Forside - Det Digitale Projektbibliotek, Aalborg Universitet
Bartosz Adam Kaczmarski 15th May 2015
Tourism master degree 10th semester
O'Hare Inn and Suites: A case of innovative ideas for the hotel improvement
Master Thesis
Supervisor: Tina Jorgensen
Table of content
Chapter 1 – Introduction......................................1
1. Introduction............................................................................................1
1.1. Research Question..................................................................................2
2. Methodology and Methods....................................................................3
2.1. Literature Review......................................................................................5
2.2. Research Type..........................................................................................6
2.3. Sampling Methods....................................................................................8
2.4. Data Collection..........................................................................................9
2.4.1. Primary Data Source – Interview...........................................................11
2.4.2. Primary Data Source – Questionnaire...................................................13
2.4.3. Secondary Data Source – Document Analysis......................................16
2.5. Reliability...................................................................................................17
2.6. Validity.......................................................................................................18
3. Theory.......................................................................................................19
3.1. Product innovation....................................................................................19
3.2. Innovation in tourism..................................................................................21
3.3. Impact of the online reviews on the hotel choice........................................22
3.4. Marketing in Tourism...................................................................................23
3.5. Tourism Marketing Mix................................................................................23
3.6. ICT Solutions in Tourism Marketing............................................................24
3.7. Service Recovery........................................................................................26
3.8. Complaint Management..............................................................................26
3.9. Customer Satisfaction.................................................................................27
3.10 Model of the development of the satisfaction and dissatisfaction..............28
3.11 Measuring Customer Satisfaction..............................................................29
3.12 GAP Model of Service Quality....................................................................30
3.13 Customer Loyalty.......................................................................................32
Chapter 2 – Analysis...............................................33
2.1. Sub-question 1: "How O'Hare Inn and Suites is performing now?"......33
2.2. SWOT Analysis........................................................................................33
2.2.1 Strengths....................................................................................................34
2.2.2 Weaknesses...............................................................................................35
2.2.3 Opportunities..............................................................................................36
2.2.4 Threats........................................................................................................37
2.3. Partial Conclusion 1.................................................................................38
2.4. Sub-question 2: "What is desired by O'Hare Inn and Suites guests?".....38
2.5. Survey Results..........................................................................................39
2.6. Partial Conclusion 2..................................................................................40
2.7. Sub-question 3: "How O'Hare Inn and Suites looks in the comparison with its competitors?".......................................................................................................40
2.8. Competitor Analysis..................................................................................40
2.9. Partial Conclusion 3...................................................................................47
Chapter 3 – Discussion and recommendations......47
3.1. Sub-question 3: "What can be done to improve the hotel?"......................47
3.2. Recommendations and Suggestions............................................................48
3.3. Final Conclusion.............................................................................................56
List of referencess.................................................................................................57
Appendixes.............................................................................................................70
Chapter 1
1. Introduction
Change management is very important part of management processes in the tourism industry because there is always a need of improvement to keep up to customers expectations and stay competitive towards the competitors (Keller, Bieger, 2010). It is especially important in the hospitality industry because hotels need to improve accordingly with the hospitality trends which other hotels are offering and also ensure that their customers will be satisfied about their stay as well as possibly reccommend the hotel to the other people which as a result will bring more income to the particular hotel (Lee, 2008).
O'Hare Inn and Suites is a privately owned small budget hotel located in Schiller Park, Illinois just 2,5 miles away from the Chicago O'Hare International Airport (O'Hare Inn and , 2014) which is one of the biggest airports not only in the United States of America but also around the world welcoming around 66,9 million passengers a year (Airport , 2013). The location is undoubtedly an advantage of this hotel however there are plenty of budget hotels in this area which are O'Hare in and Suites direct competitors and unfortunatelly O'Hare Inn and Suites is currently facing a big decrease in a number of visits (O'Hare Inn and Suites Sales report, 2014). According to O'Hare Inn and Suites Sales report 2014 it is mainly caused by the bad online reputation on the websites such as Trip Advisor (Trip , 2014) and Yelp (, 2014) where hotel has a lot of negative reviews and complaints from the previous guests.
This topic was chosen because of the interest in change management and particularly in the change management in the hotels. There is a desire of researching and applying solutions about how change management and innovation can work in the budget hotels to provide as good as possible experience for guests for the lowest possible price. Also the
1
particular hotel example was chosen because of a relation as a workplace of the researcher so the suggested improvement solutions can be implemented afterwards.
In this project it will be analyzed and discussed what the guests are expecting during their stay at O'Hare Inn and Suites Hotel. It will be done first of all through the two in-depth interviews with the management of the hotel about the current situation and hotel
performance, online research and document analysis of the sales report after that the first sub-question will be answered. Next step is that the data about what is needed and what are customer expectations are going to be analyzed, it will be collected through the online research, questionnaire and interviews with the guest. All the data will be analyzed by the SWOT analysis which will provide an overview about the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the hotel as well as external factors which have an affect on it, it will be a starting point which will provide information about the current situation of the hotel. Also the competitor analysis will be used to compare O'Hare Inn and Suites with their direct competitors in O'Hare International Airport area and see the hotel performance according to the others. It will provide an overview on what the other hotels have and what O'Hare Inn and Suites has to improve in order to be more successful and as a result increase the occupancy rate.
1.1 Research question
The research question for this project is "What should O'Hare Inn and Suites do to increase customer satisfaction and occupancy rate?". It is going to be analyzed how O'Hare Inn and Suites is currently performing. It is going to be conducted on the basis of two in-depth interviews with O'Hare Inn and Suites owner – Babu Patel and general manager – Lucyna Jablonska, online research and analysis of the O'Hare Inn and Suites sales reports. After conducting the research and analysing the collected materials by using the SWOT analysis. All this data will be summed up and it will be possible to make conclusions about the company current performance and answear the first sub-question:
"How O'Hare Inn and Suites is performing now?"
2
The next step will be to collect the data about what is desired by O'Hare Inn and Suites guests. This data will be collected by online research and questionnaire with O'Hare Inn and Suites guests. When the data will be gathered it will be analyzed. After having this data collected and analyzed it will be possible to make conclusions about what is desired by O'Hare Inn and Suites guests. It will be also possible to answer the second sub-question:
"What is desired by O'Hare Inn and Suites guests?"
Another step will be to compare O'Hare Inn and Suites with its five direct competitors by analyzing them through the competitor analysis. The competitor analysis will be conducted on the basisof the desired features mentioned in the survey.. After that it will be possible to answer the third sub-question:
"How O'Hare Inn and Suites looks in the comparison with its competitors?"
Last but not least the discussion part will appear together with the reccommendations for improvement about what the hotel can do to increase the customer satisfaction and occupancy rate. It will be suggested by answering the fourth sub-question:
"What can be done to improve the hotel?"
2. Methodology and methods
According to Kallet (2004) it is relevant to have methodology chapter in the project because it describes the rationale of applying particular techniques to select, identify an analyze information relevant to understand the problem. As well it allows the reader to assess the specific issue validity and reliability. The methodology chapter as well answers questions such as: "How was the data collected?" and "How was the data analyzed?" (Kallet, 2004:1229-1232).
Collecting the data is a very important part of each project (Olsen Pedersen 2008:21). It is crucial for analyzing the problem, apply relevant theories to suggest solutions and to draw conclusions from the project work (Olsen, Pedersen, 2008:21). The most relevant research for this project is exploratory research also known as formulative research (Kotler, Armstrong, 2006:122). This research type is useful for not completly
3
defined problem which can be observed in the case of O'Hare Inn and suites hotel and it is helpful in choosing the best possible research design, the most effective methods of gathering the data and the subjects (Shields, Tajalli, 2006:313-334). The major objective of the exploratory research is to get familiar with the issue being researched as well as the exploration of it (Kumar, Singh, 2007) which is needed to be done about problems of O'Hare Inn and Duites. The most often it focuses on the secondary methods such as literature review and qualitative approaches for example like in this case in-depth interviews and document analysis (Stebbins, 2001:3). Also it is perceived as a preeliminary work which preceds the main work (Babbie, Earl, 2007:87-89). Very often the data collected during the exploratory research is not relevant for the decision-making process which is not neccessary in this research because no decisions will be made. On the other hand those findings can give a general overview about the researching issue and this will help a lot while researching the case of O'Hare Inn and Suites because it will give be a starting point of this project. The other purposes of the exploratory research except getting familiar with the researching issue are as follows: getting experience helpful in developing the hypothesis for more specific exploration and exploration of a specific issues by answering the question: "what is going on there?". As well it is helpful in answering other questions such as: "why?" and "how?" (Kumar, Singh, 2007). In this project the exploratory research should be combined with the descriptive research which is useful in describing the collected data (Monsen, Van Horn, 2008:5). The descriptive research is not about answering the questions such as: "how?", "when?" or "why?", instead it is usually answering the "what?" question for example: "what are the features of the researching problem" (Shields, Rangarajan, 2013:109-158). However it is not able to give an answer to the question: "what is the reason of the problem?". Due to that it is relevant where the objective of the research is to get the most real and the most precise description possible (Monsen, Van Horn, 2008:5). The major purposes of the descriptive research is to describe , explain and validate the data. The description process is followed by the exploration process and helps to organize the findings, explain them and validate them by testing (Krathwohl, 1993). The combination of those two research approaches is suitable in the project about change management in O'Hare Inn and Suites hotel because first of all the exploratory research is going to explore and examine the issues by using four research methods: in-depth interviews, survey, online research and document analysis (Stebbins, 2001:3. Secondly, the descriptive research is going to describe those findings (Schields, Tajalli, 2006:313-334). In this case a contribution to the interviews and
4
survey has a very important effect on the whole research (Boyce, Nealle, 2006:4). The two combined approaches together allow a better understanding of the issue and also the differences between the approaches can increase the research effectiveness and better clarify the goals (Stebbins, 2001).
2.1 Literature Review
The literature review approach which was chosen for this project is the deductive approach which is the most often used research approach (Crowther, Lancaster, 2012:23). It is about developing the hypothesis statement from the expected result of the research (Crowther, Lancaster, 2012:25) based on the theory which already exists and after that the research design was created to test the hypothesis (Saunders et al, 2009:489). In this project it is: O'Hare Inn and Suites has problems with occupancy and customer satisfaction. It is an opposite approach to the inductive approach where the theory is created from the collected data (Yin, 2003) which is not going to be done in this project about O'Hare Inn and Suites because the theory already exists and there is no need of creating it. According to Yin (2003) if the research is using the existing theory to create the research questions and objectives the theoretical propositions that helped in doing this can be used to create a framework which will be useful in organizing and specifying collected data, in this project those theoretical propositions are taken from the hotel sales reports and from the online research. The advantages of the deductive approach include: the possibility of connecting specific research to the existing theory, in this case research about present situation and possible improvements at O'Hare Inn and Suites with the existing documents about the hotel performance. It is also making the start of the research much easier and it provides with the initiative, introductory framework (Saunders et al, 2009:490). To develop theoretical or descriptive structure it is crucial to distinguish the main variables, components, themes and issues in the research of the project and also possible connections among them (Yin, 2003). The deductive approach was chosen in this project because first of all it is neccessary to know what is the present situation at O'Hare Inn and Suites before designing the research. It allows to clarify the goals easier and develop research question and possible sub-questions. As well it gives a chance to recognize the external factors which affect the hotel and also the internal issues of the business. 5
2.2 Research type
While conducting the research there are two ways of collecting the data: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative is useful in testing the hypothesis, looking for a reason or effect and to make predictions, while qualitative method is useful in interpreting and understanding social interactions (Sanunders et al, 2009). The research type chosen for this research is a mix of both qualitative and quantitative research.
Qualitative research is useful in a variety of academic disciplines but the most often in social sciences and market research (Denzin, Lincoln, 2005). The major objective of qualitative research is to collect the data which understands human behavior in details and the causes which are the reason of that particular behavior. The research methods of qualitative research are answering and exploring the "why?" and "how?" questions and are not only limited to "what?", "where?", "when?" questions (Saunders et al, 2009). In this research it will help to answer the question "why O'Hare Inn and Suites struggles with the occupancy rate?". Qualitative methods are collecting the information only connected with the specific issue which is being studied and also all the other conclusions are just suggestions (Denzin, Lincoln, 2005). The researchers in qualitative research have wide variety of options if it comes to choosing the methods of data collection (Saunders et al, 2009), that is why it was chosen for the research about O'Hare Inn and Suites hotel so it will provide relevant data from different sources. The most common methods are: In-depth interview, but there is many more such as: group discussions, observations, reflection field notes, different texts, pictures and a lot of other materials (Savin-Baden, Major, 2013). The qualitative methods which was chosen for this project are: semi-structured interviews, document analysis and online research because it will allow the researchers to study the issue in depth and provide the data from the different qualitative sources (Blanche, Durheim, Painter, 2006:47).
The main objective of quantitative research is to create and apply mathematical models, theories and hypotheses which are pertaining to a particular phenomena (Given, 2008), in this project it will help in providing the data about what is the level of customer
6
satisfaction among O'Hare Inn and Suites guests. The measurement is crucial for quantitative research because it is creating the connection between the empirical
observation and mathematical expression of the relationships of quantitative research, in this project it will show in numbers how many O'Hare Inn and Suites guests are satisfied by the services provided and how many are not satisfied, also what satisfies them and what does not. Quantitative data is every type of data which is numerical, for example: statistics, percentages etc. (Given, 2008). It means that quantitative researchers are asking specific questions and collecting the sample of data to answer the research question and use the help of statistics in the process of analyzing the data. On the other hand however the quantitative research is asking broad questions and gathers data by words from the participants, in this research it will collect both percentage data and also the answers actually written by the participants, which are O'Hare Inn and Suites guests because it is important for this project to have them both in order to have rich knowledge about it and apply relevant soultions. The researcher is searching for themes and is describing the collected data in patterns or themes relevant to that sample. Qualitative methods generate information only about the particular cases which are being studied and other general conclusions are only hypotheses. Methods of the quantitative research can check if those hypotheses are true or not (Hunter, Leahey, 2008). Quantitative methods are usually scientific and include methods such as: models, theories and hypotheses, experimental control and manipulation of variables, collection of empirical data – surveys, modeling and analysing of data (Massachussets University of Technology, 2010). The methods chosen for this project is the survey because it will allow to collect the data from the larger population which will be relevant and valuable in this case by getting a bigger number of responses (Kuhn, 1961).
Combining qualitative research with quantitative research is called mixed method (Bergman, 2008). It will be used in this project because it will improve the research by allowing to collect different kind of data which will make the research more effective by providing more complete information (Saunders et al, 2009). From the qualitative research by the in-depth interviews with the hotel management, document analysis of the sales reports, online research and from the quantitative research by the survey with O'Hare Inn and Suites guests. It will allow to research the issue from the different angles and provide relevant information from the different sources (Bergman, 2008). As a result the data collected will be more valuable and reliable (Brewer, Hunter, 2006).
