Privacy or Security: Does It Matter for Continued Use Intention of Travel Applications?

Mobile applications (apps) critically affect travelers’ decision-making and shape their experiences. Grounded in the expectancy value approach, this study examines the relationships among expectation confirmation (usefulness, ubiquity, ease of use, incentives, and enjoyment), privacy protection, security, satisfaction, and trust, and how these factors influence travel app users’ intention to continue using the app. Phase One of the study analyzed data from 509 survey respondents via structural equation modeling. The findings show that expectation confirmation, security, satisfaction, and trust influence travelers’ intention to continue using the travel app, whereas privacy protection exerts no significant effects. Travel app users’ level of technology proficiency moderates the effect of perceived security and satisfaction on the intention to continue use. In Phase Two, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the key findings from Phase One. This study contributes to the literature by examining expectation confirmation, perceived values of privacy protection, and security of travel app users in a single model to explain individuals’ satisfaction, trust, and continued use intention. The study findings also offer strategic implications for travel app developers as well as hospitality and tourism service providers and marketers on how to deliver a high-quality experience, enhance satisfaction and trust, and increase continued use intention among travel app users.

Effects of Internal and External CSR on Supportive and Harmful Employee Attitudes

Prior studies have suggested that corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributes to a hospitality organization’s competitive advantage by influencing employee attitudes. However, the mechanisms driving employees’ responses to different types of CSR activities remain largely unexplored. Based on social exchange and social identity theories, we examined the mechanisms through which external and internal CSR activities influence employees’ perceived organizational justice and identification, and their subsequent outcomes (i.e., organizational commitment and turnover intention). We collected data from the employees of a hospitality company operating in the United States and used confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling for data analysis. The results showed that internal CSR activities had significant sequential effects on organizational justice, organizational identification, and organizational commitment as well as turnover intention. External CSR activities had significant indirect effects on organizational commitment via organizational identification. These findings reinforce the notion that external and internal CSR operate through different mediating mechanisms. We discussed the main findings of this study in terms of their theoretical implications for our understanding of the psychology behind CSR, as well as social exchange and social identity theories. The results suggest that both external and internal CSR have particular importance as a means of supporting a hospitality company’s efforts to foster employee identification with the company, and thereby improve employee attitudes at work. We closed by discussing the practical implications of our results, including recommendations for hospitality operators.

Traveler Attitudes Toward Biometric Data-Enabled Hotel Services: Can Risk Education Play a Role?

This study compares attitudes toward the use of biometrics data-enabled services in hotels of prospective travelers before and after receiving information about the risks and benefits of disclosing biometric data and about how the disclosed data are being utilized. This was done based on a sample of 579 U.S. respondents, using a split-plot scenario-based experimental design. The results revealed that the respondents did not show enthusiastic support for biometrics-based hotel services. Most sampled respondents did not view such services as highly desirable or as having a positive influence on their sense of well-being. Significant demographic differences were observed between prospective travelers. Females and older respondents in particular provided significantly lower ratings of biometric-enabled services on both desirability and effects on well-being. Significant changes in respondents’ ratings were also observed when information was given about the risks and benefits of disclosing biometric data and how the disclosed data were being utilized. That is, respondents’ ratings were lower when information was given about the risks and for scenarios where the data were utilized in ways that increased risk. Overall, these results are consistent with rational choice theory and demonstrate a strong risk-education effect or information-nudge effect on consumer acceptance of commercial use in hotels of artificial intelligence technology. The study outcomes also provide insight for developing potential guardrails and parameters for designing intelligent hospitality services.

Applying Property Pricing Models to Estimate a Foreclosure Discount in the Hotel Real Estate Sector

This study investigates the magnitude of the foreclosure sale discount in the hotel sector. The foreclosure sales discount is captured using three different models: hedonic, hybrid, and repeat sales. Controlling for various hotel attributes and time, the hedonic model shows a foreclosure discount of 40%, followed by the repeat sales model at 42% and the hybrid model at 45%, all relative to non-distressed market prices. The results of the study provide novel empirical evidence of cross-sectional variation in foreclosure discounts between independent hotels and branded hotel segments and by location. In particular, variation in the foreclosure discount is driven by independent and upscale hotels and hotels located in resorts, small metro towns, and urban locations. In addition, the study results reveal the influence of occupancy, deferred maintenance, renovation, and holding period on transaction prices.

