Introduction
In the course of the last couple of decades, rising levels of consumers in China have become weary of going to chain hotels known for accommodating a huge number of customers (Erkutlu & Chafra 2006).
5-star hotels are the superior luxury hotels that realize intimate and high anticipations for global guest services and intensive guest care (Gunasekaran & Anandkumar 2012; Jang & Wu 2006). They integrate the aspects of intimate plan, personal or deluxe setting, and quality services (Van Hartesvelt 2006).
The majority of consumers have started inclining to 5-star hotels. From around 1980s, there has been intensive development of 5-star hotels in China to offer a more intimate experience (Jiang, Gretzel & Law 2014). This study will be carried out to analyze the motivation and satisfaction of 5-star hotel consumers in China.
The analysis of consumers’ impetus and satisfaction to stay in the 5-star hotels will give practitioners in the hospitality sector ideas for the planning of services and products, in addition to effective customer communication.
Problem Statement
There are limited studies on 5-star hotels. The comprehension of the motivation and satisfaction of consumers is a vital concern in the hospitality sector. 5-star hotels in China have considerably surpassed other luxury hotels in every aspect.
Hospitality professionals have found that consumers are still motivated to cater for 5-star hotels regardless of the difficult financial times.
The failure to comprehend the motivation and satisfaction that drive consumers to 5-star hotels could make the hospitality practitioners misunderstand the requirements of consumers and fail to design the services and products for the 5-star hotels successfully, which could decrease the motivation and satisfaction of consumers thus leading to the collapse of the 5-star hotels.
For instance, 5-star hotels could fail to build on the requirements of the consumers and design the marketing and advertisement policies in accordance with the motivation and satisfaction of the consumers.
Purpose of the Study
The rationale behind this study will be the analysis of the aspects of consumer motivation and satisfaction of 5-star hotels in China. In this regard, the study will present vital and realistic aids for enhanced cordial reception.
Attributable to the deficiency of studies regarding consumer motivation in 5-star hotels in China, this study can be deemed significant in building on research in this field.
Objectives
- To analyze the motivation of consumers in 5-star hotels in China
- To analyze the satisfaction of consumers in 5-star hotels in China
- To establish the pull and push motivation aspects of consumers in 5-star hotels in China
Research Question
- What influences the motivation and satisfaction of consumers in 5-star hotels in China?
Literature Review
Motivation denotes a situation that propels a person toward some kind of accomplishments that result in satisfaction (Hsu 2014). Motivation and satisfaction have been greatly employed in the studies of consumer drive to 5-star hotels and many studies have discussed the push-pull theory in the explanation of motivation of consumers (Law, Wu & Liu 2014).
Push aspects denote the drive for people to take part in touristic actions or the inward igniters that impel the consumers to prefer a given 5-star hotel (Johanson 2008). Pull aspects denote the forces that draw tourists to select a particular service or product in tourism (Prayag & Ryan 2011).
Many researchers have described 5-star hotels through the identification of their unique aspects, for instance, private possession, small size, plan oriented to interrelate with guests individually, and nonexistence of replication, with most of them focusing on different topics or ambience (Yang, Wong & Wang 2012).
Through highlighting of stylistic distinctiveness, high values, and personal dealings with consumers, 5-star hotels have determined an exclusive identity in the hotel sector (Pereira-Moliner et al. 2012). The significance and development of 5-star hotels in China have been progressive from the 1990s (Gross & Huang 2011).
The hospitality sector in China has undergone remarkable advancement from 1978, when monetary reform was instigated (Mandabach et al. 2014). The advancement of the 5-star hotels has epitomized the swift financial shift of the nation at large (Xie & Heung 2012).
In accordance with the details from the China National Tourism Administration, there are more than 15,500 star 1 to 5 hotels in China, and they keep on increasing gradually (Zhou et al. 2014). The contemporary hotel industry has been advancing for over 3 decades (Qi, Law & Buhalis 2013).
At around 1980, global hotel groupings ventured the Chinese market thus creating management deals, in addition to joint ventures (Zeng & Ryan 2012).
In the course of the last decade, 5-star hotels have been saturated in the major metropolis across China, for instance, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai; therefore, greater efforts are being undertaken to start 5-star hotels in small metropolitans, for instance, Xiamen.