7
2.3 Sampling methods
Sampling is about choosing the data sources from larger possible options (Gubrium, 2012:800). In the qualitative research sampling is the most often purposive, for example people or groups of people are chosen on purpose to give information neccessary to answer the research question and sub-questions. The objective is to gather information as valuable as possible (Sullivan, 2009:459). In the qualitative research part of this project the samples were chosen through the purposive sampling (Bryman, 2012). According to McNeally (1999) the purposive sampling is having the characteristics which are required to
answer questions about specific issue (McNeally, 1999:157). To be more specific the interviewees in this project were chosen by the expert sampling in which accoring to Palys (2008) the researcher is searching for people who have specific knowledge about a particular topic relevant to the research. Those might as well improve researcher's interests and can also introduce to him or her new perspectives of the issue from different interviewees, sources etc. (Palys, 2008). This means that the person which is conducting the research is considering the research objective and select samples according to that (Coyne, 1997:624). The sample size in the qualitative research is reccommended to be rather small and include a small number of interviewees who represent particular issue (Gubrium, 2012:249). For this project were chosen two people: the owner of the hotel – Babu Patel, the general manager – Lucyna Jablonska to have an overview about the current situation at O'Hare Inn and Suites hotel. They are in this case considered as experts who have priviliged access to particular information and knowledge (Van Audenhove, 2007). They were chosen on purpose because they have certain knowledge about this particular case. Interviewing individuals is the most often used method of collecting the data in the qualitative research (Nunkoosing, 2005). Even though the interviewees are providing rich data (Palys, 2008), also their limitations must be considered for example that the interviewer can affect the data if he or she is not consistent and it is very time consuming (Opdenakker, 2006). According to Flick (2009) interview as a method of qualitative research provides fast access to particular information. Two people from selected from the hotel management of O'Hare Inn and
8
Suites can provide different opinions or experiences about the same issue (Picone, 2007).
If it comes to quantitative research of this project, the simple random sampling was chosen to select hotel guests to fill out the questionnaire about how satisfied are they with the hotel services and possibly what they would like to be improved. Simple random sampling is about choosing a group of people from a larger population. Every sample in the simple random sampling is chosen completly randomly so each individual has exactly the same chances of being chosen for a particular research (Yates, Moore, Stames, 2008), in this project it was done but choosing random guests of the hotel at their check out. Simple random sampling is an elementary sampling method because it can be a part of more developed sampling methods. The main feature of simple random sampling is that every sample has the same probability of being chosen (Gall, Borg, Gall, 2003) so each hotel guest could have been chosen to fill out the survey. Advantages of the simple random sampling include that is is free of classification error and it requires minimum advance knowledge of the population which was very important in this research because there was completly no knowledge about the guest who filled out the survey. As well it is easy to interpret the data afterwards. Because of those reasons it is the most relevant to cases where there is not much information available about the population and the gathering of data can be performed on randomly chosen individuals just like in the case of O'Hare Inn and Suites. Simple random sampling is the most basic of the probability sampling techniques (Yates, Moore, Stames, 2008). However it also have some disadvantages such as: it is easy to make an error in sampling and choose a participant which does not represent the population and as well it is time consuming (University of Idaho, 1999).
2.4 Data collection
Data can be collected by using many different methods such as: interviews, focus groups, surveys, field notes, phone interviews, questionnaires or taped interaction (Heaton, 2004:37). Two main sources of data can be differentiated: primary data and secondary data. Primary research is original and it was conducted to solve the problem which was the purpose of this project. The advantages of it include: the targetted issues
9
are adressed and better data interpretation (Saunders, et al, 2009). However disadvantages could be that it is time consuming and the feedback might be inaccurate (Heaton, 2004). The secondary research already exists and the data was collected earlier for other purposes (Goeldner, Ritchie, 2012:397). The advantages of the secondary research are that it is time and cost effective as well as the extensiveness of data (Saunders et al, 2009). On the other hand disadvantages as follows: Inaccuracy of data and it might be not specific In this project the data is both primary and seconday (Goeldner, Ritchie, 2012). Primary data was collected by two semi-structered interviews and a survey. In the interviews there question about this particular issue but also the interviewees were free to share other relevant experiences. The number of questions was also relevant to both interviews. The questions follow up the topic and also trying to find out more details about O'Hare Inn and Suites hotel present situation. Those questions also trying to give the researcher closer insight, better overview on this particular issue and provide information that could not be gathered from the secondary sources or confirm the information provided by secondary sources. Those interviews have been scheduled a week before the planned date and the interviewees were contacted by phone and in person. The language used during the interviews was English even though one of the interviewee native language is Polish and the second interviewee native language is Hindu, however the researcher speaks only Polish and English so it was decided to conduct both interviews in the same language. For the primary data also the questionnaire was conducted to know how satisfied by hotel services are O'Hare Inn and Suites guests and what they would like possibly to be improved. The survey consisted of relevant number of questions to all participants and it included: multiple choice questions, rating scale questions and open-ended questions (University of Texas, 2007).
Secondary data was gathered as well in order to support the primary data and analysis. It comes from sources such as: previous studies about particular case, articles, books, documents and online websites. To make sure that the data is reliable there was a need to compare the same data from different sources if more than one source was found. In this project the secondary data used for analysis was the company documents: O'Hare Inn and Suites Sales report 2013 and 2014 as well as relevant websites such as Trip Advisor where people share their opinions about particular hotels (Trip , 2014) and Yelp (, 2014).
10
2.4.1 Primary data source – Interview
Three types of interviews can be differentiated and considered as a research method: structured, semi-structured and unstructured. The might be also either formal or informal.
In the literature about research they are usually divided as follows: structured interviews are formal and unstructured interviews are informal (Ritchie, Burns, Palmer, 2005:100).
Structured interviews have specific set of questions to be followed and semi-structured intervies give the researcher more freedom because these are more flexible and allows to ask other relevant questions during the interview to get more information. These questions can be added if the interviewee does not understand the topic or did not provide satisfactor answer in terms of research. The main purpose of the interviews is to collect as detailed and rich information about the particular issue as possible, it depends very much on the interviewee and how he or she understand the case (Bryman, 2012:471). Semi-structured interview is different from the unstructured interview because it has agenda and a list of topics to focus during the interview. The unstructured interview is open and it rather has conversational character and has just a main theme (Burgess, 1984).
In this project the semi-structured interview was chosen as a research method because of its flexibility and also because this kind of interview allows more detailed insight into the matter (Guion et al, 2013). Those interiews were chosen to get to know what are the views, experiences and perspectives about the current situation at O'Hare Inn and Suites Hotel. As well together with the survey, company sales reports and online opinions about the hotel the findings gatherd during the interviews will give valuable information (University of Texas, 2013) about the current situation of the hotel and what the guests are expecting. It was neccessary to conduct personal face to face interviews because it is more flexible than mail surveys and it is possible to adapt to the situation and the respondent (Goeldner, Ritchie, 2006:406). The respondents also provide less detailed information during the phone interviews than during face to face interviews (Sturges, Hanrahan, 2004).
When using the semi-structured interviews there is a need of developing a written interview guide before the interview (Given, 2008:811). These guides sumarize the content
11
which the interviewer has to cover during the actual interview (Given, 2008:470). Given (2008) also mention that there are no strict requirements on how the interview guide look like, it might be either very specific with fully worded question but it can also include only the themes which the interviewer is about to cover. Some can also include specifications to ensure that all the topics were covered during the interview or contain directions to less
structured interviews which want to explore participant own perspective on the issue (Given, 2008:470). The interviewer can ask the questions in order but he or she can also go back and forth the topic list based on the responses (Given, 2008:811). For the interviews in this project two interview guides were developed, these were semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions (Bryman, 2004:321) and based on the research questions (Given, 2008:811). An open-ended question is a question which allows respondents to show how they oreint to the topic in a flexible way (Given, 2008:583). It was decided to use open-ended question because these have exploratory character and are flexible for the resondents so they can elaborate the answers by using their own words without following the specific format. A list of questions was prepared for both interviews containing 10 questions each. The main problem while designing the interviews was to formulate the questions to be explicit. Each of them was supposed to be at the same time academically written and also easy to understand. It is also crucial to mention that interviews were personalized and the questions were developed by taking into consideration the position in the hotel of both interviewees. The language used during the interviews was English even though the interviees are from Poland and from India. Both interviews were recorded in order not to loose any important information provided by the participants. It also made the production of transcriptions easier. Transcription is the process during which recordings of the conversations recorded during the research are being written down and then become primary data (Given, 2008:885). According to Heritage (1984) transcribing has a few important advantages such as: it helps to correct natural limitation of memory and intuitive glosses about what participants may say during the interviews, it also allows better exploration of what interviewees say, and last but not least allows to repeat the examination of the answers (Heritage, 1984:238). Transcribing include however also disadvantages because it is very time consuming (Bryman, 2012:482). It was done during this project work despite this disadvantage because it is easier to transcribe and mistakes are less likely to appear. Recordings can be a back up and they also can be repeated as many times as needed (Bryman, 2012:483). Before conducting the actual interview there was a few tests performed in order to check if the
12
quality of sound is good enough.
There are two approaches using for analysing interviews: developing themes and content analysis. Both of them can be used with unstructured interviews and also with guided interviews depending on the method of analysing and aim of the researcher
Gubrium et al, 2012:198). During the content analysis the data is separated from the context of the interview categorized for conceptualization and future analysis, there are no requirements about how much data should be categorized. Developing themes on the other hand might be evident or hidden and are supposed to be found by using interpretive techniques such as analysing metaphors or stuying what is implied. There is no requirement that all themes appear in all interviews and there can be more than one theme in one interview, it depends on the scope of the research and how specific the interview is going to be (Gubrium et al, 2012:198). To conclude content analysis is a descriptive method usually used in a descriptive research and developing themes are the interpretive techniques used in interpretive description (Gubrium et al, 2012:198-99).
In this project the data gathered from the interviews was analyzed by the content analysis because according to McIntosh and Morse (2012) it should be usually used to analyze the data collected from the focus groups and interviews to analyze them item by item. Content analysis provided a systematic way of synthesizing the information gathered during the interviews (Given, 2008:123). After the data was transcribed the data was categorized by using the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis in order to have an overview what is the present situation at O'Hare Inn and Suites.
2.4.2 Primary data source – Questionnaire
A questionnaire is a research instrument which include a set of questions which suppose to gather information from the respondents. These are often created for the statistical purposes however it is not always the case (Saunders et al, 2009). Questionnaires have advantage over other types of surveys because are cheap and does not require much effort from the researcher like phone or verbal surveys, also often hve standardized answers which make it easy to collect the data (Mellenberg, 2008). However
13
there are also some limitations such as: respondents must be able to read the questions and also the standardization might be frustrating for them (Saunders et al, 2009). In the questionnaires we can differentiate two types of questions: open-ended and closed ended questions. An open-ended question wants the participant to form his or her own answer, and the closed-ended question wants the respondent to pick their choice from the given options. Answers options to the closed-ended questions are exhaustive and exclusive
(Mellenberg, 2008). There are four types of answers in the closed-ended questions:
Dichotomous – In those the respondent has two options
Nominal-polytomous – In those the participant has more than 2 options which are not in order.
Ordinal polytomous – In which the respondent has more than two ordered options.
Bounded Continuous – In those there is a continuous scale
A respondent answer to an open-ended question i put into a response scale. An example of an open-ended question could be a question where the participant has to finish a sentence (Mellenberg, 2008). In the survey used in this project there were 10 questions and the following types of questions were used: open-ended questions and also closed ended questions which are dichotomous, nominal-polytomous and also bounded continuous. Those types were chosen because there was a need to see what the customers experiences are at the moment, so they choose their answer from the ready answers or evaluate and also to see what they would like to experience at O'Hare Inn and Suites by giving their own opinions in the open-ended questions.
The sample used for the questionnaire was a random sample of 100 people randomly chosen from O'Hare Inn and Suites guests to fill out the paper questionnaire at the time they show up at the front desk when they check out.
Questions in the questionnaires should have logical flow and to achieve the best possible flow and the most responses, questions should start from the most general ones to the more specific ones. The questionnaire should have six stages and in this project it
14
was ensured that it went through all the stages by carefully checking that and writing it down. It should start with the screen if someone is eligible to participate in the questionnaire, so only relevant sample will participate (Burns, Bush, 2010). Second stage is called warm-up questions, which are easy to answer and help with capturing the interest in the research. Next stage is called transition and its objective is to keep the well flow of different areas of the questionnaire. Next stage is called skips and it includes the
questions such as: "if yes, answer the next question" etc. After that there are so called difficult question because the participant is already in the "response mode". Last but not least there is a classification question or demographic question, it should be at the end because the respondents may consider it as a personal question and it can make them feel uncomfortable if it is asked at the beginning, as a result the participant can loose the willingness to complete the questionnaire (Burns, Bush, 2010). All of those stages was taken into consideration and this kind of order was kept in the questionnaire about customer experiences at O'Hare Inn and Suites because there was a need to collect relevant number of answers as fluent and as fast as possible. There are also some rules which had to be taken into consideration in a questionnaire to be credible and there was a focus on them in the questionnaire used for this project. First of all the questions should be created in a way that they are interpreted in a same way by everybody, and persons with different opinions will provide different answer. Secondly, the positive sentences should be used. Next aspect is about that there should not be any assumptions about participants. Questions should also be clear and understandable by everybody, and gramatically correct. As well it should not ask about two items in one question. Last but not least questions should lead the respondent towards the answer by helping them with additional questions (Burns, Bush, 2010).
Questionnaires should be also administrated. There are four modes of questionnaire administration:
Face to face administration where the results are presented orally.
Paper and pencil administration where the results are presented on paper.
Computerized administration where the results are presented electronically.
Adaptive computerized administration where the results are presented on a computer and based on the answers (Mellenbergh, 2008).
.
15
In this project were presented on paper and then they were put on the computer to present them electronically so these could be inserted in the project.
Even though questionnaires have some advantages they also have some disadvantages. Those include for example that the researcher may not know if the participant understood the question correctly, also the information gained can be just minimal and not as valuable (Kaplan, Saccuzzo, 2009). As well questionnaires sometimes
give not enough options to answer the question. Last but not least questionnaires can have a low return rate, even if person decide to complete it, may as well no complete it or not submit it, this concern is especially connected with the online questionnaires (Munn, Drever, 2004).
2.4.3 Secondary data source – Document analysis
Document analysis is a method in the qualitative research in which the documents are being analyzed by the researcher. Analysing the documents is about putting the content into particular themes in a similar way as the transcripts of the interviews (Bowen, 2009:27-40). Usually the rubric method is used for the document analysis which is a chart which characterizes what is required in the document to be evaluated (The National Science Education Standards, 1996:93). Three different kinds of documents can be differentiated: first group consists of the public records, for example records of specific organization such as: annual reports, mission statements, policy manuals, strategic plans etc. (Bowen, 2009:27-40). The second group are the personal documents which are called the first persons accounds of the individual actions, experiences or beliefs. The examples can include: e-mail, calendars, blogs, newspapers, social network posts, journals, personal reflections etc. (Boxil et al, 1997:116). The last category are the physical evidence documents which are the physical evidence items which can be found in the setting, they can be also called artifacts (Bowen, 2009:27-40). The examples could be: posters, flyers, agenda, handbooks or training materials etc. (Bowen, 2009:27-40).
