◽  
Hotel Managers ◽  
New Distribution

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree to which budget and mid-range hoteliers perceive Airbnb as a threat, and the extent to which they are actively responding to the peer-to-peer accommodation business model. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on qualitative data collected through 19 semi-structured interviews with budget and midrange hotel managers in Istanbul, Turkey, covering how they view Airbnb and have responded to Airbnb’s rise. Findings The results suggest that the managers believed they were losing some business to Airbnb, yet they generally neither perceive Airbnb as a serious threat nor were they generally taking concrete strategic measures to respond to Airbnb. Regulatory lobbying against Airbnb and exploiting Airbnb as a new distribution platform were the most common responses, and cutting rate also was commonly seen as a potential competitive strategy. Originality/value The study responds to calls by several scholars for more research addressing the strategies adopted by traditional lodging facilities to protect their market share from Airbnb. This study does so with a specific focus on the budget and midrange hotel segments, which some studies suggest may be particularly vulnerable to Airbnb competition. Also, the limited research addressing Airbnb’s perceived impacts on traditional lodging has been conducted in mature economies, so the topic remains largely neglected in maturing economies like Turkey.

scholarly journals Assessing the value and market attractiveness of the accessible tourism industry in Europe: a focus on major travel and leisure companies

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Bowtell
Keyword(s):  
Market Value ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Market Potential ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Managerial Perceptions ◽  
Historic Data ◽  
Managerial Positions ◽  
Disabled Tourists ◽  
Leisure Industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the accessible tourism market potential, alongside the implications of operating in the accessible tourism market and an assessment of major travel and leisure company involvement. The research focused on providing a market value forecast using historic data from 2005 and extrapolating this to 2025. An examination of the reasons for and against major travel and leisure company involvement in the accessible tourism market was accompanied by an analysis of managerial perceptions. Design/methodology/approach The exploration of travel patterns of disabled tourists, in particular spend per head per holiday, was used to measure the value of the demand side of accessible tourism. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with employees of major travel and leisure companies in managerial positions. Findings The study indicates that the accessible tourism market is a distinct sector, possessing the capacity for extensive future growth, and thus presents major travel providers with a potentially substantial and lucrative market, generating potential revenues of €88.6 billion by 2025. Research limitations/implications Due to a lack of existing data an assumption had to be made on the evolution of travel spend per head per holiday. However, the formula used, using GDP/Capita growth, is a recognised way of forecasting this kind of data in the travel and leisure industry. Originality/value This is the first paper to provide an examination of the reasons for and against major travel and leisure company involvement in the accessible tourism market, as well providing a forecast of the market value up to 2025.

scholarly journals Forging a collective entrepreneurial identity within existing organizations through corporate venturing

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Marina G. Biniari
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Data ◽  
Corporate Entrepreneurship ◽  
Role Identity ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Corporate Context ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
Parent Companies

PurposeThis study unpacks how organizational members construct a collective entrepreneurial identity within an organization and attempt to instill entrepreneurial features in the organization's existing identity.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on the cases of two venturing units, perceived as entrepreneurial groups within their respective parent companies. Semi-structured interviews and secondary data were collected and analyzed inductively and abductively.FindingsThe data revealed that organizational members co-constructed a “corporate entrepreneur” role identity to form a collective shared belief and communities of practice around what it meant to act as an entrepreneurial group within their local corporate context and how it differentiated them from others. Members also clustered around the emergent collective entrepreneurial identity through sensegiving efforts to instill entrepreneurial features in the organization's identity, despite the tensions this caused.Originality/valuePrevious studies in corporate entrepreneurship have theorized on the top-down dynamics instilling entrepreneurial features in an organization's identity, but have neglected the role of bottom-up dynamics. This study reveals two bottom-up dynamics that involve organizational members' agentic role in co-constructing and clustering around a collective entrepreneurial identity. This study contributes to the middle-management literature, uncovering champions' identity work in constructing a “corporate entrepreneur” role identity, with implications for followers' engagement in constructing a collective entrepreneurial identity. This study also contributes to the organizational identity literature, showing how tensions around the entrepreneurial group's distinctiveness may hinder the process of instilling entrepreneurial features in an organization's identity.

Industry perspectives on Malaysian hotel minimum wage issues

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-197
Author(s):  
Ann Selvaranee Balasingam ◽  
Kashif Hussain ◽  
Alwie Manaf
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Turnover Intentions ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Employee Productivity ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Wage Policy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Hotel Managers ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the impact of the minimum wage order from the perspectives of two different stakeholders, namely, hotel managers and employees, in the Malaysian hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach For the study, qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews from three managers and three employees from hotels in West Malaysia. Findings From the managers’ perspective, minimum wage implementation has resulted in managers adopting the best payment structure to reduce labour costs for the operators, deciding to reduce the service charge allocation to employees and having to deal with minimal improvement in employee productivity and motivation. In contrast, the positive impact from the managers’ perspective is lower turnover intentions and social justice for foreign workers. From the employees’ perspective, there is a rather negative impact – minimum wage policy has resulted in a minimal increase in the salary. From a positive perspective, employees said that they have experienced an improvement in living standards. Originality/value This research presents current responses from hotel participants regarding the latest wage increase impact, some six years after its implementation.

