Hospitality Consumer Behaviour Insight

This document provides insights into consumer behaviour in the hospitality industry, focusing on factors influencing consumer behaviour, challenges of quality service, impact of digital technology, and emerging consumer trends. It also explores the stages of consumer decision-making journey and maps a path of purchasing for The Ritz Hotel. Additionally, it discusses the key differences in the decision-making process between B2C and B2B.

Hospitality Consumer
Behaviour Insight

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A...........................................................................................................................................1
Consumer behaviour...................................................................................................................1
Factors influencing consumer behaviour....................................................................................1
Challenges of quality service to meet expectations of consumers..............................................3
Impact of digital technology on changing behaviour and attitude..............................................4
Emerging consumer trends that affects hospitality industry.......................................................4
PART B............................................................................................................................................5
Stages of consumer decision making journey and map a path of purchasing for The Ritz Hotel
.....................................................................................................................................................5
Necessity to map a path to purchase and to understand consumer decision making in The Ritz
Hotel............................................................................................................................................7
Key differences of the hospitality decision-making process in context of B2C and B2B..........7
Different approaches to market research and methods of research used with respect to
decision making process.............................................................................................................8
The way marketers are responding to decision-making process of The Ritz hotel.....................9
The way different factors influence the hospitality decision-making and buying behaviour.....9
Application of appropriate theories, concepts and models influencing and impacting
hospitality decision-making process.........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
It is very important for the hospitality industry to have clear understanding with
consumer decision-making process as it reflects the purchasing behaviour of consumers with
respect to products and services offered to them(Galib, Hammou and Steiger, 2018). Present
study is based on the organisation The Ritz hotel that is a 5 star hotel located in London, UK.
Report will include different factors that influence consumer behaviour and attitudes. Report will
map a path to purchase in the hospitality industry and will evaluate different forms of research to
understand decision-making process. At the end report will evaluate the way marketers influence
the different stages of decision-making process.
PART A
Consumer behaviour
It is the deep study on individual customers or group of customers taking decision and
actions in order to influence their purchasing behaviour with respect to different products and
services offered to them. It is a vital aspect in terms of marketing and it helps the organisations to
have a deep understanding with respect to behaviour of customers that how they respond to a
new product and services. However, for The Ritz hotel this helps in identifying different
opportunities in order to satisfy their customers by offering products and services that meet their
customers expectations(De Mooij, 2019).
Factors influencing consumer behaviour
There are different factors that influence the consumer behaviour and the Ritz hotel have
to deeply understand these factors in order to lead the market and to make effective decision for
the organisation. These factors are as following:-
Cultural:-
The deepest impact on consumer behaviour is due to different cultural factors. The
cultural factors include broad culture, sub culture and culture with social class. These types of
culture are having the following impact on the Ritz Hotel:-
 Broad culture:- In order to understand the consumer behaviour, it is very important for
the Ritz hotel to understand the broad culture of the consumers that includes their values,
customs and beliefs etc. and accordingly have to offers the products and services(Zhang
and Benyoucef, 2016).
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 Sub-culture:- All the respective culture consist subculture that indicates more specific
members that belong to it and The Ritz hotel have to conduct an effective product and
marketing programme in order to understand the need of consumers. As the nationality,
religion, Geographical region etc. differs of each customers, it is therefore important for
the Ritz hotel to understand the same and provide the respective offerings.
 Culture with social class:- There are customers having different income, occupation,
education etc. Their behaviour differs on bases of these aspects only. They generally
show different preferences with respect to the offerings. If group of customers are having
less income than they will prefer hotels that they can afford. The marketer of the Ritz
hotel have to design the marketing programme on bases of specific social class so that
they target the customers that can afford their respective services.
Social:-
There are number of social factors that influence consumer behaviour and are as
following:-
 Family:- They are the primary reference group that affects the behaviour of consumers.
 Roles and statuses:- Consumers generally prefer those products that are having effective
role and statuses in society. Therefore, it is very important for Ritz Hotel to be aware of
status symbol potential of its offerings.
 Social customs and trends:- The customers are having different religion, caste and their
preference with respect to offerings depend on these customs only. For example a
vegetarian customer will choose a hotel that is offering pure vegetarian food.
 Income level:- Both rich and poor customers have different behaviour in choosing the
hotel as poor will have its focus on price and rich will have its focus on quality of service
offered by The Ritz hotel(Zameer and et.al. 2016)
Personal:-
There are different personal factors that affects the consumer behaviour and are as
following:-
 Age and stage in life cycle:- Consumers with different age group have different
preference with respect to offerings.