The document analysis method has a number of advantages which can improve the effectiveness of the research. First of all it is allowing to access the inaccessible
16
documents and subjects. Secondly, it is relatively cheap method of research. Last but not
least documents are usually of good quality and also some of them can be very detailed. On the other hand however this method has also some disadvantages, for example it can be seen as too subjective, it requires a lot of time to analyze all the documents and also the is a possiblity of role conflict of the persons involved (University of Portsmouth, 2012).
In this project the document analysis together with the semi-structured interviews already mentioned will give the information about the current situation at O'Hare Inn and Suites and also about the external factors which affect the business at O'Hare Inn and Suites. The documents which have been analzyed were from the company private records – O'Hare Inn and Suites sales report 2013 and 2014, and also a documents gathered through the online research which are are public comments and reviews about the hotel at Trip Advisor and Yelp websites. It was chosen to analyze those document by the content analysis which focus on word and phrase counts and also on numerical measures of the textual expression (Given, 2008:231). In this case the documents are going to give an initial study for the interviews with the hotel management and as well the questions for the interviews will be developed based on the information gathered from the documents (University of Texas, 2011).
2.5 Reliability
Reliability is the degree according to which the results of the research are compatibile after a period of time and precise representation of the population studied. In other words it means if it is possible to reproduce the results of particular research while using the same methodology (Joppe, 2000:1). Together with validity these are two components which should be focused on in every qualitative research when it comes to designing the research, analysing the research results and evaluating the level of quality of particular study (Patton, 2002). In order to check if the research is reliable it is very important to check the trustwortiness (Golafshani, 2003). There are four different types of reliability. First one is called: inter-observer reliability, it is the assessement to which extent one observer or another gives compatibile estimates of particular issue (Gwet, 2010:5). The second type is the test-retest reliability, this one is about evaluating the compatibility of
17
specific measure from first time to another (Cozby, 2001). Next type of reliability is called parallel forms reliability which is usueful is assessing the compatibility of the results
from two different tests designed in the same way and from the same subjects (Crombach, 1971). Last but not least is the internal consistency reliability. In this one the assessments of the degree to which various test pieces test the same creation give the same results. We can differentiate two different kinds of internal consistency reliability:
Average inter-item correlation and split-halp reliability. The first one is about taking all the pieces to test which is testing the same issue. It defines the relationship between each couple of pieces and at the end it estimates the average of those ratios. The second one is about dividing every testing item into halves. All of the halves are supposed to probe identical branch of study to create to units. The final outcome for each set is received by defining the relation between two final results (Moskal, Leydens, 2000). After the research is performed, all the results are collected and all the analyses are finished the reliability test will be performed to check if the items of the research are reliable – Interviews with O'Hare Inn and Suites management, questionnare with O'Hare Inn and Suites guests and the analysis of the documents. The type of the reliability test chosen for this project is the internal consistency reliability and to be more specific the first type ot it – the inter item correlation. It is going to be check if all the research items are consistent with each other and provide the same information (Moskal, Leydens, 2000) about the situation at O'Hare Inn and Suites.
2.6 Validity
Validity is about deciding whether a particular research is actually examining what it supposed to examine and how trustworthy are the outcomes of it. It is mostly about asking a number of questions and is looking for the answers in what the researcher did (Joppe, 2000:1). It is also determined by the researchers view about validity in a particular issue and the selection of the presumptions of the paradigm (Creswell, Miller, 2000). The outcome of this is that some of the researches developed their own validity theories and decided what is in their opinion more relevant definition of particular for for example quality, rigor, trustworthiness (Davis, Dodd, 2002). The same as in the reliability it is possible to distinguish four types of validity: internal validity, external validity, statistical
18
validity and construct validity (Cook et al, 1990). The most basic type is the internal validity, it is about the logic of the relationship between dependent and independent variables. To be more precise it is a degree to which a particular issue provides a proof of
reason – outcome between dependent and independent variables (McBurney, White, 2009). The external validity is about checking how relevant would be the results of one research in other states or affair (Calder et al, 1982:240). The construct validity is about
focusing how the results of particular research are backing up the theory behind it (McBurney, White, 2009:175). Last but not least is the statistical validity, it determines whether statistical conclusion of covariation between variables is justified (Calder et al, 1982:240).
The same as in the reliability test the validity is going to be checked after all the results of the research are known, it will also be checked how relevant are those results. In the project about hotel improvement at O'Hare Inn and Suites the most relevant validity type which will validate the gathered data is the internal validity because it will examine what is the reason of the present situation (McBurney, White, 2009:174) in the hotel. The other validity types are going to be skipped because the construct validity is comparing the outcomes with the theory (McBurney, White, 2009:175) which is not the objective of this research. The research will also not explore how the results will be used in other case which is the reason for skipping the external validity (Calder et al, 1982:240). Last but not least also the statistical validity will be skipped because there is no need to check what are the statistical covariations between the variables (Calder et al, 1982:240).
3. Theory
3.1 Product innovation
Product innovation is the process of creation of a product or service which is completly new or improved in the comparison to the previous one (Bloodgood, 2013). It is more extended definition than the definition of just innovation because the definition of innovation only include the creation of new products which are innovative (Grieves, 2010).
19
Product innovation is defined as a development of new services, products, design modification of the ones which already existing and using new materials or resources to create them (University of Westminster, 2010). The typical example include: completly new procucts and services, quality and performance improvement of those which already exist (Grieves, 2010). Three types of innovation which are aiming at improving the company production methods can be differentiated: product innovation which is aiming at the product or service improvement, cost-cutting innovation which is aiming at reducing the costs and last but not least process innovation which is aiming at the improvement in the creation of the innovation (Hoang, 2010:686). Focusing on the product innovation there are two categories: creating the completly new product or service and improvement of the existing product or service (Wong, 2014). In the product development three stages can be differentiated: market research where it is being researched what is needed (Ducker, 2012L229), product development and testing where the product or service is being created and tested as a prototype (Monosoff, 2014), last but not least there is a feasibility study where it is analyzed and decided if it it possible to release new product or service (Hoang, 2010). The development process of the existing product is more complicated except the three stages from the new product development there is also product analysis where the analysis of the existing product or service takes place and where it is decided what should be changed. The other extra stage in this development process is also the prodct testing examples where the particular examples which can occur in use are tested (Ducker, 2012:229). The final order of stages in the development of the existing product is as follows: Market research, Product analysis, Feasibility study, Product testing and last but not least Product testing examples (Business2sell, 2014).
Product development has numerous of advantages. First of all it allows expansion, growth and gaining the competitive advantage over the competitors (Chris, 2014) and differentiate the company to be more attractive on the market (Investopedia, 2014). Also companies which once successfully implemented innovative solutions will make the possible customers switch to their brand (allBusiness, 2014). However product innovation as well has some disadvantages such as: There is a high cost of the innovation and also high risk of failure involved if the innovation is not successful (Hoang, 2010:688). It can also have a negative impact on the outside world because the organization might have to completly change the way of operating, as a result it can lead to the break down of the relations with the customers, suppliers and partners (Bloodgood, 2013).
20
3.2 Innovation in tourism
There is a difference between the innovation in tourism comparing with the innovation in the other industries, the reason for this is that the tourism products and services has to always satisfy the customers (Aldebert et al, 2011). Usually those products and services are packages which include elements such as: accommodation, transport etc. The innovation in tourism often depend on what people which are customers or possible customers are thinking (Aldebert, Dang, Longhi, 2011). According to Moscardo (2008) it is possible to implement innovation when the people who want to invent it change their way of thinking. It is the creative way of destroying the existing standards (Weiermair, Brunner-Sperdin, 2006:81). In tourism innovation has use which change a number of traditional factors created by experiences which are the most important part of evet tourism service and product (Stamboulis, Skayannis, 2003). The major objective of the tourism innovation is the process of creating and implementation of new services and products during which the past experiences of the customers should be taken into consideration because in the service industry happy customers are the most important (Stamboulis, Skayannis, 2003). As well experiences determine if particular innovation is a success or a failure (Weiemair, Walder, Perez, 2006). The factors by which tourism innovation is limited include for example the fact that tourism products and services have to be relevant to a particular destination and suitable to the natural resources in that destination. Innovation is crucial in the tourism business because it does not only guarantee the growth of particular company or organization but also at the same time a growth of the whole economy in a particular destination (OECD, 2006). The other feature which influence the innovation within the tourism industry is that the industry is very competitive (Alsos, Eide, Madsen, 2014) and an organization has to be innovative in its products and services in order to be successful and overcome its competitors (Edgell, Swanson, 2013). To sum up the most successful companies in the tourism industry are those which are innovative and introduce innovative solutions, however there is always a risk that innovation will not be successfull and the organization instead of gaining, will only loose the financial resources (Tassiopoulos, 2008).
21
3.3 Impact of the online reviews on the hotel choice
Consumer demand for the online travel information is continously increasing (D'Ambra, Wilson, 2004). The websites such as called also eMediaris (Buhalis, Licata, 2002) provide users with the online accessible reviews about the hotels all over the world (Vermeulen, Seegers, 2008). It can be observed that every year millions of people who are the potential hotel customer are checking that reviews in order to make the best possible choice of accommodation while visiting particular destination (Sparks, Browning 2010). To be more detailed with numbers, 84% of those potential visitors are affected by the reviews founded in the internet (, 2007) and also online reviews impact more than 10 billions dollars pers year of the hotel nights purcheses which are made online (, 2007). The so called eWord of mouth definitelly has a major impact on the decision of potential buyers (Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, Gremler, 2004) and increase the probability of booking particular hotel by them (Vermeulen, Seegers 2008). Also both types of reviews positive as well as negative are increasing potential purchaser awareness of the particular hotel (Ye, Law, Gu, 2008). However it is logical that positive reviews make the customers more interested in particular hotel and the negative ones are discouraging them (Vermeulen, Seegers, 2008). Online reviews are more important for the smaller less known hotels than for the big well-known hotel chains hotels because those reviews are as well increasing the public awareness about those small places on a larger scale (Gretzel, Yoo, 2008). As a result those smaller hotels should care more about such reviews in the internet because it will really help them in attracting more visitors (Vermeulen, Seegers, 2008). Last but not least worth mentioning is that the reviews written by experts from the hospitality industry have bigger impact on the hotel consideration that reviews written by the non-expert reviewer which is cause by the fact that the experts are perceived by the public as the ones who have specific knowledge (Eagly, Wood, Chaiken, 1978).
22
3.4 Marketing in tourism
Marketing include processes and activities which have a purpose of communicating, creating, exchanging and delivering services and products in which potential buyers are interested (, 2014). Marketing in the tourism industry is determined by the demand and by the features of the suppliers (Holloway, 2004). The forms of distribution and promotion are different in the tourism industry than in the other industries which are creating the basis on which marketing in tourism is focused (Middleton, 2001). It is of very high importance that the organization within tourism industry position itself efficiently on the market to be more competitive and attract more possible customers to be willing to spend their money on its products and services (Ritchie, Crouch, 2003).
3.5 Tourism marketing mix
Marketing in tourism is not only about promoting the destination(Source,fer). According to Holloway (2004) it is not somrthing which is done by the marketing department alone and it should be represented by each element of the organization. Also each tourism organization which consider itself as marketing-oriented is actually product oriented (Holloway, 2004). Those thoughts are very well illustrated in the tourism marketing mix developed by Alan Fyall and Brian Garrod (2005). It has exactly the same elements as the classic marketing mix such as 4 P's which include: product, price, promotion and place, however in the tourism marketing mix they occur as a 4 C's. 4 C's according to Deashish (2011) explain the C's as the customer decision points which are more relevant to the tourism industry than the classic 4 P's (Devashish, 2011). These are replaced in a following way:
Customer value is replacing product. These are the benefits provided to fullfill the needs and expectations, the quality of the received service, and the value which the customers got for the money they paid in comparison to the competitors.
23
Cost is replacing price. It is a decision of the supply side, it is the customer-oriented equivalent also compared with the competitors.
Convenience is replacing place. It is about the access which customers have to the products or services they buy.
Communication is replacing promotion. It is responsible for every form of producer-customer dialogue which include providing information and both ways proactive relation marketing, not only sales persuasion (Fyall, Garrod, 2005:105)
The proper usage of tourism marketing mix will provide a competitive advantage to the tourism organization. It is as well helpful for tourism companies in uderstanding what products and services are desired and what will effectielly fullfill customers expectations. Also tourism organizations can use tourism marketing mix to monitor its competitors and take actions to be better than them in a short term. In a long term perspective however it is useful in developing long-term plans which will be applied not in a short period but also on a broader reach (Bhatia, 2007).
3.6 ICT solutions in tourism marketing
The use of ICT solutions is of very high importance if the company is operatin within the tourism industry because this is the way to show the tourism services and products in a more effective way than ordinary brochure or catalogue (Buhalis, Law, 2008). The main tool of the ICT is the internet which provides tourism organizations with the opportunity to create their marketing and communication strategies with the help of new technology types (Tsiotsou, Goldsmith, 2012). Smaller and middle-sized organizations very often ignore the use of ICT solutions which is a big mistake, also the companies within tourism and travel industry do not pay that much attention to them but it could be a promising opportunity for them to develop and be more competitive (Buhalis, Law, 2008). ICT
24
technologies have potential to be effective solutions for the recent trends which are for example that people are more price sensitive and more critical while not that loyal to the demand of the specific offers (Prideaux, Moscardo, Laws, 2006). Majority of possible tourist these days have very easy access to the information so it is easier and helpful for them to have an overview on the tourism offers and to get specific information about particular travel in which they are interested (Werther, Klein, 2000).
Werther and Klein (2000) also suggest that ICT soulutions are the main factors which influence the innovation in tourism industry and a way of encouraging organizations to use it more efficiently than earlier.
If it comes to social media in the tourism marketing the most powerful channels are facebook and Trip Advisor. Those two are well-known not only between private users but as well organizations and companies within the tourism industry make use of them while working with the increasing of the awareness of their services and products (Millano, Baggio, Piatelli, 2011). The main objectives of social media is to increase the customers loyalty to the particular company, increase of sales and income and last but not least connect the customers with the brand (Teufel, 2010). By using social media organizations and companies have possibility of having continuous interaction with the customers and position themselves in their minds (Millano, Baggio, Piatelli, 2011). Different methods of raising the awareness of the company by using social media can be differentiated, one example is the Buzz marketing which can help in making product or service more popular among the people, it is using the options available in social media such as: "like", "share", "comment". Those actions immediatelly attract the attention of others (Ferrell, Lucas, Schemberi, Niininen, 2012). Last worth mentioning fact is that social media let users rate particular products or services and this allows them to share their own opinion about something. This however include some sort of risk because it can destroy the organization but at the same time it gives a feedback so the organization is aware what are the strong and weak sides of it, as well as what has to be improved (Millano, Baggio, Piatelli, 2011). To conclude in a tourism industry it is neccessary to have good reputation so small organizations can effectively compete with the big ones (Tuominen, 2011).