Strong competition in the hotel industry in China has made the 5-star hotels take part in differentiation and aim niche market sections (Zhang, Guillet & Gao 2012). This has resulted in the creation of themed, boutique, and holiday resorts, in addition to different other kinds of accommodation to satisfy new consumer needs.
Gu, Ryan, and Yu (2012) assessed the advancement of the 5-star hotels in China from 1980 in the major metropolis and attributed the progress to consumer motivation and satisfaction.
Nevertheless, Gu, Ryan, and Yu (2012) affirm the inadequacy of research concentrated on the hospitality sector in comparatively small metropolis in China that particularly contemplates 5-star hotels.
In accordance with Guillet, Zhang and Gao (2011), 5-star hotels in China have three fundamental aspects that encompass style, dissimilarity, kindness, and intimacy.
The second aspect is exceptional and tailored service that associates the consumers and hotel personnel while the third is the targeting of consumers that are in their early 20s to around 50s, with medium to high wages.
Methodology
The aim of this study will be the analysis of the satisfaction and push and pull motivation aspects of consumers in 5-star hotels in China. The study will employ the primary means of data gathering and qualitative process of analyzing the data.
Data Collection
The data for this study will be collected from two 5-star hotels in China, Shangri-La Hotel, Fuzhou, and Golden Flower Hotel, Xian.
The management of each hotel will be requested to send electronic mail invitations to 200 individual, Chinese clients over 18 years of age and that stayed in the hotel for a minimum of one night in the course of the last one year. The invitation will explain the aim of the study, and a reminder will be sent after two weeks.
After one month following the invitation, the customers that will have confirmed participation will be treated as the sample for the study.
Following the identification of the sample for the study, open-ended questions will be prepared as they seek responses that the interviewer may not anticipate and are usually longer with respect to the experience of the participants.
The open-ended questions will give a chance for the participants to answer the inquiry in an essay format hence generating many details devoid of limitation. The significance of the survey method will lie in its evidently bringing out the aspects of motivation and satisfaction of consumers in the two hotels.
Before carrying out the interview, the participants will be given a rationalization on the reasons behind the interview, the application of the questionnaire, the strict confidentiality with which the shared responses will be treated, and the choice of participation.
Prior to getting down to respond to the questions, the participants will be asked to inquire where they might need further details regarding the study. The duration for answering the questions will be about an hour.
The participants will be informed of the application of a tape recorder with the intention of enhancing the exactness of data and ensuring a safe and lasting record. After the interview, the recorded information will be transcribed to create a reliable source for reference, in addition to validation.
Results, Findings, and Data Analysis
The effectiveness of the data analysis will be reliant on the kind of questions employed and the responses from the participants. The qualitative technique of analysis will be carried out where descriptive analysis of the nominal data will assist in the assessment of satisfaction and motivation of the participants in the 5-star hotels.
Discussion and Conclusion
Discussion
5-star hotels are a comparatively novel section of the hotel sector, particularly in China. Though the push-pull theory will be employed in the analysis of motivation and satisfaction of consumers in this study, only a small number of studies have employed this theory in 5-star hotels.
As this study affirms, previous studies have not concentrated on the motivation and satisfaction of consumers in 5-star hotels; hence, this study will play a key role in filling this research gap. The findings from this study will offer valuable implications that may profit the hospitality study from the viewpoint of the 5-star hotels’ consumers.
Nevertheless, though this study will offer significant contributions to research in the hotel industry, it is not without a limitation. Though the sample size for the study could be large enough, the results might not be generalizable to all 5-star hotels in China considering that just two hotels will be used in this study.
In this regard, the implications and elucidations anchored in the findings might be limited. Therefore, future research should focus on cluster analysis, which will allow the analysis of a huge number of 5-star hotels and consumers and disclose greater influences of motivation and satisfaction for the consumers.
Conclusion
This study will be carried out to analyze the motivation and satisfaction of consumers in 5-star hotels in China. The existence of 5-star hotels, in addition to their swift development across the globe, has been of significance to both the hotel industry and researchers.
The primary method of data collection coupled with the application of open-ended questions will greatly enhance the analysis of the motivation and satisfaction of consumers in 5-star hotels in China.
The results of this study will offer practical information concerning the factors of motivation and satisfaction of consumers, which will aid hotel managers in the planning of their marketing strategies.
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