When a Robot Makes Your Dinner: A Comparative Analysis of Product Level and Customer Experience Between the U.S. and Chinese Robotic Restaurants

Integrating two theoretical frameworks, the product level theory and the experience economy model, this research analyzed and compared robotic technology applications and customer experiences in selected case robot restaurants in the United States and China. Guided by the product level theory, we first analyzed in which product/service levels were robots applied in each case restaurant in Study 1. Then in study 2, guided by the experience economy model, we further explored customers’ dining experiences and compared if customers’ experience differs due to variations in product/service levels that robot applied. The study first contributes to the product level theory by extending its application to the context of robotic restaurants. It also contributes to the experience economy literature, and in particularly, whether applications of robotic technologies at different product levels matter in customers’ dining experience. The study included case restaurants both from the United States and China, presenting findings with cultural implications. Given the challenges presented by COVID-19 and the industry is exploring alternative ways for service delivery and food production, such a study is particularly meaningful.

Inclusion of Condominium Units in Luxury Hotels as a Diversification Strategy: Property Performance Perspective

There is a new wave of mixed development where luxury hotels come with condominium units, though this type of diversification has gained scant attention. Prior hospitality literature on diversification strategies has mostly taken the firm-level approach and documented its impact on performance from various angles such as brand diversification, segment diversification, and geographic diversification, therefore leaving a void. In this work, we use the multilevel mixed effect model to examine 15,340 property-level data points from 2010 to 2019 for U.S. luxury hotels with and without condominium units. Our objective is to compare, at a property level, the performances of luxury hotels with condominium units with the performances of those not having condominium units and to determine whether the difference varies by hotel location. Our findings suggest that the Average Daily Rate (ADR), Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR), and Total Revenue per Available Rooms (TRevPAR) of luxury hotels with condominium units were significantly higher than those of hotels without condominium units. Significant moderating effect of location was found for Occupancy, ADR, Food and Beverage Revenue per Available Rooms (F&B RevPAR), and TRevPAR while no such effect was found for RevPAR and GOPPAR.

The Case of the Chelsea Grand: Card-Check Neutrality, Management Contracts, and The Duties of Owners and Operators

This article examines the dispute between a hotel owner, operator, and union, and the subsequent litigation. The dispute centered on whether the hotel owner was bound by agreements made between its operator and the union, and whether the operator had a fiduciary duty to the owner. Courts found that the operator was a joint employer of the owner’s employees, and as a result, the owner was bound to agreements that the operator had made with the union. The owner, who did not want to be bound to the union agreement, subsequently sued its operator for alleged breach of fiduciary responsibility. The courts ruled that the hotel management agreement between the owner and operator created no agency relationship and thus no fiduciary duty on the part of the operator. We discuss the potential implications of these findings for union-management relations as well as owner-operator relations, with a specific focus on the implications for hotel owners in the labor context.

Underpricing Luxury: When a Lower Price Results in Higher Reputation

Determining the price point is a vexing problem for firms: price too high and there is no market, but price too low and money is left on the table. Complicating matters further, for many goods there is a secondary market where products can be resold following the initial sale by the firm. Here, the open market determines the price point that end consumers pay. Often that price is higher than the price offered by the firm for goods such as premium handbags, wine, high-end watches, and works of art, so the consumer will see the product’s quality or appeal validated by the market, which leads to a reputation gain for the firm. This phenomenon goes beyond physical products and includes a variety of services, such as live concerts, as reflected in their ticket prices in primary and secondary markets. However, the secondary market can also offer a lower price than the firm’s original offering, which hurts the firm’s reputation. Typically, the luxury market equates higher prices with higher status but neglects the impact of the secondary market. Our research considers the case where initially underpricing a good may be in a luxury firm’s long-term interest. Although underpricing has been used in initial public offering (IPO) markets to increase the firm’s reputation, it has been viewed as a problem or discouraged in other market industries. Our hypothesis is that reputation has long-term value for firms and, in industries where a visible secondary (i.e., resale) market exists for products, price increases after product release lead to gains in reputation as higher resale prices signal quality and value.