 Occupation:- Consumer needs and wants differs with respect to their occupation as it
leads to their buying pattern.
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 Economic circumstances:- Consumers buy the products and services with respect to
different economic circumstances that is their spending income, borrowing power, level
of saving etc. The Ritz hotel have to offer the service according these personal needs of
the customers.
Psychological:-
The customers' behaviour is also been influenced by various psychological factors as its
impacts their buying choices. These factors are as following:-
 Motivation:- Consumers get motivated either by getting satisfied from their previous
experience or getting influence wit family and friends experience.
 Perception:- It also depends on their own perception that is from advertisements or from
their own experience. Marketers of The Ritz hotel have to understand what people
perceive about their offerings.
Challenges of quality service to meet expectations of consumers
There are different challenges that are related to giving quality of services to the
customers in order to meet the expectations of customers. The respective challenges that The
Ritz hotel faces are as following:-
Understanding customer expectations:-
As the customers are having different behaviour with respect to offerings, it is tough for
The Ritz hotel to understand their behaviour and offer the quality product and services. The
expectations of customers changes as their income, beliefs, trends, culture etc. changes.
However, It is very important for The Ritz Hotel to have contact with the customers so that they
can understand their needs, preferences and opinion with respect to services offered by The Ritz
hotel and organisation can put efforts for its improvement in order to offer quality of services.
Reaching out to customers:-
Another challenge that Ritz hotel faces is to reach out the potential customers and for the
same, organisation gather data and do the respective research so that they can reach out the
potential customers with quality of services in hand. However, in order to give quality of
services to its customers, The Ritz hotel have to implement customer feedback services and have
to work for a better customer experience.
Employing skilled customers:-
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Another challenge for providing quality service is with respect to working staff members.
However, The Ritz hotel have to hire such employees that are having effective skills.
Organisation also have to put efforts in retaining these employees by giving them structured
training programs(Patrick and et.al., 2016).
Exceeding customer expectations:-
Expectation of the customers generally changes on constant bases and it becomes tough
for the hotels to have understanding with respect to these changes. However, it is important for
The Ritz Hotel to have feedback of the customers and work accordingly.
Impact of digital technology on changing behaviour and attitude
Digital technology is having a great impact on the changing behaviour and attitude of the
customers in following ways:-
 Decreased customer attention:- As there is too much content available on the social
media, this content overload decrease the attention of customers towards the offerings.
However, it is important for the Ritz Hotel to grab the attention of the customers. Hotel
have to create helpful content that stand out from other competitors. Organisation can
also offer discounts for attracting the customers.
 The need for personalization:- With the increase in digital technology, customers
experience have become more frustrated with different websites, ads etc. that has nothing
to do with their interest. However, in order to prevent this frustration of customers
towards the Ritz hotel, Organisation have to create personalised experience for their
customers. For the same hotel have to identify its target market and accordingly
personalise all its content, product and different services that meets the needs and wants
of its respective customers(Yardley and et.al., 2016).
 The ease of access to information:- As customers are having their buying decisions
based on different advertisements, experience etc. organisation have to put efforts in
providing relevant information about the products on different online platforms.
However, Marketers of The Ritz hotel have to increase their online presence by asking
feedbacks and ratings and accordingly working for improvement of its offerings.
Emerging consumer trends that affects hospitality industry
The emerging consumer trends that are affecting the hospitality industry are as
following:-
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 Health and organic food and drinks:- As cultural shift is seen within the people, they
are becoming more aware and demand have increased to different healthier options for
food. However, this change in demand impact the Ritz hotel as organisation have to put
their efforts in providing healthier food options for its customers.
 Sustainability:- As customers have increased their concern over different environmental
issues, it is becoming important for hotels to behave ethically and promote user-
friendliness. However, this trend impacts the Ritz hotel as they have to put efforts by
using more sustainable materials in their accommodation and save energy with the use of
smart light bulbs etc(Sawesi and et.al., 2016).
 Personalisation:- Need of personalisation have lead to a major trend in market. The
customers are in need to be treated as individual and was they must be greeted personally.
The rise of demand with respect to smart devices and different entertainment platforms
also have increased. However, these trends have increased the cost of the Ritz hotel and
organisation have to work effectively in providing these facilities in order to make the
customers satisfied.