25
3.7 Service recovery
In the situations when the particular service becomes a failure there are always negative impacts on the business income and also on the customer loyalty which the organization has to overcome (Kozub, 2008). Even though at the beginning it can be very difficult for the company if properly delt with it can successfully overcome the challenges and respond effectively to the customers needs (Smith, Bolton, Wagner, 1999). It can be done by the organization's approach to a quality service recovery process (Kozub, 2008). Service recovery process needs actions because even the best strategic plan without applying only looks nice on the paper (Zemke, Bacon, Pugh, Bell, 2000) so most important factor of effective service recovery is to convince the customers to put the failure into service provider attention and apply the service recovery (Kozub, 2008). The positive results of the service recovery are as follows: customer satisfaction, intention of further reccommendations, positive word of mouth, loyalty, positive image and trust (Maxham, 2001). Last but not least worth mentioning fact is that three different types of service recovery can be differentiated: customer recovery which is trying to satisfy customers, process recovery which is aiming at the processes improvement and the employee recovery which is a marketing strategy helping employees in dealing with failure and recovery situations (Tax, Brown, 1998).
3.8 Complaint management
Complaint management the same as the service recovery are the customer retantion strategies (Halstead, Morash, 1996). It is focusing on the customer complains which were cause by the service failures (Strauss, Seidel, 2005). In order to to ensure customer satisfaction complaints have to be handled in a quick and effective way (Welz, 2013). Complaint management which meets what the customer is expecting and even exceed that is successful, is also sure that customer improve his or her attitude towards the
26
company and that the customer will choose the company in a long run (Straus, Seidel, 1995:59). The main objective of the complaint management is to make the income higher increase the competitiveness of the business on the market by providing the highest possible level of customer satisfaction, minimize dissatisfaction and benefit from the complaints by learning about the company weaknesses and opportunities on the market (Strauss, Seidel, 2002). Companies which have complaint management have a the same time customer-oriented corporate strategy which increase customer satisfaction and
preventes dissatisfaction. The other objective of the complaint management is the process of improvement of the services and products by using the information provided in the complaints (Welz, 2013). Customers which are not satisfied by the service provided can be seen as market researchers because they are letting the company know what they do not like and what they need in their complaints. By those information organization can see new market chances, new revenue potential and also can develop ideas for the new products or services (Straus, Seidel, 2002:81). Last but not least objective of the complaint management is to prevent the opportunity costs of various reactions from not happy clients. This can happen because of the buying refusal or negative advertisment. Those reaction forms of disatisfied customers have a negative impact on the company public image (Pepels, 1997).
Except of complaints the dissatisfied customer can also choose the competitor which can result in the decrease in sales and income which is calle cost of movement. It is crucial for the company to have good complaint policy in which the realtion with customers is stabilized and costs of movement skipped (Welz, 2013).
3.9 Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a measure about how service and products provided by an organization meet or exceed what the customer is expecting (Farris, Neil, Bendle, Pfeifer, Reibstein, 2010). It is considered as the key performance indicator in the business (Bowen, Clarke, 2009). Within the competitive environment where the competition between organization is high, for example in the hospitality industry customer satisfaction
27
is considered as a key differentiator and became an important factor of each organization strategy (Gitman, McDaniel, 2005). It is crucial that company can effectively manage customer satisfaction by asking the customers whether or not the service or product met their expectations because expectations are the key factor of expectation (Farris, Neil, Bendle, Pfeifer, Reibstein, 2010). The level of importance of customer satisfaction is increasing when the bargaining power of the company is increasing (Gitman, McDaniel, 2005). Customer satisfaction is providing the main factor of customer intention of
purchase. Customer satisfaction data has two principal objectives (Farris, Neil, Bendle, Pfeifer, Reibstein, 2010):
The gathering, analysis and implementation of this data provides the message about the importance of tending to the customers and ensure that their experience with particular services and products provided by an organization is positive.
Ensure that the customers will stay with the company and make further purchses (Gitman, McDaniel, 2005).
3.10 Model of the development of the satisfaction and dissatisfaction
Figure 1: Model of the development of satisfaction and dissatisfaction (Welz, 2013:10) 28
Complaints are always comming from the dissatisfied customer and are expressing the dissatisfaction about the particular organization products or services with the objective to take into consideration what is missing and what is expected by the customers (Fornell, 1978). Dissatisfaction is created by the comparison process, before the purchase of service or product consumer has certain expectations about it which are influenced by: needs, past experiences, word of mouth and communication of the supplier. Then those expectations are compared with the actual service or product (Welz, 2013). If there are no major differencess between the expected and the actual and as well the expectations are exceeded in the quality of received service or product then the customer is satisfied, however if there is a significant difference between those two the the dissatisfaction occurs. Also if there are no difference between the expectations and the obtained service then the customer is neither satisfied nor dissatisfied - Indifference (Binder-Kissel, 2003).
3.11 Measuring customer satisfaction
Companies should retain the existing customers while at the same time getting new customers (Joby, 2003). The process of measuring customer satisfaction gives the organizations an overview on how successful they are on the market (Welz, 2013). It is measured at the individual level but usually is reported on the aggregate level. It is measured on different elements. For example hotel would like to know guest experience with the front desk, facilites, room, services inside the hotel etc.(Farris, Neil, Bendle, Pfeifer, Reibstein, 2010). The most usual way of measuring customer satisfaction is by using customer satisfaction surveys (McNeal, Lamb, 1979). They provide an organization with a feedback from the customers and also are perceived positively by the customers because it gives them the feeling that the organization cares about their opinion (Peterson, Wilson, 1992). They are popular because they are direct and have clear objective (McNeal, Lamb, 1979). The data gathered from the customer satisfaction surveys is useful to evaluate the employees performance, improve sales management, and training programs and also get information about the competitors (Smith, 1989).
29
3.12 Gap model of service quality
Model 2: Gap Model of Service Quality (Parasuraman, Zeithaimi, Berry, 1986)
Customers assessments of service quality come from comparing process between customers expectations and what they actually experience (Zeithami, Berry, Parasuraman, 1993).
The Gap Model of Service Quality is useful in measuring and managing service quality (Buttle, 1996). It measures both the customer expectations of service quality in five different dimensions as well as theit experiences with the received service. In a situation when the expectations of the customers are higher than the perceptions of what they received service quality is considered as low (Parasuraman, Zeithaimi, Berry, 1986). In addition the Gap Model of Service Quality is also a management model (Nyeck, Morales, Ladhari, Pons, 2002). The five gaps are as follows:
- GAP 1 between consumer expectation and management perception.
30
It occurs when the management of the organization does not correctly recognize what the customers need (Parasuraman, Zeithaimi, Berry, 1986). The reason for this might be poor market research or incorrect interpretation of the information about the customers expectations (Buttle, 1996).
- GAP 2 between management perception and service quality specification.
In this case management might correctly recognize what the customers need but the appropriate standards has not been set (Parasurama, Zeithaimi, Berry, 1986). It can occur due to low management commitment or wrong planning procedures (Lages, Fernandes, 2005).
- GAP 3 between service quality specification and service delivery.
This GAP can arise if the employees are poorly trained, incapable or unwilling to set the service standards (Parasuraman, Zeithaimi, Berry, 1986). It can be caused by the human resources through uneffective recruitment, role conflict or compensation system as well as lack of training of the employees.
- GAP 4 between service delivery and external communication.
The customer expectations are created mainly by the company's slogans and advertisments (McCabe, Rosenbaum, Yurchisin, 2007). The gap appears when those created expectations are not met during the service delivery (Parasuraman, Zeithaimi, Berry, 1986). It can happen because of overpromising in the marketing campaign and if the organization fail to perform according to specifications (Buttle, 1996).
- GAP 5 between expected service and experienced service
This gap occur when the customers wrongly interpret the service quality (Parasuraman, Zeithaimi, Berry, 1986). 31
Last but not least five factors should be fullfilled to ensure the value and customer satisfaction:
1. Reliability – Performing the service accurately.
2. Assurance – The knowledge and courtesy of the employees and that they can be trustworthy.
3. Tangibles – The existance of physical facilities, equipment, personell and communication materials.
4. Empathy – Individualized attention to all the customers,
5. Responsiveness – Willingness to help the customers and provide good service. (Parasuraman, Zeithaimi, Berry, 1986).
3.13 Customer loyalty
Loyalty is the customer decision to buy again or use again a particular service or product because they are satisfied about it (Oliver, 1997). This behavior is causing repetitive same brand purchasing set despite the outside influences and marketing activities encouraging a customer to switch to another brand (Griffin, 1997). Loyalty is usually build through the customer satisfaction with the service, service delivery etc. (Oliver, 1997). However it can also be built through special loyalty programs or clubs developed by the particular companies and organizations (Butscher, 2002). Building loyalty is especially crucial in the service and hospitality industry because hotels and other service oriented organizations depend in their performance on the regular client who have repeated visits at the specific properties especially during the low season when there are problems with occupancy (Hnle, 2007). Customer loyalty also help the organizations in increasing their sales and income (Oliver, 1997).
32
Chapter 2 – Analysis
2.1 Sub-question 1: "How O'Hare Inn and Suites is performing now?"
From the data collection process which was done through the interviews with O'Hare Inn and Suites owner Babu Patel, the hotel general manager Lucyna Jablonska, The analysis of the sales report and by the online research it can be concluded that O'Hare Inn and Suites is facing problems with occupancy rate and as a result the decrease in sales. It is not good because every year the websites where people can find reviews about the hotels are getting more and more popular (Sparks, Browning, 2010). There is as well a positive aspect which can help O'Hare Inn and Suites come back on the right track and improve its performance. For answering the first sub-question the SWOT analysis is going to be used. It will analyze internally the performance of the hotel and also the external factors affecting it.
2.2 SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is useful for analysing internal strengths and weaksnesses as well as external factors such as opportunities and threats which can affect the organization (Pahl, Richter, 2007:4). The SWOT analysis was chosen for this project because it will define the strengths and weaknesses of O'Hare Inn and Suites and also the opportunities and threats which exist in the external macroenvironment (Goeldner, Ritchie, 2010). After defining the strengths and weaknesses it will be possible to concentrate on them and develop solutions which will maximize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses. It also helps to use the available resources and chances and avoid the threats (Pahl, Richter, 2007). Strengths are the areas where the organization in this case hotel is better than its competitors, weaknesses are the areas where the organization is worse than the competitors, opportunities are the external aspects which provide the chance to take an advantage over the others (Henry, 2008), and threats are the external limitations and circumstances which can effectivelly prevent the organization from being successfull and
33
achieving its objectives (Pride, Ferrel, 2006).
2.2.1 Strengths
If it comes to strengths first of all of the strengths of O'Hare Inn and Suites its the location of the hotel. It is located only minutes from the O'Hare Airport and the distance is the shortest in the comparison to all the other budget hotels in the area (maps., 2015).
"We were pleased to see the shuttle arrive at O'Hare within 15 minutes after calling when we arrived at 10:30 PM" (, 2011).
"Definitelly our biggest advantage is the location, it takes about 10 minutes from our hotel to get to O'Hare airport, and among all the other budget hotels in the area it is the shortest distance." (Appendix 1).
Another strength of O'Hare Inn and Suites are the affordable prices (O'Hare Inn and , 2015).
"Had to stay overnight at ohare due to weather, and after asking the airline for discount accommodation this place came up as the cheapest." (, 2012)
"Got to stay for $51 through after I realized my flight out of O'hare was a day later. Don't let the price fool you- they have all the hotel amenities you'd want and expect. Decent room size, complimentary airport shuttle, complimentary breakfast, and great service. Nothing fancy but recommended if you are stuck near the airport or looking for a cheap night to crash." (, 2011).
"The other one is the price and we keep introducing some new special offers" (Appendix 2)
34
2.2.2 Weaknesses
When it comes to the weaknesses of O'Hare Inn and Suites hotel first of all it is the bad online reputation of the hotel which is pointing out all the hotel weaknesses in the guests comments (Trip , 2015 and , 2015. In this case very important weakness because nowadays internet is very popular sources of providing information (Travelindustrywire, 2007). There are plenty of negative reviews on the websites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp (TripAdvisor, 2015 and Yelp, 2015) for example:
"Our bad online reputation is pointing out all of them, however with some of them I personally do not agree." (Appendix 2)
"Let me start by saying that if your looking for a good comfy night of sleep this is not the place. This Motel should not be call inn & suites. is definitely has no suites look nor feel, the place is crappy, hard beds horrible pillows and just poor poor look. when i enter the room is smell muggy, the tv was a crt box looking one with a missing power button, curtain where literately shredded looks like a cat slide with it's claws right from the top to the bottom. The bathroom wasn't flushing. I was disgusted, for that price i should had picked the Regal inn which i personally checked on once i check right out this nightmaretell! much better room quality for about the same price! I called and complain about the hotel the room and the quality of service which btw sucks too. I checked in at another hotel i rather had lost my money that evening then to sleep a night in that crappy place! this shittell shouldn't even be promoted as a suite. is a truckdriver motel place def not a family place or more then one night if you can handle it!!!" (TripAdvisor, 2014).
"The worst motel I have ever stayed in! I had horrible desk staff checking me in ( rude, didn't want to help me with my heavy bags up the stairs and was put out when I asked for a room on the first floor). Once in the room ( with the heater broken and unbearably hot... The room was dirty! It smelled of a musty, foul smell! Blood on one of the towels.. Toilet had been used and unflushed. A few people of unhealthy life style, "lived"in the unit next to my room and started screaming profanities and slamming his door about 15 times. The desk staff told me he was usually a really nice guy, that he is harmless! After a few pleads to come get him to stop.. The neighbor stood at my door screaming!
35
Could not wait any more and got a taxi out!" (, 2015).
2.2.3 Opportunities
First of all if it comes to opportunities is the fact that the owner of O'Hare Inn and Suites Babu Patel want to invest big ammount of money in the development of the hotel which he has from his other businesses which are prospering well.
"Yes, I have some plans to invest more money in the hotel. My other businesses in the Chicago area are prospering very good so I have the money to invest them into O'Hare Inn and Suites improvement." (Appendix 1)
"First of all bigger financial investment from the owner, mr. Patel, if he will invest enough money then me and all the other employees can work effectivelly to implement all the improvements in the services." (Appendix 2)
Secondly the other budget hotels in the O'Hare airport which are in the similar situation as O'Hare Inn and Suites can close their businessess earlier so their guests will possibly come to O'Hare Inn and Suites.
Also some of the hotel in the area are in the similar situation and some of them can close business so there might be a chance that their customers will come to us. (Appendix 2)
Another opportunity is weather because everytime when the weather is bad a lot of flights are cancelled at O'Hare airport so a lot of people are looking for a room to spend the night. However this opportunity is only helpful if the weather is bad and people really need a room, mostly in winter on the snowing days.
In our case the seasonality can be as well an opportunity because if the weather is not good there is a lot of flight cancelations at O'Hare, which means that we have bigger chances to sell rooms. (Appendix 1)
36
Last but not least opportunity for the hotel is the fact that the air travel industry is growing and there will be more and more planes and flights (IATA, 2013). As a result more people will be comming to O'Hare Airport and those people will require accommodation close to the airport.
