Hospitality Consumer Behaviour and Insight

This report explores the different factors influencing consumer behaviour in the hospitality sector. It covers the stages of the decision-making process and how marketers can influence them. The report also provides specific examples from the hospitality industry and evaluates different approaches to market research.

Unit 19: Hospitality
Consumer Behaviour and
Insight

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Investigating the different cultural, social, personal and psychological factors that influence
consumer behaviour and attitudes within a hospitality context:..................................................4
Exploring how consumer trends are changing due to the impact of digital technology:.............4
Analyse how cultural, social, personal and psychological factors that influence consumer
behaviour and attitudes are changing and driving trends in hospitality:.....................................5
Critically analysing the emerging trends in consumer behaviour and attitudes using specific
examples from the hospitality industry:.......................................................................................5
Examining the stages of the consumer decision- making journey and map a path to the
purchasing for a given hospitality service:..................................................................................6
Exploring why it is important for marketers to map a path to purchase and understand
consumer decision- making in the hospitality sector:..................................................................8
Evaluating how marketers are responding to the decision-making process, applying relevant
examples from the hospitality sector:..........................................................................................8
Comparing and contrasting the key differences of the hospitality decision- making process in
the context of B2C and B2B, using specific hospitality examples:.............................................8
Evaluating the different approaches to market research and methods of research used for
understanding the decision-making process:...............................................................................9
Providing a coherent and justified evaluation of different factors influencing hospitality
decision-making and buying behaviour with the help of suitable examples:..............................9
Influencing the different stages of hospitality consumer decision making process:...................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Consumer Behaviour is the study which is conducted to found out that how consumers
make decisions about what to buy, when to buy and from whom to buy. It is important to
understand as it helps the organization in decision-making process related to the product and
services they offer. Bulgari Hotels london is known as one of the luxury hotels in the world and
provides catering services to its consumers. This report is about understanding the consumer
behaviour of the Bulgari hotel by involving the ways which helps consumer in selecting the
hotel. It includes the factors that helps in analysing the behaviour of consumer which helps the
organization to provide services according to the prevailing behaviour. Further, it includes the
stages of decision-making process and its importance. It also contains the difference between the
B2C and B2B and shows different approaches which helps in market research. At last, it contains
the different stages which are included in the consumer's decision-making process.
MAIN BODY
Investigating the different cultural, social, personal and psychological factors that influence
consumer behaviour and attitudes within a hospitality context:
In the hospitality sector, there is a need to satisfy the need and demands of consumers
because that is what the hospitality sector does in order to achieve the overall organizational
objectives.
1. Psychological factors: Human psychology is an aspect that deals with determinants and
valuable approach for every human who experiences behavioural aspects in life.
Motivation and attitudes / beliefs are the major constituents in the hospitality sector as
everything done by the sector depends on the behaviour and nature of consumers.
2. Social factors: The buying and purchasing power of human beings all depends on the
influence the commodity or any service have on them. There is a general tendency of
comparison in the human behaviour that always guards the things and activities around
them and that is exactly what affects the overall activities of the hotel chains. In the case
of Bulgari hotel chain, being a five star hotel chain there are lot of expectations imposed
on them to attain high customer satisfaction rates (Chou. and et.al., 2020.).
3. Cultural factors: A set of values and beliefs can always influence activity level, be it
any sector in any industry. In the case of hotel chains, a context in the hospitality sector
can get influenced by different beliefs and cultural values that might not be relatable to

the hotel chain, but in order to carry out the required expectations from the consumers,
they have to observe and learn how to satisfy them in an impressive manner.
4. Personal factors: This also is in the relation to the buying and purchasing power of the
consumers that can get affected by their personal situations and factors. To make a choice
in this kind of area is something that cannot be easily judged by the hotel chains in order
to verify the range of behavioural aspects of their consumers (Han. 2021).
Exploring how consumer trends are changing due to the impact of digital technology:
When a consumer will feel like connecting with the hotel chain in order to get the equal
nature of hospitable environment as and how they expected, then it will be beneficial for both of
the to achieve the overall satisfaction rates. The hospitality sector should be well aware of the
human attitude that tends to get changed in a way it wants to, that is why it becomes critical to
understand the design of marketing techniques. These can even be accountable to different
aspects of consumers such as family, their life principles, etc. can influence the overall activities
of the hospitable industries to understand the ideologies behind different preferences that are not
on;y affected by the individual aspects but also have joint effects of the people around.
Generally, it can be seen that there are other social factors as well that can change now and then
without any prior notice to what can actually happen. This is the well known case of
uncertainties which can happen anytime (Li. and Ma. 2020). That is why digital technology is
very impactful in influencing the consumer trends that are very effective in letting people explore
the variety of changes it is allowing to connect with.
Analyse how cultural, social, personal and psychological factors that influence consumer
behaviour and attitudes are changing and driving trends in hospitality:
Differences in social, upper, lower class of the people, their occupations, income levels,
etc. can be of influential nature because of the background they come from and all of a sudden a
new environment with new surroundings do not suit them instantly. That is why the hospitality
sector faces numerous issues regarding the accommodation, eating habits of different people at
different or similar period of time manages to put the hotel chains into some kind of situations
where it becomes difficult to analyse the fruitful aspects that can help in the achievement of
overall organizational objectives (Daldanise. 2020). Factors relating to the age, income levels,
lifestyle, etc. come into contact with the hospitality industry when there is a need of upgrading
these with the help of services that can provide digital and modern era transformation. These