Soft innovation in hotel services: case of Izmir City

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 1025-1043
Author(s):  
Ige Pirnar ◽  
Yasemin Celik Kamali ◽  
Engin Deniz Eris
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Hotel Managers ◽  
Boutique Hotels ◽  
The City

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to figure out the impacts of soft innovation in the city hotels in general, whereas the focus is on figuring out if there exists a difference in vitality on the components of soft innovation among the hotel categories, as 4 stars, 5 stars and boutique hotels in Izmir, Turkey. Design/methodology/approach The first part is related to a detailed literature review on the soft innovation components as color, sound, light, scent and decoration. Literature review is followed by a qualitative research where expert information on the research topic is collected. Judgmental sampling is used to identify experts’ views where in-depth semi-structured interviews are conducted with 12 hotel managers in Izmir city. The soft innovation hotel application areas taken into consideration are: lobby and reception, rooms, restaurant, bar and ballroom areas, meeting and congress halls, SPA and pools, gardens and landscape and other exterior hotel architecture. Findings The findings of the research reveal the sample hotel managers’ views as all the soft innovation applications are important for all city hotels regardless of their category, meaning that soft innovation may lead to better marketing results. Thus, according to hotel managers, soft innovation offerings have a potential for better customer satisfaction as positive feedback. However, the vitality degree among components changes according to the hotel’s category. For boutique hotels the most important component is found to be the decoration of the hotel, whereas for 4 stars hotels it is light and for 5 stars hotels it is scent. Research limitations/implications The results of this study give relatively limited information because only managers’ point of view are shown. In the research, customers’ perceptions on soft innovation based interviews with the top management of the hotels studied takes place, indicating which may not be the case to reflect the real perception of customers. Therefore, for further researches, it is recommended for the other researches to take into consideration of customers’ point of views as well. Also, time limitation, sample size and application of only qualitative research may be stated as the limitations for this study. Quantitative research applies to customers on the same topic and problem statement is recommended for further studies related to city hotels’ soft innovation applications. Practical implications Motivation of this study is to understand how soft innovation can change hotels’ atmosphere and make it more attractive from the managers’ perceptions. According to hotel managers’ views, soft innovation applications may lead to higher customer satisfaction, but the level of investment among the components may change according to the city hotel’s category. Research implications indicate that hotel managers may optimize the effectiveness of their soft innovation efforts by taking into consideration their hotel type, application areas and innovation category as decoration, color, scent, sound and light. According to hotel managers, decoration-related soft innovation is more important to boutique hotels, lighting-related soft innovation is an effective investment for 4 stars hotels and scent-related soft innovation is a suitable investment for 5 stars hotels. Originality/value The originality of the study lies in the analysis of the components of soft innovation as a means for effective city hotel marketing and innovative management applications. Though it is a very suitable industry for implementation, improvement and development, there are limited studies on soft innovation applications in the hotel industry.

Kiosks as self-service technology in hotels: opportunities and challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanika Gupta ◽  
Sanjay Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Human Interaction ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Hospitality Sector ◽  
Self Service ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Self Service Technology ◽  
Hotel Managers ◽  
Technology Anxiety

Purpose The advent of technology has played a crucial role in changing the landscape of the hospitality sector. One such technology is the adoption and installation of kiosks in hotels. While some of the hotels have adopted and installed kiosks for self-services, the other hotels are still not very comfortable with the idea of self-service. This paper aims to explore the possibilities, challenges and issues that hoteliers face while dealing with self-service kiosks, it further investigates the customer’s perspective and its benefits to the end-user. Design/methodology/approach This study has assimilated data from hotel managers and executives that have deployed kiosks. This study involved the collection of primary data through structured interviews. Eight different hotels from the UK and India have been compared and analyzed to formulate subcategories to answer the research questions. A total of 200 customers from both the countries were approached to get the primary data; the customers were from the same hotel where the hotel executives and managers were interviewed. Findings The customers accepted Kiosks as easy to use, fast to run, fun to operate, but, lacking human interaction and counter language issues were simultaneously discussed. Kiosks have been emerging as self-service technologies in hotels and play a key role in reducing bottlenecks in hotel operations. The technology anxiety and counter service argument is merely a transition phase that will fade away gradually. However, the financial feasibility and the level of adoption depend upon the level of operations and the demographic characteristics of customers. Research limitations/implications The dependence of data from the person interviewed and their biases for answers, along with the trust and credibility of the data available online remain the biggest challenge. Increasing the sample size and more participation from different hotels would have made the study even more useful. Originality/value The research seeks to eliminate the gap in research by studying both the hotels' and the customers' perspective toward kiosks deployment in hotels. The results of the study would highlight the potential challenges being faced by hotel operations and opportunities they perceive in kiosks installation, therefore the results are very useful for hotels, hoteliers, academicians and students pursuing a career in the hospitality sector.

Openness in university-industry collaboration: probing managerial perceptions

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heikki Moilanen ◽  
Mirje Halla ◽  
Pauli Alin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Managerial Decision ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Managerial Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Intermediary Organizations ◽  
Managerial Perceptions ◽  
University Industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of decision making of managers of intermediary organizations in university-industry (UI) collaboration by probing managerial perceptions of openness in that context. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted 11 semi-structured interviews of managers of intermediary organizations in the context of UI collaboration. Using Grounded Theory, the authors analyzed how the managers talked about openness. Findings – The authors found that the managers perceived openness in four distinct ways: first, openness as driven by management of the relationship, second, openness as driven by bringing people together, third, openness as a driver of co-creation and fourth, openness as a driver of beneficial results. From these findings the authors induce a framework for perception of openness. Research limitations/implications – The findings are based on a relatively limited data set, which is a limitation of the study. Future research should study whether differences in perception of openness exist among different contexts or partners of UI collaboration. Practical implications – The findings can potentially provide useful guidance to managers in UI collaboration as to how better understand the important concept of openness in that context. Originality/value – This study addresses the lack of research on managerial perceptions on openness in the context in UI collaboration. Probing managerial perceptions of openness provides us with better understanding of managerial decision making in UI collaboration. The study contributes to scientific discussions on managerial perceptions of openness and to discussions on managerial decision making in UI collaboration.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document