"Another opportunity is the development of the air travel industry which is developing all the time, there is more and more flights which means more and more people would need accommodation in the hotels located in the airport areas. It is especially an opportunity in Chicago because O'Hare is one of the biggest airports in the world." (Appendix 1)
2.2.4 Threats
When it comes to threats the major threat for O'Hare Inn and Suites is the increasing competiton in the airport area and the hotel can have more and more competitors to compete with in order to get customers.
"The main threat is as I mentioned before the increasing continuous competition in the area. What was also mentioned before the online reviews have very big impact on the hotel choice among our possible guest, so if there will be more bad reviews we will have less and less guests." (Appendix 1)
"As a genral manager I can say that the biggest threat is the increasing competition in the airport area. A lot of people consider O'Hare area as a good place to locate their accommodation or parking business. I was talking with some of the managers from the other hotels nearby and they think the same. Other thing is the increase of bad reviews, if it will continue we will have less and less customers which will finally lead to bancruptcy." (Appendix 2)
Another threat is the seasonality problem. Overall in winter Chicago area is visited by less people because of very harsh winter (travel., 2015).
37
"The other thing is seasonality, we usually have even bigger troubles with occupancy during the winter." (Appendix 1)
However in this case as mentioned in the opportunities section seasonality is sometimes and opportunity for O'Hare Inn and Suites because on the snowy days there is a lot of flight cancelations at the O'hare airport and because of that a lot of people need a room near the airport.
2.3 Partial conclusion 1
As can be concluded from the data analyzed by the SWOT analysis O'Hare Inn and Suites is not performing well right now and has problems with occupancy. It is mainly caused by the negative online reputation and lots of negative reviews on the websites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp. However there are some positive aspects which if consider and used effectivelly will bring the hotel business of O'Hare Inn and Suites on the right track and increase the occupancy rate as well as income. The owner is willing to invest the money on the improvements which will maximize the strengths, minimize the weaknesses and make us of all the opportunities while avoiding the threats.
2.4 Sub-question 2: "What is desired by O'Hare Inn and Suites guests?"
This sub-question will be answered by analysing the results of the questionnare with 100 O'Hare Inn nd Suites guests. After having those results analyzed it will be possible to know what O'Hare Inn and Suites guests are expecting and what they would like to experience in the hotel. Also it will compare the hotel and what it offers with its direct competitors which are other budget hotels in the O'Hare airport area. It will be done through the competitor analysis which is a tool useful in analysing the competitors and its performance, strengths and weaknessess (Fleisher, Benoussan, 2003).
38
2.5 Survey results
Starting from the first question "Is it your first visit to O'Hare Inn and Suites?" 85 % answered yes and only 15 % answered no which gives a clear picture that not many guests are repeating their visits in the hotel. The answers to the second question about the satisfaction about the shuttle services was equal, 50% of the guests were satisfied about the shutle bus services, and 50 % were not. From those who were not satisfied 42 % would like the shuttle to come to the airport more often than once in an hour, and 58 % would like the shutle to take the guest also to the other points of interest in the area such as: All State Arena, Fashion outlets mall of Chicago, Donald Stephens Convention Center and Rivers Casino. If it comes to the third question about satisfaction with the hotel facilities only 19 % of respondents were satisfied and 81 % of them were dissatisfied. Among those who were not satisfied, 40% would like to use wellness facilities such as swimming pool, sauna or spa, 37% of them would like the restaurant to be in the hotel and 23% would like the hotel to have meeting facilities. In the fourth question 38 % were satisfied about the staff which works in the hotel and 62 % were not satisfied about them. From those which were not satisfied 46% claims that the staff was rude and unprofessional and 54% said that everything took too long for example: check inn process, maintenace activiteis, housekeeping service and transport from and to the airport. Regarding the satisfaction about the breakfast provided in the hotel 91% of the guest were not satisfied and only 9 % were satisfied. All of the dissatisfied person said that the breakfast is not a continental breakfast which hotel claims to offer. The continental breakfast should include include sliced bread with butter/jam/honey, cheese, meat, croissants, pastries, rolls, fruit juice and various hot beverages (Business dictionary, 2015). In the next question about the satisfaction about the room 35% of guest were satisfied and 65 % were not satisfied. From those who were dissatisfied most of the people (89%) said that the room was not completly clean and 11% said that there was things missing such as towels, soap etc. If it comes to the price paid, 75 % said that they paid a fair price for their stay and 25 % said that they paid too much. In the open question about what else people would like to experience in the hotel 65% would like to experience some events there such as parties and 35% would be interested in a loyalty program where they will collect the points for their stays there. About the overall evaluation in the
39
scale 1-5 33% evaluate the hotel with the rate 1, 50% gave it 2, 11% gave it rate 3, 4% evaluate the hotel with 4 and only 2% of respondents evaluate the hotel with the highest rate 5. Last but not least question about plans to come back to O'Hare Inn and Suites 10% answered yes, 70% answered no, 16% answerd maybe and 4% do not know.
2.6 Partial Conclusion 2
What can be concluded from the survey results is the fact that guest are not completly satisfied by the services offered by O'Hare Inn and Suites. Also there are some things which people are missing in this hotel and they would like to experience them there, so they will come there more often and give more profit to the hotel.
2.7 Sub-question 3: "How O'Hare Inn and Suites looks in the comparison with its competitors?
This sub-question will be answered by analyzing O'Hare Inn and Suites and its competitors through the competitor analysis. The factors which will be analyzed in the competitors analysis are the factors mentioned by the guests in the survey which they are missing or would like to experience in the hotel.
2.8 Competitor analysis
Competitor analysis is an assessment analysis of existing and potential competitors in strategic management and marketing. It provides an overview in the offensive and defensive strategic context to define opportunities and threats (Fleisher, Bensoussan, 2003). The competitor analysis is very important part of corporate strategy (Bergen, 2014).
In this project competitor analysis will help in analysing the competitors of O'Hare Inn and Suites which are the other budget hotels in the O'Hare Airport area. It will be analyzed what do they offer and those will be compared with O''Hare Inn and Suites. It will provide
40
an overview about what the others are offering and how O'Hare Inn and Suites looks in comparison with those other budget hotels. To conduct the competitor analysis it is neccessary to:
define the industry
define the competitors
define who are the customers and what do they expect
define the key factors which will be analyzed and ranked them with a weighting
rank the competitors in each of the key factors
multiply each rate of the key factors by the weighting (Gordon, 1989)
In case of O'Hare Inn and Suites the competitor analysis looks like this:
1.Industry: Hospitality industry, budget hotels
2. Competitors: 5 other budget hotels in the O'Hare airport area with the similar rate to O'Hare Inn and Suites: Quality Inn O'Hare Airport, Motel 6, Super 8 Chicago O'Hare, Regal Inn and New Budget Motel.
3. Customers: Various people, according to the survey they expect: good quality of hospitality services for a low price.
4. Key factors with weighting: According to the survey the key factors are as follows:
In this case weighting is equal for all the factors (1.25) because there are 10 points to distribute and there is 8 factors. Also all of them are equally important.
41
shuttle bus services 1,25
hotel facilities 1,25
meeting facilities 1,25
staff 1,25
room standard 1,25
price 1,25
events 1,25
loyalty program 1,25
5. Ranking the competitors in all the key factors:
If it comes to the first key factor which are the shuttle bus services Quality Inn O'Hare airport gets 7 because it is going only to the O'Hare airport however it is available 24 h a day every hour (Quality Inn O'Hare, 2015). The next competitor in this factor Motel 6 gets 9 because it is as well available 24h a day every hour plus it can take guests not only to
the airport but also to the nearby points of interest such as: Fashion Outlets of Chicago, River Casino, Donald Stephens Convention Center and AllState arena (Motel , 2015). Next competitor Super 8 Chicago O'Hare was evaluated also with 9 because as well its 24 h and runs every hour to the O'Hare airport and also by request to the local points of interest mentioned before (Super , 2015). Regal Inn is evaluated with 1 because it does not have shuttle services at all (Regal inn O', 2015). Last but not least New Budget Motel is also evaluated with 1 because as well it does not have a shuttle (,2015). In this category O'Hare Inn and Suites was evaluated with 6 because the shuttle goes only to the airport and it is not available 24 hours a days just from 4am until midnight (O'Hare Inn and Suites, 2015).
When it comes to the second category which are hotel facilities Quality Inn O'Hare Airport gets 10 because it has a swimming pool, exercise room, billard room, coffee shop, restaurant, business center for printing etc., laundry and handicapped rooms which are the facilities able to accommodate everyones needs (Quality Inn O'Hare, 2015). The second competitor Motel 6 in this category was evaluated with 7 because it has restaurant, laundry, business center and accessible rooms (Motel , 2015). Super 8 Chicago O'Hare was also evaluated with 10 because the same as Quality Inn O'Hare
42
Airport they have a swimming pool, exercise room, restaurant, business center and additionally a common hot tub (Super , 2015). Regal Inn in this category gets 3 because it does not have all the facilities which the other hotels have, it just has accessible rooms, laundry and a business center (Regal Inn O', 2015). Last but not least competitor New Budget Motel in this category gets 1 again because it does not have any facilities which the other hotels have just the rooms (, 2015). O'Hare Inn and Suites in this category was evaluated just like Regal Inn with 3 because it has only a laundry, accessible rooms and a business center (O'Hare Inn and Suites, 2015).
The next evaluated category are the meeting facilities. Quality Inn in this category gets 10 because it has 2 fully equipped meeting rooms for up to 20 people (Quality Inn O'Hare, 2015). Motel 6 gets 7 because it has one fully equipped meeting room for up to 20 people (Motel , 2015). Super 8 Chicago O'Hare gets 7 as well because the same as Motel 6 it has one fully equipped meeting room for up to 20 people (Super , 2015). Regal Inn, New Budget motel and O'Hare Inn and Suites in this category get 1 because they do
not have meeting facilities at all (Regal Inn O', 2015, , 2015, O'Hare inn and Suites, 2015).
Another evaluated category is the hotel staff. In this category Quality inn and Motel 6 get 6 because they have average rating in this category at TripAdvisor (, 2015). Super 8 gets 8 because the rating on TripAdvisor is almost maximum possible (, 2015). Also according to TripAdvisor (2015) Regall inn has almost maximum rating in terms of staff, and it is even higher than in case of Super 8 so it gets 9. The last competitor gets 5 because the rating in this terms is average and lower than the rating of Quality Inn and Motel 6 (TripAdvisor, 2015). O'Hare Inn and suites in this key factor gets 5 as well (TripAdvisor, 2015).
The fifth key factor to evaluate are the rooms. Quality Inn gets 7 because the rooms are fully equipped (Quality Inn, 2015) however the cleanliness was not evaluated with the maximum rating at the TripAdvisor (TripAdvisor, 2015). Motel 6 gets 7 as well because also the rooms are fully equipped (Motel 6, 2015) however the cleanliness was also evaluated with an average rating at TripAdvisor (TripAdvisor, 2015). Super 8 in this category gets 8 because of the fully equipped rooms (Super 8, 2015) and because the
43
cleanliness at TripAdvisor was evaluated with almost maximum rating (TripAdvisor, 2015). In this category Regal Inn gets 9 because of the clenliness rated with almost maximum at TripAdvisor and even higher than Super 8 (TripAdvisor, 2015) and as well it has fully equipped rooms (Regall Inn O'hare, 2015). Last competitor New Budget Motel gets 5 for fully equipped rooms (, 2015) and average rating on the cleanliness (TripAdvisor, 2015). O'Hare Inn and Suites in this category is evaluated with 5 also for fully equipped rooms (O'Hare Inn and Suites, 2015) and average level of cleanliness (TripAdvisor, 2015).
Next category for the evaluation is the price. Quality Inn with the price 80 USD per night (Quality Inn, 2015) gets 7. Super 8 chicago O'Hare with the price 70 USD (Super 8, 2015) gets 8. Motel 6 with the price 55 USD per night (Motel 6, 2015) gets 10. A night at the Regall Inn cost 60 USD (Regal Inn, 2015) so the hotel gets the rate 9. A night at the New Budget Motel cost 60 USD (, 2015) so it gets 9. The price for a night at O'Hare Inn and Suites is 65 USD (O'Hare Inn and Suites, 2015) so it gets the rate 8.
Next key factor to rate are the events in the hotels. Quality Inn is ocassionally organizing events in the hotel such as: New Years party, Christmass party, Halloween party, Valentines day party etc. (Quality Inn O'Hare, 2015), because of that in this category it gets the rate 8. Motel 6 is as well organizing such parties plus it also organizes parties such as: bingo nights, hawaii party and other types of thematic parties (Motel 6, 2015) so it gets the rate 9 in this category. Super 8 is also getting 8 in this category because the same as Quality Inn it also organizes similar types of events (Super 8, 2015). The three remaining hotels Regal Inn, New Budget Motel and O'Hare Inn and Suites does not organize any kind of parties so in this category they get 1.
Last but not least category to evaluate is the loyalty programme. Quality Inn and Super 8 are offering loyalty programmes where guests are earning points for each stay at the hotel (Quality Inn, 2015, Super 8, 2015). Those hotels in this analysis get the rate 10. However four other hotels: O'Hare Inn and Suites, Motel 6, Regal Inn and New Budger Motel does not offer it, so those get the rate 1.
44
Summing up the competitor analysis, final results look as follows:
Quality Inn O'Hare
shuttle bus services 7 x 1,25 = 8.75
hotel facilities 10 x 1,25 = 12.5
meeting facilities 10 x 1,25 = 12.5
staff 6 x 1,25 = 7.5
room standard 7 x 1,25 = 8.75
price 7 x 1,25 = 8.75
events 8 x 1,25 = 10
loyalty program 10 x 1,25 = 12.5
Total: 81.25
Motel 6 O'Hare
shuttle bus services 9 x 1,25 = 11.25
hotel facilities 7 x 1,25 = 8.75
meeting facilities 7 x 1,25 = 8.75
staff 6 x 1,25 = 7.5
room standard 7 x 1,25 = 8.75
price 10 x 1,25 = 12.5
events 9 x 1,25 = 11.25
loyalty program 1 x 1,25 = 0
Total: 70.00
Super 8 O'Hare
shuttle bus services 9 x 1,25 = 11.25
hotel facilities 10 x 1,25 = 12.5
meeting facilities 7 x 1,25 = 8.75
staff 8 x 1,25 = 10
room standard 8 x 1,25 = 10
price 10 x 1,25 = 12.5
45
events 8 x 1,25 = 10
loyalty program 10 x 1,25 = 12.5
Total: 87.5
Regal Inn
shuttle bus services 1 x 1,25 = 1.25
hotel facilities 1 x 1,25 = 1.25
meeting facilities 3 x 1,25 = 3.75
staff 9 x 1,25 = 11.25
room standard 9 x 1,25 = 11.25
price 9 x 1,25 = 11.25
events 1 x 1,25 = 1.25
loyalty program 1 x 1,25 = 1.25
Total: 42.5
New Budget Motel
shuttle bus services 1 x 1,25=1.25
hotel facilities 1 x 1,25=1.25
meeting facilities 1 x 1,25=1.25
staff 5 x 1,25= 6.25
room standard 5 x 1,25 = 6.25
price 9 x 1,25 = 11.25
events 1 x 1,25 = 1.25
loyalty program 1 x 1,25 = 1.25
Total: 30.00
O'Hare Inn and Suites
shuttle bus services 6 x 1,25 = 7.5
hotel facilities 3 x 1,25 = 3.75
meeting facilities 1 x 1,25 = 1.25
staff 5 x 1,25 = 6.25
46
room standard 5 x 1,25 = 6.25
price 8 x 1,25 = 10
events 1 x 1,25 = 1.25
loyalty program 1 x 1,25 = 1.25
Total: 37.5
2.9 Partial Conclusion 3
From the competitor analysis it can be concluded that O'Hare Inn and Suites is worse than some of its competitors but also better than some of them. However those who got less points overall than O'Hare Inn and Suites in some of the categories got better results. When suggesting the solutions for hotel improvement not only the factor by which the hotel is worse than the competitors who got more points should be taken into consideration but also those in which the overally weaker competitors got more points. It will allow O'Hare Inn and Suites develop its services in the most effective way.