PART B
Stages of consumer decision making journey and map a path of purchasing for The Ritz Hotel
Figure:- 1
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The stages of consumers decision making journey is as following:-
 Initial consideration:- At this stage the customers generate need and with respect to its
perception, customer consider an initial set of brands. In order to have an accommodation
facility, the customers with the help of different social platforms, blog posts etc. collect
the different information related to hotel brands. Here, the respective information related
to the products and services of Ritz hotel will be collected by customers from its official
website(Johnson, Redlbacher and Schaltegger, 2018).
 Active evaluation:- At this stage, customers evaluate the different brands that they have
searched and accordingly they add and subtracts the hotel brands. They make comparison
between the different hotel brands and also take advise of different people. They make
comparison of price of The Ritz hotel with its different competitors and evaluate the
opportunities and then determine which brand would be able to fulfill their demand.
 Moment of purchase:- After the evaluation of all the respective brands, the next stage
comes to purchase the products and services. Here, customers will purchase the offerings
of the Ritz hotel, if they found that in product comparison it is the brand that meet their
expectations. For the same they will also see the respective review of customers who
have already taken the services. If they find any alternative they will avoid the offering of
the Ritz hotel and will go with other offerings(Iankova and et.al., 2019).
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Illustration 1: consumer decision making journey

 Post-purchase experience:- At last comes the post-purchase experience where customers
builds experience on bases of their present experience. If the customers are satisfied with
their experience in The Ritz hotel, they will continue to take service and will become
loyal customers and if are not satisfied than they will start their decision-making journey
again. It is therefore important for Ritz hotel to take feedback of the customers and make
changes in the offerings accordingly. They also have to give product updates to its
customers so that they get motivated to visit again.
Necessity to map a path to purchase and to understand consumer decision making in The Ritz
Hotel
It is very important for the hotels to map a path to purchase and understand the decision-
making of the consumers. The necessity of the same is due to following reasons:-
 In order to become industry leader, it is very important for The Ritz Hotel to understand
the customer decision journey and put different marketing efforts in order to make this
journey more effective in eyes of the customers(Galib, Hammou and Steiger, 2018).
 Understanding a consumer decision-making and mapping the path helps the business to
bridge the gap between sales, marketing and operations of the business so that respective
changes can be brought to the organisation. It brings better understanding with respect to
the customers and their behaviour.
 This mapping also helps Ritz Hotel to build an emotional connection with its customers
so that they can become loyal towards the offerings. The respective holes that are coming
in between the effective services of Ritz hotel can also be identified easily in order to fill
them(Lemmens, 2015).
 It also helps in predicting the brand success and behaviour of the customers.
Key differences of the hospitality decision-making process in context of B2C and B2B
The major difference between the decision-making process of B2B and B2C is that B2B
is the process for selling products to other businesses and B2C is the process of selling products
directly to the customers. For these two types of selling processes, The Ritz hotel is having
different decision making process.
Decision-making process for B2B:-
The decision-making for B2B includes a longer consideration time as the decision to buy
the respective offering has a commercial purpose. In this process, The Ritz hotel do not have to
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take use of mass media, as it requires personal contact between the sales person of both the
organisation(Mitchell, 2019). The size of market for B2B is usually very small, so it is not very
tough for the organisation to make an effective decision. For example to organise an event in the
Ritz hotel, an event management company will directly make contact with the Ritz hotel or the
Ritz hotel can take help of different travel agents so that customers can access online booking
engine. So, the decision making process vary from that of B2C as organisation take help of an
intermediary to reach out the respective customers(Azadnia, Saman and Wong, 2015).
Decision-making process for B2C:-
The decision making process for B2C is different from that of B2C as here the
business sell its products and services directly to the interested customers. The sale is usually less
rational and the period is also shorter in time. The customers are generally targeted with the help
of mass media and social media communication and the size of market is usually very large.
Here, the decision-making process of the Ritz hotel directly deals with end consumers(Stephen,
2016).
Different approaches to market research and methods of research used with respect to decision
making process
The different approaches to market research with respect to decision making process is as
following:-
 Defining the problem:- It is very important for the Ritz hotel to identify the major
problem that organisation is facing related to decision making process. It is very
important to identify the right problem that customers are facing during the service
taking.
 Analysing the situation:- Organisation have to analyse the problems by having informal
talks with the employees, customers, stakeholders etc. and accordingly have to bring
changes in the organisation(Zhang and Benyoucef, 2016).