factors tend to change as and when the requirement demands, but this does not change the fact
that trends in hospitality industries will not be accountable unless the buyers have enough
purchasing power that will help them in satisfying their own wants. Here, the fact that only
needs and not wants are given any consideration because of the importance of environmental
factors (Dimitriou. and AbouElgheit. 2019).
Critically analysing the emerging trends in consumer behaviour and attitudes using specific
examples from the hospitality industry:
Consumers of hospitality sector tend to use their six senses in analysing the emerging
trends that have the potential to impact their choices and which can increase their lifestyle
experiences. This is because the expectations of consumers are rising and these must have a limit
or an extent at which these expectations are to be satisfied (Gursoy. 2019). Examples can be the
blending of business activities with the leisure activities to explore the quality of life and to
measure the success levels with it. If this is being done on a moderate level then it will not have
any problem in analysing the fact that consumers want to have the ability to choose what they
want to shop or consume at any time. For instance, consumers are more interested in health and
well being factors in terms of the hospitable services they experience. That is why the tourism
and Bulgari hotel chain work hand in hand to make sure there are more number of chances to
improve their services as a five star hotel chain.
Examining the stages of the consumer decision- making journey and map a path to the
purchasing for a given hospitality service:
The consumers have different levels of thinking processes when it comes to making
decisions about how to influence their lifestyle with their decisions. That is why there are
different levels in the decision-making journey of the consumers that they tend to follow every
time. The first level is of awareness that deals with the knowledge about a trend that will be of
beneficial nature when it comes to buying or purchasing something. Familiarity about which
will be the best product or service to choose will definitely help in making decisions.
Consideration relates to the fact that there might be a need of buying the service or not.
Purchasing is the final activity in the consumer decision making process that will enable them to
buy the services that can satisfy their needs and wants. Final step is to become loyal towards the
services the customer is getting and to avail it every time it is required (Pop. and et.al., 2022). A

map is being path by the consumers of hotel chains that particularly guides them in initiating
their journey.

Exploring why it is important for marketers to map a path to purchase and understand consumer
decision- making in the hospitality sector:
To define the customer journey map, it can be stated as a visual representation of the
journey of consumers that have been thought of in the mind of consumers. The story behind all
the aspects taken into consideration by the consumers about a hospitality sector can be easily
understood as to what pin points do they consider while approaching their hospitable journey.
Therefore, for the marketers, it is important to create an impressive customer journey plan to
interact more with the brand with the customer point of view. The common and well known
insights about how a customer expects to live the duration of his life when he is with the
hospitality sector is essential to understand. This is because the hospitality sector should have an
understanding of the strategic planning approach which can help them in optimising the
customer experience. No matter how small or medium the organization in the hospitality sector
is, customer journey map allows the marketer to create a logical plan in order to achieve
customer satisfaction rates.
Evaluating how marketers are responding to the decision-making process, applying relevant
examples from the hospitality sector:
In accordance with the modern era marketers, it has been evaluated that they tend to
research about what kind of process nature of the service customers ask for. On the basis of such
evaluation, the unique characteristics of their expectations now come on board with the solutions
to every problem. Like for instance, if a consumer tends to research about each and every hotel
chain in a particular region that will most probably be about the most luxurious rooms with
technological advances. On the basis of this, the marketers or the hotel chain owners can easily
transform their services according to the nature of expectations people tend to impose on the
business owners. Even if there are customer journey map, the marketers still face problems and
challenges in the hospitality sector because of differences in the consumer behavioural patters
that forces them to adapt to such activities that can challenge their capacity to operate in the
global business environment.
Comparing and contrasting the key differences of the hospitality decision- making process in the
context of B2C and B2B, using specific hospitality examples:
Hospitality business sector is not only limited to the customers' end, but also involves
business to business relations as well. These differ in terms of their business activities and the