Chapter 3 – Discussion: recommendations and suggestions
3.1 Sub-question 4: "What can be done to improve the hotel?"
This last sub-question will be answered by suggesting solutions and improvements for the existing hotel services at O'Hare Inn and Suites. Also by introducing new services which were not present in the hotel and which possibly can improve the hotel and the occupancy rate at O'Hare Inn and Suites.
47
3.2 Recommendations and suggestions
It was concluded from the analysis that O'Hare Inn and Suites is having problems with satisfying its customers and with the occupancy rate. This is caused mainly by the bad online reputation where people write mostly bad reviews about the hotel. Also O'Hare Inn and Suites does not look good in the comparison with its competitors if it comes to the factors which the possible guest are expecting and which can make them satisfied.
Innovation and change management is crucial in the tourism and hospitality industry and it is very important to be innovative in order to stay competitive on the market(Edgel, Swanson, 2013). Because of that O'Hare Inn and Suites has to improve its existing services and also introduce the new ones which will satisfy the customers needs and as a result increase the occupancy rate in the hotel. Improving the existing hotel services and creating the new ones will help O'Hare Inn and Suites become a better hotel, become competitive toward its competitors and possibly also take an advantage over them (allBusiness, 2014). However there is always a risk of loosing money if the new and improved services are not successful (Hoang 2010:686). The hotel should manage the compalints in an effective way (Welz, 2013) to recover successfully from the negative online reputation, the company which manage to meet customers complaints effectivelly and even exceed their expectations is successful (Straus, Seidel, 1995:59). However it needs actions because even the best plan means nothing without implementation ( Zemke, Bacon, Pugh, Bell, 2000). It will least to customer satisfaction and positive image of the hotel ( Maxham, 2001). In this case the service recovery type will be the service recovery which tries to satisfy customers ( Tax, Brown, 1998). As well it should be insured that the expected service is the same as the service which guests receive from the hotel otherwise there might be service gaps and as a result customer dissatisfaction (Welz, 2013). The service gaps which the hotel is experiencing now are all the five gaps from the service gap model: between consumer expectation and management perception, between management perception and service quality specification, between service quality specification and service delivery, between service delivery and external communication and between finally between expected service and the experienced service
48
(Parasuraman, Zeithaimi, Berry, 1986). Those gaps depend one on another so all of them should be taken into consideration in improving O'Hare Inn and Suites
First of all the innovation implemented at O'Hare Inn and Suites should be the improvement of the shuttle bus services. To become equal with its competitors O'Hare Inn and Suites should extend its shuttle bus services from the airport to be available 24h, and to become even better than the competitors the shuttle should run every 30 minutes from 6 am until midnight and be avaialbe by request during the night (midnight – 6 am). As well it should be available by request for the guests to go to the nearby points of interest such as: Fashion Outlets of Chicago, Allstate Arena, River Casino or Donald Stephens Convention Center (maps., 2015). This solution will make O'Hare Inn and Suites guests more satisfied because in a lot of negative reviews people mentioned bad shuttle services from the airport and that these were not available to go to the other points of interest in the area (TripAdvisor, 2015, Yelp, 2015).
Secondly, the improvement should be the improvement of hotel facilities. In this case lets start from the SPA and Wellness tourism because those facilities are desired by a lot of guests who completed the survey. Wellness tourism is about promoting well-being and health by psychical, psychological and spiritual activities (Dimon, 2013). It is connected with medical tourism however it is not about travelling to receive medical treatment for particular illness, but its about looking for prevention of the illnessess (Smith, Puczko, 2009). Wellness travellers are looking for variety of different services such as: physical fitness and sports, diet and weight management, beauty treatments, meditation, relaxation and stress relief, health related education and joga. The travellers have a choice between alternative, conventional, herbal, complementary and homeopathic medicine (Cooper, Cooper, 2009). Wellness tourism can be experienced in different facilities including: Hospitals, medical centers, hotels and hospitality, resorts and retreats which offer specific programs adressing specific health issues (Fitzsimmons, 2012). O'Hare Inn and Suites should take this solution into consideration and invest money in wellness facilities because wellness tourism is a big industry and it is all the time growing (Geib, 2014). In this case O'Hare Inn and Suites should invest some money in some wellness facilities like some of their competitors. It does not have to be a big wellness center, a small indoor swimming pool so it can be used all year, an exercise room, a small sauna and a hot tub should be enough to compete successfully with the competitors and even take the advantage over
49
them. If it comes to space for those facilities, O'Hare Inn and Suites has some space in the hotel which is not used.
Next soulution which should be implemented at O'Hare Inn and Suites desired by the guests and which its competitors already have is the business tourism. Business tourism is more limited part of regular tourism (Lemmon, 2003). In Business tourism people are still working and getting paid but they are away from their homes (Garrod, 2012). The business tourism activities include conferencess, meetings, exhibitions etc. (Garrod, 2012). Comparing to regular tourism in business tourism there is a smaller population, with various motivations and a freedom of choice limited by the business aspects (Lemmon, 2003). Typical destinations for business tourism are cities, idustrial regions etc. An average business tourist is more wealthy and more willing to spend more money (Sharma, 2004). Business tourism is divided into two categories: primary activities business work
related which include: consultations, inspections and attending meeting and secondary activities related to tourism such as dining out, recreation, shopping, sightseeing and leisure meeting (Lemmon, 2003). Primary ones are more important and the secondary one are "substantial" (Weber, Chon, 2002). It can include individual and small group travel and destinations can involve small and large meetings like conferencess, conventions, exhibitions and trade-fairs (Lemmon, 2003). Most tourist facilities such as airports, hotels etc are shared between leisure and business tourists however it also depend on the seasons, for example in the low season there might be more business tourists (Robinson, Sine, 2011). Last but not least business tourism is divided into:
Traditional business travel and meetings which are face to face meetings with business partners (Sharma, 2004).
Incentive trips which are trips for the employees to motivate them more (Garrod, 2012).
Conference and exhibition travelling with the purpose of attending large meetings (Sharma, 2004).
In this case O'Hare Inn and Suites should invest the money to use some of the unused
50
space in the hotel to create one or two meeting rooms with the capacity for up to 20 people, because some of the guests also desired that, they would like to organize some small business meetings with business partners there or a meeting withing the company employees, which would be cheaper than renting a meeting space in the big hotel chains such as Hilton or Sheraton. It will bring more guests to O'Hare Inn and suites, increase the income and as well keep the guests happy by fulfilling their needs. Also this will help the hotel compete successfully with its competitors who already have those meeting facilities.
Another solution should be the improvement of the additional hotel facilities at O'Hare Inn and Suites except the ones which were already mentioned. In this category O'Hare Inn and Suites should open a small restaurant and a small shop with the snacks where people can eat something or buy some snacks. It does not need to be big, just a small ones similar to the ones which its competitors are having in their properties. It will make
customers more happy and willing to visit or to return to O'Hare Inn and Suites.
Next area which requires improvement at O'Hare Inn and Suites to be more successfull towards the competition and to attract more people to come to the hotel and possibly reccommend the hotel to the others is the improvement of the staff who works there. Training and development of the employees is part of human resource management focused on the organizational activity with the objective to increase the performance of the organization's employees (Harrison, 2005). There are three main activities included (Montana, Chamov, 2000):
Training which is concentrated on the job which the person is currently performing (Garavan, Costine, Hersty, 1995)
Education which focus on the tasks which the particular employee can possibly performs (Garavan, Costine, Hersty, 1995)
Development which is about the activities which the company is employing the person or the person is part of, might perform in the future, and is almost impossible to evaluate (Garavan, Costine, Hersty, 1995)
51
Typical types of the training include: supervisory and executive management development, new employee orientation, professional skills training, technical/job training, customer service training, sales and marketing training, health and safety training.
The biggest advantage of training and development is that it helps building loyalty of the employees to the company and as a result their work performance towards the customers is better (Lipman, 2013).
O'Hare Inn and Suites should provide a customer service training to its employees which is about teaching the employees the skills, knowledge and competences required to provide service which will increase customer satisfaction (Torrington, Hall, Taylor, 2004). It will teach the employees how to deal with the guest in a nice way and in a way that the
guest will be satisfied about the service and willing to return. As well it would be a good idea to organize some team building activities for the employees. Team building is about using different types of group activities to increase social realtaions between the employees (Salas, Diazgranados, Klein, Burke, Stagl, Goodwin, Halping, 2009). It is believed that when the social relations between the employees are good, then their work performance is better because they enjoy comming to work (Macy, Izumi, 1993). Team building is different than the team training, it is not formal and systematic, as well as it is not performed in a working evironment of the employees (Salas, Priest, DeRouin, 2005). The four elements of team building are:
Goal setting – setting and achieving individual and group goals
Building effective working relationships – Increasing team work skills
Role clarification – improvement of the communication about the tasks of particular employees
Finding soultions to team problems (Schuffler, DiazGranados, Salas, 2011).
52
The most effective team building activities are those where employees are completly independent in performing the task and when the management actively establish and support the team (Sanborn, Huszczo, 2007).
In this case O'Hare Inn and Suites should organize for its employees something where the employees will be independent in performance. It will help the company to build effective working relationships between the employees, clarufy what are their task, find solutions to the existing problems and set the goals which everybody would like to achieve together. The example of the team building activities for O'Hare Inn and Suites could be paintball, bowling and any other activities in which they would be divided into teams which compete with another team to be better. It will not affect a hotel budget in big scale but can bring a lot of positive effects for the future hotel operation. Employees will be better at
performing their tasks which will bring more customer satisfaction.
When it comes to the next key factor – the rooms, all of the competitors offer more or less similar standard of rooms. However according to the comments on TripAdvisor and Yelp O'Hare Inn and Suites does not have the highest standard if it comes to the clenliness of the rooms comparing with its competitors (TripAdvisor, 2015, Yelp, 2015). The solution for this should be a training for the housekeeping department so they will know how to clean the rooms more effectivelly in a way which will satisfy the guests expectations.
Next factor is the proce which does not need any improvement because O'Hare Inn and Suites is offering fair and competitive price in comparison to its competitors. The hotel should also keep this price after implementing the improvements because it will allow it to be competitive with the other, they will offer more for the same price which they are offering now for the accommodation in a hotel which needs improvements.
O'Hare Inn and Suites guest would also like to experience events in the hotel. Comparing to the other hotels O'Hare Inn and Suites is not organizing anything so it is not competitive in this area.
Event management is the implementation of to the development and creation of events such as festivals, conferencess, formal parties, ceremonies, conventions, concerts
53
and other different kinds of events. It includes studying the brand, identyfying the target group, developing the event concept, planning logistics and coordinating the technical aspects before the event (Ramsborg, Miller, Breiter, Reed, Rushing, 2008). The process of creating the event is called event planning and involve: scheduling, budgeting, getting permits, selection of the sites, transport and parking coordination, arranging speakers and entertainment, decorating, arranging catering, security and emergency plans (Bowdin, Allen, O'Toole, Harris, McDonnell, 2008). Nowadays event industry include all sizes of events from the Olympics to business meetings. A lot of different types of organizations also create events to market themselves and raise the public awareness (Ramsborg, Miller, Breiter, Reed, Rushing, 2008). Events are developed by event managers who execute the events, take responsibility for the creative, logistic and technical aspects of the events (Bowdin, Allen, O'Toole, Harris, McDonell, 2008).
In this case O'hare Inn and Suites should consider organizing some seasonal events to be competitive with its competitors. The examples of such events can include, Christmass Party, New Years party, Valentines day party and as well Halloween party. Additionally hotel can organize some social party for the guests such as: bingo nights or social nights with drinks for the guests currently staying in the hotel. This will not only help to be equal with the competitors but also to even take advantage over them by doing something extra because as mentioned in the competitor analysis O'Hare Inn and Suites competitors only organize some occassional parties. Also it will be positive for the guest because they can socialise with other guests and possibly make some new friendship, this will position O'Hare Inn and Suites positively in their minds so they will be willing to return there and also reccommend the hotel to the others.
Last but not least improvement which O'Hare Inn and Suites should focus on should be the development of the loyalty program. Loyalty programs are marketing efforts which aim at rewarding the customers and at the same time encourage them to loyal buying behavior which is also benefiting the company (Sharp, Sharp, 1997). A loyalty card is a card which visually looks like a credit card and identifies that the particular customer is a loyalty club member allowed for the benefits (elect-, 2011). These are the system of loyalty business model where guest are collecting points and later they can exchange those points for particular benefits which the company is offering (, 2012). Loyalty programs are considered as a form of centralized virtual currency with undurected cash
54
flow because the points collected can only be exchanged for the points and not back to cash (European Central Bank, 2012).
The loyalty program which O'Hare Inn and Suites can introduce to its guests is the program where guest will be getting points for their stays in the hotel and later they can exchange those points on the discounts in the night rates and also drinks or snacks at the bar. It will be set what benefits the guests can get for a specific number of points collected, and how many points will be collected for particular thing. This will help bring back customers because they will have something to exchange the points for and also will make them feel positive about the hotel in general. It is very important in the service industry to have reqular customers who will regularly visit the hotel and giving the hotel an income (Oliver, 1997).
Additionally, the hotel should improve its marketing and advertise itself in a clear, visible and catchy way so the possible customers will consider chooseing O'Hare Inn and Suites over its competitors. Positioning and the effective communication are the crucial elements of advertising services and products (Fyall, Garrod, 2005). Moreover according to Tourism marketing mix which is the tourism industry equivalent of a classic marketing mix (Holloway, 2004) the guests should get the same value as appears in the advertisments for the fair price with no access issues (Fyall, Garrod, 2005). O'Hare Inn and Suites should also use ICT solutions in marketing because these are very powerfull and effective tools in attracting customers (Tsiotsou, Goldsmith, 2012). The hotel should improve its website which is very old, poor and does not provide all neccessary information (O'Hare Inn and , 2015) as well as its facebook fan page where no new information are posted and there are not many photos etc. (O'Hare Inn and Suites, 2015). Those powerful online channel will help to position the hotel positively in peoples minds (Tsiotsou, Goldsmith, 2012).