 Getting problem specification data :- Organisation have to collect the respective data
either with the help of social media platforms where customers have given reviews for
the hotel or asking feedbacks of the walk-in customers. The Ritz hotel have to take
feedbacks of the employees also and take advise for its improvement.
 Interpreting the data :- After collecting the feedbacks, The Ritz hotel have to interpret
the data and have to analyse the cause of these problems so that they can be overcome.
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 Solving the problem:- At last effective measures have to be taken by the Ritz hotel in
order to solve these problems and organisation have to make the respective customers
motivated by ensuring them that they have changed the offerings and they are exactly
matching their respective needs.
The way marketers are responding to decision-making process of The Ritz hotel
In the decision making process the response of marketers are as following:-
 Initial consideration:- At this stage marketers of the Ritz hotel attract the customers and
provide information to them with the help of different advertisements on social media
platforms.
 Active evaluation:- Marketers work to optimise their websites in order to make their
offerings more attractive and The Ritz hotel usually provide additional information of its
product and services in an attractive manner so that customers choose their offerings.
They are also working to improve their website and making it more informative and
attractive(Zameer and et.al. 2016).
 Moment of purchase:- Marketers work to make their buying decision more effective by
giving discount on their first purchase or making it more effective by greeting them
effectively.
 Post-purchase experience:- Marketers retarget with industry related content so that the
customers again visit the Ritz hotel. For the same organisation use retargeting ads to
present new content to past customers.
The way different factors influence the hospitality decision-making and buying behaviour
The different factors that influence decision-making and buying behaviour in the Ritz
hotel is as following:-
 Cultural:- The decision making of the Ritz hotel get influence with the respect to the
cultural factors as organisation have to provide the services to the respective customers
by keeping into consideration of their race, religion, tradition etc. For example, if
customers are pure vegetarian, then organisation have to take care that they provide the
same and respect their beliefs.
 Social:- As the social factors affects the buying behaviour of the customers, the Ritz
hotel have to target the audience on bases of these values and beliefs only.
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 Personal:- It also depends on some personal factors like lifestyle, occupation etc. of the
customers. So, The Ritz hotel decision-making get influenced as they target the audience
that is able to afford the offerings with respect to set price of the product and services.
 Psychological:- The customers are having different perception, motivation, beliefs etc.
The decision-making of the Ritz hotel get influenced as they work effectively to meet the
beliefs and perception of the customers and motivate them by either giving discounts or
extra facilities(Zameer and et.al. 2016).
Application of appropriate theories, concepts and models influencing and impacting hospitality
decision-making process
The Classical model is the first attempt in order to know the decision-making process of
the organisation. The steps involve in this model of decision-making is as following:-
 Clearly define the problem and set the respective goals as it impact the business in
overcoming the problems and achieving the respective goals. However, The Ritz hotel
have to analyse the problems that consumers are facing so that they can offer the
respective products and services that match with their expectations.
 Eliminating the uncertainty is also important for the business as it helps the business to
eliminate the risks and have better decision-making. However, the risks can be overcome
in The Ritz hotel by analysing the expectations of the customers and providing
information to the offerings in an effective manner.
 It is also very important for the organisation to provide all the respective information
related to offerings as it helps the customers to evaluate the alternative. However, The
Ritz hotel have to make its official page more attractive and informative(Felix, 2017).
 Final step is to make the decision that is the best interest of the organisation and meet the
expectation of the customers. However, the Ritz hotel have to take feedback of the
customers after their visit and accordingly have to make changes in its business activities.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is been concluded that there are different factors that influence
consumer behaviour of hospitality industry. Report also concluded that the by mapping a path
with respect to decision-making process is very important for organisation to understand
consumer’s behaviour. Further report concluded that there are different forms of research that
organisation used to have effective decision-making process. At last report concluded that the
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marketers influence the different stages of consumer decision-making process with respect to
hospitality industry.
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REFERENCES
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advertising. SAGE Publications Limited.
Felix, R., 2017. Service quality and customer satisfaction in selected banks in Rwanda. Journal
of Business & Financial Affairs. 6(1). pp.246-256.
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Extension of Technology Acceptance Model. International Journal of Marketing Studies. 10(3).
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mixed business models. Industrial Marketing Management. 81. pp.169-179.
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sustainability: A comparative analysis of B2C and B2B companies. Corporate Social
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Yardley, L and et.al., 2016. Understanding and promoting effective engagement with digital
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Zameer, H and et.al., Impact of service quality, corporate image and customer satisfaction
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journal of bank marketing. 33(4). pp.442-456.
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