55
3.3 Final Conclusion
Based on the data collected in the both field and desk research – interviews, document analysis and online research it was already summed up in the partial conclusion 1 that O'Hare Inn and Suites has problems with occupancy rate due to bad online reputation. In the second partial conclusion it was concluded what O'Hare Inn and Suites guest are expecting from the hotel and in the third one how O'Hare Inn and looks in the comparison to its direct competitors which are the other budget hotel in the O'Hare airport area. The result of this competitor analysis was not very positive for O'Hare Inn and Suites. However there is also a positive aspect for O'Hare Inn and Suites because the owner Babu Patel is willing to invest money which he has from his other business on the development of O'Hare Inn and suites so it will be more competitive towards its competitors. Those solutions include the improvement of the existing hotel services and human resources, creating new services and facilities in the hotell, development of the hotel as a business tourism and wellness tourism destination, and also implementation of the loyalty program. All of those suggestions as well will require a lot of work and resources to implement successfullly. It will require O'Hare Inn and Suites to change the way it operates now, change in the hotel offer and as mentioned financial investments. To be successfull everything most be done correctly with care and with attention to details. If this happens then O'Hare Inn and Suites has a very big chance to compete more successfully with its competitors, increase the customer satisfaction of the guests and also increase the occupancy rate. As a result the hotel will increase its income so the financial investments spent on the improvements will pay back.
56
List of references
Airport World (2013). Top Ten Airports: Passengers Traffic 2013. Retrieved on February 8th from .
Aldebert B, Dang R.J, Longhi C. (2011). Innovation in tourism industry: The case of Tourism. Tourism Management, 32(5). pp. 1204 – 1213.
allBusiness (2014). Brand switching. Retrieved on March 29th 2015 from:
Alsos A.G, Eide D, Lier Madsen E. (2014). Handbook of Research on Innovation in Tourism Industries. Glos: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
American Marketing Association (2014). Definition of Marketing. Retrieved on March 23rd 2015 from:
Babbie E. (2007). The Practice of Social Research. 11th edition. Belmont CA: Thompson - Wadsworth. pp. 87-89.
Bergen M. (2002). Competitor Identification and Competitor Analysis: A Broad-Based Managerial Approach. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota.
Bergman M. (2008). Advances in Mixed Methods Research: Theories and Applications. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Bhatia, A. K. (2007) The Business of Tourism : Concepts and Strategies (1. Ed.). New Dehli: Sterling Publishers.
Binder-Kissel U. (2003). Beschwerden als Chancen nutzen: Beschwerdemanagement erfolgreich umsetzen. Eschborn: RKW Verlag.
Bloodgood, James (2013). "Benefits and Drawbacks of Innovation and Imitation". International Journal of Innovation and Business Strategy. 2
(2015). New Budget Motel. Retrieved on May 2nd 2015 from: .
Bowdin G, Allen J, Harris R, McDoonell I, O'Toole W. (2012). Events Management. Abington: Routledge. 57
Boyce C, Neale P. (2006) Conducting In-depth Interviews: A guide for designing and conducting in-depth interviews for evaluation input. Watertown: Pathfinder International. pp.4
Bowen G, A. (2009). Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method. Qualitative Research Journal, Vol. 9 Iss: 2, pp.27 – 40
Bowen & Clarke (2009) Contemporary Tourist Behaviour. Yourself and Others as Tourists. Wallingford: Cabi Tourism Texts.
Boxil I, Chambers C, M., Wint E. (1997). Introduction to Social Research. Kingston: Canoe Press. pp. 116
Brewer J, Hunter A. (2006). Foundations of multimethod research: Synthesizing styles. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Bryman A. (2012). Social research methods. New York: Oxford University Press.
Buhalis D, Law R. (2008). Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the internet – The state of eTourism research. Tourism Management, 26(4). pp. 609-623.
Buhalis D, Licata M. (2002). "The future eTourism intermediaries". Tourism Management, 23 (3) pp. 207-220.
Burgess, R.G.(1984). In the Field. London: Allen and Unwin
Burns, A. C., & Bush, R. F. (2010). Marketing Research. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Business Dictionary (2015). Continental Breakfast. Retrieved on March 7th 2015 from: .
Butscher S. (2002). Customer Loyalty: Programmes and Clubs. Burlington: Gower Publishing Company.
Buttle F. (1996) "SERVQUAL: review, critique, research agenda" European Journal of Marketing, Vol.30, Issue 1, pp.8–31
Chron (2015). Advantages and Disadvantages of Innovative Technology. Retrieved on May 1st 2015 from: .
Cooper P, Cooper M. (2009). Health and Wellness Tourism: SPAs and Hot Springs. Bristol: Channel View Publications.
Coyne, I. T. (1997). Sampling in qualitative research. Purposeful and theoretical sampling: Merging or clear boundaries? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26, 623-630.
Cozby P.C. (2001). Measurement Concepts. Methods in Behavioral Research (7th ed.). California: Mayfield Publishing Company.
58
Cronbach L. J. (1971). Test validation. In R. L. Thorndike (Ed.). Washington: American Council on Education.
Crowther D, Lancaster G. (2012) Research methods: A concise introduction to research in management and business consultancy (2nd edition). Oxford: Elsevier Ltd. pp.23-25.
D'Ambra J, Wilson C. (2004). “Use of the World Wide Web for international travel: integrating the construct of uncertainty in information seeking and the task-technology fit(TTF) model.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55 (8) pp. 731-742.
Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2005). The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Devashish, D. (2011). Tourism Marketing. Noida: Dorley Kindersley Pt. Ltd.
Dimon A. (2013). Wellness Travel: 10 Trends for 2014 and Beyond. Retrieved on April 17th 2015 from:
Drucker P. (2012). Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 229.
Eagly A.H, Wood W, Chaiken S. (1978). “Causal inferences about communicators and their effect on opinion change.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36 (4) pp. 424-435.
Edgell D.L, Swanson J. (2013). Tourism Policy and Planning: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Oxon: Routledge.
Ehow (2015). Advantages and Disadvantages of Simple Random Sampling. Retrieved on March 10th 2015 from: .
Elect- (2014). Glossary L. Retrieved on May 10th 2015 from: .
Entrepreneur (2015). Creating a Product Prototype. Retrieved on March 4th 2015 from: .
(2007). New media review - From the European travel comission: Online travel market. Retrieved on March 23rd 2015 from: .
59
(2015). O'Hare Inn and Suites. Retrieved on May 4th 2015 from: .
Farris, Paul W.; Neil T. Bendle; Phillip E. Pfeifer; David J. Reibstein (2010). Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
Ferrell O.C, Lucas B.A, Schembri S, Ninninen O. (2012). Marketing Principles. Victoria: Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited.
Fitzsimmons A. (2012). Healthy Travel: Searching for Wellness on the road. Retrieved on March 15th 2015 from: .
Fleischer C, Bensoussan B. (2007). Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods. New York: FT Press.
Flick, U. (2009). An Introduction to Qualitative Research.Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.
Forbes (2013). Why employee development is important, neglected and can cost you talent. Retrieved on May 10th 2015 from: .
Fornell C. (1978). "Corporate consumer affairs departments-a communication perspective". Journal of consumer policy 2 289-302.
Fyall A., & Garrod, B.(2005). Tourism Marketing: A Collaborative Approach. Clevedon: Channel View Publications.
Gall, M. D., Borg, W. R., Gall, J. P. (2003). Educational research: An introduction. (7th Edition). White Plains, New York: Longman.
Garavan T.A, Costine P. and Heraty N. (1995). Training and Development: Concepts, Attitudes, and Issues. Training and Development in Ireland. Andover: Cengage Learning EMEA. pp. 1.
Garrod B. (2012). "Business tourism". In Peter Robinson.Tourism: The Key Concepts. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 18–22.
60
Geib C. (2014). Top 10 Wellness Tourism Trends for 2014. Retrieved on April 10th 2015 from:
Gitman, Lawrence J.; Carl D. McDaniel (2005). The Future of Business: The Essentials. Mason: South-Western.
Given L. M. (2008). The Sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Goeldner Ch, Ritchie J.R. Brent. (2012). Tourism : principles, practices, philosophies. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Golafshani N. (2003). Understanding Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research. The Qualitative Report. Volume 8 Number 4 December 2003 pp. 601
Google maps (2015) O'Hare Inn and Suites. Retrieved on April 15th 2015 from: 'Hare+Inn+%26+Suites/@41.952914,-87.88519,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x880fb5b0908e7697:0x64af480dad152b57.
Gordon, Ian (1989). Beat the Competition: How to Use Competitive Intelligence to Develop Winning Business Strategies. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishers.
Grieves, Jim (2010). Organizational Change: Themes and Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
Griffin J. (1997). Customer Loyalty: How to earn it, how to keep it? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Gubrium J., Holstein J., Marvasti, A., McKinney K., (2012). The SAGE Handbook of Interview Research: The complexity of the Craft - Internet Interviewing. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Guion L.A, Diehl D.C, McDonald D. (2013). Conducting In-depth interview. Retrieved on April 2nd 2015 from:
Gwet K, L. (2010). Handbook of inter-rater reliability. Gaithersburg: Advanced Analytics LLC. pp. 5
Halstead D, Morash E, and Ozment J. (1996) "Comparing Objective Service Failures and Subjective Complaints: An Investigation of Domino and Halo Effects." Journal of Business Research 36, no. 2 (1996): 107-15.
Harrison R. (2005). Learning and Development. CIPD Publishing. p.5.
Heaton, J. (2004). Reworking Qualitative Data. London: SAGE Publications.
61
Hennig-Thurau T, Gwinner K, Walsh G, Gremler D. (2004). “Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: what motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet?” Journal of Interactive Marketing. Vol. 18(1) pp. 38-52
Henry A. (2008). Understanding Strategic Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heritage, J. (1984). Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Hoang P. (2010). Business and Management. Melton: IBID Press. pp. 686.
Holloway,C. J. (2004). Marketing for Tourism. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Hunter, Laura; Leahey, Erin (2008). "Collaborative Research in Sociology: Trends and Contributing Factors". The American Sociologist 39(4): 290
IATA (2013). Airline expect 31% rise in passenger demand by 2017. Retrieved on March 16th 2015 from: .
Investopedia (2014). Product differentiation. Retrieved on March 19th 201 from:
Joby J (2003). Fundamentals of Customer-Focused Management: Competing Through Service. Westport: Praeger.
Joppe M. (2000). The Research Process. Retrieved on March 1st 2015 from .
Kallet R.H. (2004) "How to Write the Methods Section of a Research Paper." Respiratory Care 49 (October 2004): 1229-1232.
Kaplan, R. M., & Saccuzzo, D. P. (2009). Psychological testing: Principles, applications, and issues. Belmont: Wadsworth
Keller P, Bieger T. (2010) Managing change in tourism. Berlin: Erin Schmidt Verlag.
Kimaldi (2015). Customer loyalty system and point cards. Retrieved on: May 10th 2015 from: .
Kotler P., Armstrong G. (2006). Principles of marketing. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall pp.122
Krathwohl D.R (1993). Methods of Educational and Social Science Research : An Integrated Approach. London: Longman Publishing Group.
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1961). "The Function of Measurement in Modern Physical Science". Isis 52(2): 161–193 (162).
Kuhnle T. (2004). Customer Loyalty Program – Tourist Destination and Bonus Card System. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag.
62
Kumar S, Singh S. (2007). Business Research Methods.
Lages L. & Fernandes J. (2005) "The SERPVAL scale: A multi-item instrument for measuring service personal values" Journal of Business Research, Vol.58, Issue 11, pp.1562–1572.
Lee J. (2008) An Overview of Change Management in the Hospitality Industry. Retrieved on: February 10th 2015 from
Lennon J. (2003).Tourism statistics: International perspectives and current issues. Independence: Cengage Learning EMEA. pp. 106.
Macy B. A. & Izumi H. (1993). “Organizational change, design and work innovation: A meta-analysis of 131 North American field experiments 1961-1991.” In Pasmore W. & Woodman R. (Eds.) Research in organizational change and development. Greenwich: JAI.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2010). "Gateway to the profession of planning". Fall 2010 pp. 4.
McCabe D, Rosenbaum M, Yurchisin J. (2007), “Perceived Service Quality and Shopping Motivations: A Dynamic Relationship” Services Marketing Quarterly, 29 (1), 1-21.
McIntosh M. J, & Morse J. M. (2012). The diversification, utilization and construction of the semi-structured interview. Manuscript submitted for publication.
McNeal, J. U. and Lamb C.W (1979) Consumer Satisfaction as a Measure of Marketing Effectiveness. Akron Business and Economic Review 10:41-45
MacNealy, M. S. (1999). Strategies for empirical research in writing. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
Maxham, James G. III. (2001) "Service Recovery's Influence on Consumer Satisfaction, Word-of-Mouth, and Purchase Intentions." Journal of Business Research 54, no. October (2001): 11-24.
Mellenbergh G.J. (2008). Chapter 10: Tests and Questionnaires: Construction and administration. Huizen: Johannes van Kessel Publishing.
Middleton V.T.C, Clarke J.R. (2001). Marketing in Travel and Tourism (3rd Edition). Oxford: Butterworth – Heinemann.
63
Milano R, Baggio R, Piatelli R. (2011). The effects of online social media on tourism websites. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism.
Monsen E, Van Horn L. (2008). Research: Successful Approaches Third Edition. pp. 5
Montana P.J and Charnov B.H (2000). Training and Development Management. Hauppauge: Barron's Educational Series. pp.225.
Moscardo G. (2008). Building Community Capacity for Tourism Development. Wallingford: CABI Publishing.
Moskal, B.M., & Leydens, J.A. (2000). Scoring rubric development: Validity and reliability. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(10). Retrieved on 17th April 2015 from: ].
Motel 6 Chicago O'Hare (2015). Motel 6 Chicago O'Hare. Retrieved on April 21st 2015 from: .
Munn P., & Drever E. (2004). Using questionnaires in small-scale research: A beginner's guide. Glasgow: Scottish Council for Research in Education.
Nyeck S, Morales M, Ladhari R, & Pons F. (2002). "10 years of service quality measurement: reviewing the use of the SERVQUAL instrument." Cuadernos de Difusion, 7(13), 101-107. Retrieved on March 8th 2015 from EBSCOhost database.
Nunkoosing, K. (2005). The Problems With Interviews in Qualitative Health Research, May, Vol 15, No. 5, pp. 698-706;
OECD (2006). Innovation and Growth in Tourism. Paris: OECD.
O'Hare Inn and Suites (2015) About Us. Retrieved on February 8th 2015 from .
O'Hare Inn and Suites (2015) Attractions. Retrieved on February 8th 2015 from .
O'Hare Inn and Suites (2015). Home. Retrieved on February 8th 2015 from .
O'Hare Inn and Suites (2015) Room types. Retrieved on February 8th 2015 from .
O'Hare Inn and Suites Sales report 2013
O'Hare Inn and Suites Sales report 2014
Oliver R.L. (1999). "Whence Consumer Loyalty". Journal of Marketing. Vol. 63.
64
Olsen P.B, Pedersen K. (2008). Problem-Oriented Project Work – a workbook. Roskilde: Roskilde University Press. pp. 21
Opdenakker R. (2006). "Advantages and Disadvantages of Four Interview Techniques in Qualitative Research". Vol. 7 (4)
Pahl, N., Richter, A., (2007) SWOT Analysis –Idea, Methodology and A Practical Approach. Munich: Grin Verlag
Palys, T. (2008). "Purposive sampling." The Sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods 2: 697-698.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.
Pepels W. (1997). Lexikon de Marktforschung. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag.
Peterson R, Wilson W. (1992). “Measuring Customer Satisfaction”. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Vol. 20 (1).
Picone I. (2007). “Conceptualising online news use in Observatorio (OBS*)”. Journal 1(3).
Pride W., Ferrel O.C.(2006) Marketing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Prideaux B, Moscardo G, Laws E. (2008). Managing Tourism and Hospitality Services: Theory and International Applications. Wallingford: CABI.
Quality Inn O'Hare Airport (2015). Hotel Services. Retrieved on April 20th 2015 from: .
Ramsborg G.C; Miller B, Breiter D, Reed B.J & Rushing A (2008). Professional meeting management: Comprehensive strategies for meetings, conventions and events 5th ed. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing.
Regal Inn (2015). Amenities. Retrieved on May 2nd 2015 from: .
Riscinto-Kozub K.A. (2008). The Effects of Service Recovery Satisfaction on Customer Loyalty and Future Behavioral Intentions: An Exploratory Study in the Luxury Hotel Industry. Ann Arbor: Pro Quest LLC.
Ritchie, B., Burns, W., Palmer, L., (2005) Tourism Research Methods: Integrating Theory with Practice. Cambridge: CABI Publishing.
Ritchie J.R, Crouch G.I. (2003). The Competitive Destination – S Sustainable Tourism Perspective. Wallingford: CABI Publishing.
65
Robinson P, Heitmann S, Dieke P. (2011). Research Themes for Tourism. Wallingford: CABI. pp.132.
Salas E., Diazgranados, D, Klein C, Burke C. S, Stagl K. C, Goodwin G. F. & Halpin S. M. (2009). "Does Team Training Improve Team Performance? A Meta-Analysis. Human Factors." The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 50(6), 903-933.
Salas E, Priest H. A., & DeRouin R. E. (2005). Team building. In N. Stanton, H. Hendrick, S. Konz, K. Parsons, & E. Salas (Eds.), Handbook of human factors and ergonomics methods (pp. 48-1, 48-5). London: Taylor & Francis.
Sanborn L. O. and Huszczo G.E. Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Saunders M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for business students. London: Pearson Education Limited. pp.489-490
Savin-Baden, M. & Major, C. (2013). Qualitative Research: The Essential Guide to Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.
Sharma K.K. (2004). World Tourism Today. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. pp. 253.
Sharp B. and Sharp A. (1997), "Loyalty Programs and Their on Repeat-Purchase Loyalty Patterns". International Journal of Research in Marketing, 14 (5), 473-86.
Shields P.M, Rangarajan N. (2013). A Playbook for Research Methods: Integrating Conceptual Frameworks and Project Management. Stillwater: New Forums Press. pp. 109-158
Shields P.M, Tajalli H. (2006). Intermediate Theory: The Missing Link in Successful Student Scholarship. Journal of Public Affairs Education. Vol. 12, No. 3. Pp. 313-334.
Smith T. (1989). "Nurturing a Customer Service Culture." Retail Control. October, 15-18.
Smith A, Bolton R, Wagner J. (1999). “A model of Customer Satisfaction with Service Encounters Involving Failure and Recovery”. Journal of Marketing Research. Vol 36 (3).
Smith M, Puczko L. (2009). Health and Wellness Tourism. Burlington: Elsevier.
Sparks B, Browning V. (2011). "The Impact of online reviews on hotel booking
66
intentions and perception of trust". Tourism Management. Vol 32 (6) pp. 1310-1323.
Stamboulis Y, Skayannis P, (2003). Innovation strategies and technology for experience-based tourism. Tourism Managament 24(2003). pp. 35-43
Stebbins R. (2001). Exploratory research in the Social Sciences. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. pp. 5-6
Stauss B, Wolfgang S. (2005) Complaint Management. The Heart of CRM. Mason: Thomson.
Stauss B., Seidel, W. (2002) Beschwerdemanagement - Kundenbeziehungen erfolgreich managen durch Customer Care, 3. edition. München, Wien
Sturges, J., Hanrahan, K., (2004). Comparing Telephone and Face-to-Face Qualitative Interviewing: a Research Note in Qualitative Research. SAGE Journals, April, vol. 4, No. 1, pp 107-118
Sullivan, (2009). The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Science. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publication Inc.
Super 8 (2015). Super 8 Chicago O'Hare Airport. Retrieved on May 1st 2015 from: hotels/illinois/elk-grove-village/super-8-chicago-ohare-airport/hotel-overview.
Tassiopoulos D. (2008). New Tourism Ventures: An Entrepreneurial and Managerial Approach. Cape Town: Juta & co Ltd.
Tax, Stephen S., and Stephen W. Brown. "Recovering and Learning from Service Failures." Sloan Management Review, Fall (1998): 75-88.
The National Science Education Standards (1996). Retrieved on March 16th 2015 from: )
Teufel M. (2010). Social Media im Tourismus. Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag Gmbh.
Torrington D, Hall L, Taylor S (2004). Human Resource Management. Pearson Education. p.363.
(2007). Travel reviews: Consumers are changing your brand and reputation online. Retrieved on March 24th 2015 from: .
TripAdvisor (2015). O'Hare Inn and Suites Reviews. Retrieved on March 23rd 2015 from .
67
TripAdvisor (2015). Home. Retrieved on March 28th 2015 from: .
TripAdvisor (2015). Motel 6 Chicago O'Hare Airport. Retrieved on May 1st 2015 from: .
TripAdvisor (2015). New Budget Motel. Retrieved on May 1st 2015 from: .
TripAdvisor (2015). O'Hare Inn and Suites. Retrieved on February 15th 2015 from .
TripAdvisor (2015). Quality Inn O'Hare Airport. Retrieved on April 29th from: .
TripAdvisor (2015) Regal Inn. Retrieved on May 1st 2015 from:
TripAdvisor (2015). Super 8 Chicago O'Hare Airport. Retrieved on April 28th 2015 from: .
Tsiotsou R.H, Goldsmith R.E. (2012). Strategic Marketing in Tourism Services. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Tuominen P. (2011). The Influence of TripAdvisor Consumer-Generated Travel. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Business School Working Paper.
University of Idaho (1999). Sampling Techniques: Advantages and Disadvantages. Retrieved on March 10th 2015 from:
68
University of Texas (2007). Survey Question Types. Retrieved on March 20th 2015 from:
University of Westminster (2010). Small firms innovation. Retrieved on March 23rd 2015 from:
US News (2015). Best Times to Visit Chicago. Retrieved on February 23rd 2015 from: .
Van Audenhove, L. (2007). Expert interviews and interview techniques for policy analysis.
Vermeulen I.E, Seegers D. (2009). “Tried and Tested: The impact of online hotel reviews on consumer consideration.” Tourism Management. Vol. 30 (1) pp. 123-127.
Weber K, Chon K.S (2002). Convention Tourism: International Research and Industry Perspectives. Abingdon: Psychology Press. pp. 20.
Weiermair K, Brunner-Sperdin A. (2006). Erlebnisinszenierung in Tourismus: Erfolgreich mit emotionalen Produkten und Erlebnissen. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.
Weiemair K, Walder B, Perez S. (2006). Innovation and Product Development in Tourism: Creating Sustainable Advantage. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.
Welz S. (2006). Complaint Management – A short overview. Nordenstedt: GRIN Verlag.
Werthner H, Klein S. (2000). ICT and the changing landscape of global tourism distribution. International Journal of Electronic Commerce and Business Media, 9(4). pp. 256-262.
Wong, S.K.S. (2014). Impacts of environmental turbulence on entrepreneurial orientation and new product success. European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp.229 – 249.
Yates D.S, Moore D.S, Starnes D.S. (2008). The Practice of Statistics, 3rd Ed. New York: WH Freeman and company.
Yelp (2015). Home. Retrieved on March 28th 2015 from:
69
Yelp (2015). O'Hare Inn and Suites. Retrieved on February 16th 2015 from .
Yelp (2015) O'Hare Inn and Suites Reviews. Retrieved on March 23rd 2015 from:
Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Zeithaml V, Berry L, Parasuraman D. (1993). “The Nature and Determinants of Customer Expectations of Service”. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Vol. 21 (1).
Zemke R, Bell C. (2000). Knock your Socks off Service Recovery. New York: Amacom.
Appendixes
Appendix 1 – Interview with O'Hare Inn and Suites owner – Babu Patel
1. How long are you the owner of O'Hare Inn and Suites?
I am owing O'Hare Inn and Suites for about 10 years, starting in 2005.
2. What is the present situation of O'Hare Inn and Suites as a business from your perspective?
To be honest it is not very good, we are experiencing a decrease in sales and in a number of visits in the hotel, there is a lot of nights when the occupancy is really low even for such a small hotel with less than 70 rooms. It is never a good situation for any type of hotel, but it is especially killing us as a small private business.
70
3. What do you think is the reason for this?
It could be caused by the big number of bad reviews in the internet on the websites such as Trip Advisor. People might be afraid to come here now because of that. However there were also quite a lot of people who said that they really enjoyed staying here, but the problem is that those people do not share their experience online. It might be because most of those people were older people who do not use internet so much.
4. What about the competition?
Yes, that could be the other reason. There is more and more budget hotels in the O'Hare airport area, so the cometition is increasing. Also our other competition are the two new parking lots in the area who charge only 5 USD a day for parking so people are no longer interested in our park and fly package.
5. Do you have any plans how to recover from this difficult situation?
Yes, I have some plans to invest more money in the hotel. My other businesses in the Chicago area are prospering very good so I have the money to invest them into O'Hare Inn and Suites improvement. However I must know exactly what people are expecting from O'Hare Inn and Suites and if those expectations are real to fullfill because obviously O'Hare Inn and Suites is not going to be like Hilton or Sheraton, this is completly different level. People can not expect the impossible things from a budget hotel and I must also be sure that those investments will pay off in the future.
71
6. What are the strong aspects of you hotel?
Definitelly our biggest advantage is the location, it takes about 10 minutes from our hotel to get to O'Hare airport, and among all the other budget hotels in the area it is the shortest distance. The other advantage is the price because our prices are really affordable and are among ones of the cheapest in the area.
7. What are the weak aspects of your hotel?
If it comes to weaknesses it is very difficult for the hotel owner to talk about them and actualy it is definitelly our bad online reputation, so I suggest that you check the online reviews to collect those information or possibly ask our guests for the opinion.
8. What are the threats for your hotel?
The main threat is as I mentioned before the increasing continuous competition in the area. What was also mentioned before the online reviews have very big impact on the hotel choice among our possible guest, so if there will be more bad reviews we will have less and less guests. The other thing is seasonality, we usually have even bigger troubles with occupancy during the winter.
9. Can you see any opportunities for your hotel?
In our case the seasonality can be as well an opportunity because if the weather is not good there is a lot of flight cancelations at O'Hare, which means that we have bigger chances to sell rooms. Another opportunity is the development of the air travel industry
72
which is developing all the time, there is more and more flights which means more and more people would need accommodation in the hotels located in the airport areas. It is especially an opportunity in Chicago because O'Hare is one of the biggest airports in the world.
10. Why is it important for you to recover O'Hare Inn and Suites as a business?
It is obvious that I want all my business to perform on a good level, otherwise I would sold it. However O'Hare Inn and Suites was performing very good in the past, giving me a lot of income and being my main business so I would like it to come back on the right track. Other reason is that it is connected with my familly for long time, previously my father was an owner of this hotel.
Appendix 2 – Interview with O'Hare Inn and Suites General Manager – Lucyna Jablonska
1. How long are you the general manager at O'Hare Inn and suites?
For about 8 years.
2. How do you see the present situation of O'Hare Inn and Suites from the general manager perspective?
To be honest it is really bad. The income and the occupancy rate are the lowest since I started working there.
73
3. What does the annual sales report say?
The report which was prepared by me says that the sales drastically went down in the last year comparing to the past. We belive that it was caused mainly by the bad reviews of the hotel online but to be honest these are true and something definitelly must be done to improve the hotel. More money should be involved in apply the improvements.
4. Do you have any ideas on your mind?
I have some ideas on my mind and these are connected with the bad online reviews. Me and mr. Patel need to organize a meeting during which all of them should be disscussed and taken into consideration. Also as a general manager I can work the best I can and coordinate all the employees and all the hotel operations on a good level. Investing money in the hotel is not my competence here, so first of all mr. Patel has to allocate some more financial resources for the hotel improvement.
5. As a general manager what do you think about the competition?
It is very strong, some of the budget hotel in the area are really good and they have very good opinion. Also the competition is constantly increasing and it could be harder and harder to run the business successfully.
6. What advantages does the hotel have?
The major advantage is obviously the location, we are located just 10 minutes from O'Hare. The other one is the price, and we keep introducing some new special offers.
74
7. What do you consider as a disadvantages?
Our bad online reputation is pointing out all of them, however with some of them I personally do not agree.
8. What do you think are the threats of the hotel?
As a genral manager I can say that the biggest threat is the increasing competition in the airport area. A lot of people consider O'Hare area as a good place to locate their accommodation or parking business. I was talking with some of the managers from the other hotels nearby and they think the same. Other thing is the increase of bad reviews, if it will continue we will have less and less customers which will finally lead to bancruptcy.
9. What are the opportunities for the hotel?
First of all bigger financial investment from the owner, mr. Patel, if he will invest enough money then me and all the other employees can work effectivelly to implement all the improvements in the services. Also some of the hotel in the area are in the similar situation and some of them can close business so there might be a chance that their customers will come to us.
10. Why do you think is it important to restore the business of O'Hare Inn and Suites?
Because most of my employees are the emigrants which can find it difficult afterwards to find a new job if the hotel will bancrupt. Also it is of course important to satisfy the
75
guests who are the most important part in the service industry.
Appendix 3 – Questionnaire about customer satisfaction of O'Hare Inn and Suites guests
1. Is it your first visit at O'Hare Inn and Suites?
a)yes
b)no
2. Are you satisfied about the hotel shuttle bus services?
a) yes
b) no
If no, why?.............................................................................................................................
3. Are you satisfied about the facilities in the hotel?
a)yes
b)no
If no, why?.............................................................................................................................
4. Are you satisfied about the staff?
a)yes
b)no
If no, why?.............................................................................................................................
5. Are you satisfied about the breakfast provided?
a)yes
b)no
If no, why?.............................................................................................................................
6. Are you satisfied about the room?
a)yes
b)no
If no, why?.............................................................................................................................
7. Do you think that you paid fair price for your stay?
a)yes
b)no
76
8. What else would you like to experience in the hotel?
................................................................................................................................................
9. How would you evaluate the hotel in the scale 1-5 (1 is the lowest, 5 is the highest)
1 2 3 4 5
10. Are you planning to come back?
a)yes
b)no
c)maybe
d)I don't know
77
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.