outcomes they procure out of it. In the case of B2B marketing in the hospitality sector, the
relationships always are in the form of achieving the maximum profit making rates by
connecting and interacting with each other. This is done to further provide hospitality services to
the consumers and achieve the overall organizational objectives. Their top focus is to generate
more leads with the help of other businesses. Whereas in the case of B2C hospitality decision-
making process, driving sales and attaining high traffic on social media platforms to attract more
customers take place. For this, travel and tourism industry focuses on the marketing strategies of
attaining more traffic by hotel chains in the case of B2C situation. In the case of B2B situations
the marketers tend to take ideas from other business by building effective strategic relationships
to achieve the competitive advantage in a row.
Evaluating the different approaches to market research and methods of research used for
understanding the decision-making process:
To understand the the way in which a consumer makes decisions about any matter will be
of significant nature in the hospitality sector. This is done to get an idea about which factors are
taken into consideration while making any decision about which hotels to choose. For this,
surveys, interviews, group interactions can be done on a low level of researches made to
analyse which factors can be effective in learning about various consumer behaviour. If the level
of research is high, or it is done on the international level, then market segmentation,
advertisement, brand awareness etc. can be used to evaluate the need of satisfying and
retaining the consumers' needs and wants.
Providing a coherent and justified evaluation of different factors influencing hospitality decision-
making and buying behaviour with the help of suitable examples:
There are various factors that steer the wheels of consumer behaviour and helps in setting
the factors in accordance of which hospitality decisions are made. The factors that influence the
consumer behaviour and decision making process are psychological, social, cultural, personal
factors. Including all these factors, evaluation will include that for every small and big decision-
making policies, consumers depend on these factors because these only decide their way and
extent of buying behaviour that will allow them to render confidence in stating what they are and
should opt for (Jiang. and Gao. 2019).
Influencing the different stages of hospitality consumer decision making process:
Different stages of decision-making process

Buying behaviour model is one method used by marketers to identify the decision-making
process of a consumer. The process can be categorized in 5 steps such as: Need recognition: It occurs when the customer defines there needs. It occurs when the
customers feel like something is missing and needs to be completed. Organizations
analyse the point of missing satisfaction among the consumer and work on it(Virdi,
Kalro and Sharma, 2020). Bulgari hotels analyse the needs and preference of the target
market and try to provide consumer satisfaction.
 Information Speech: It is the buyers decisions that gets change in the period as,
consumers are receiving adequate knowledge regarding the products and services and
more information which helps in satisfying there needs. Information can also be achieved
from the people who experienced the services before. Bulgari Hotel try to collect the
information from different sources such as commercial, personal, public and experiential. Evaluation of alternatives: This includes the other alternatives which are considered in
the market along with the services provided. Organization determine the consumers need
and try to seek options available. It depends upon the different factors like price and
quality. Purchase decision: This is an important stage where the consumers finally decides the
way to make a purchasing decision. The consumers take decision after evaluating all the
facts and takes decisions on the basis of experiences.
 Post purchase behaviour: It refers to analysing the behaviour regarding the product by
analysing that it is useful or not. If the service has matched the expectations then the
potential consumers will return and will helps in increasing the customer base of the
organization.
Marketers responding to decision-making process
Hospitality industry uses different methods to maintain and develop efficient marketing
strategies. The marketers help organization in decision-making process through following ways
such as;
Research: consumers choose hotels and its services by looking at the wide range of reasons.
Marketer identifies the factors that makes customers choose a service by doing research.
Marketers interact with guests, takes reviews from them and helps employees to learn about the
actual consumer needs(Xu, 2021).

Awareness: Brand awareness plays a crucial role in attracting customers. Marketer makes easy
for consumers to get aware about the hotels, restaurants and resorts. Marketers can achieve it
through advertisement and by collaborating with influencers to create a brand image.
Promotion: This is an important strategy in attracting customers by doing promotions. They also
offer incentives and benefits to achieve the maximum market share.
Models for the decision-making process
The marketers can also influence the stages of decision-making process by applying
models such as Stimulus Response model of buyer behaviour. This behaviour is depended
upon the four components which identifies the buyer behaviour and decision-making process.
This an important model in a decision-making process where the market focus on the buying
process rather than the purchase decision(Diederich and Trueblood, 2018). The buying process
starts with the recognition where the people think of the service they need to satisfy thee need. If
the need of the service is strong then the buying decisions need to be taken. Customers take
informations from different sources and finds the service which satisfies them best.
The selected model of consumer behaviour which is used by the marketers in decision-making
process helps in providing the final solution which helps the organization to take decisions
according to needs of the consumer and helps in gaining the maximum buyer satisfaction by
generating a effective marketing strategy.
CONCLUSION
The above report of hospitality and consumer behavioural patterns about Bulgari hotels
London helped in the evaluation of the consumer and buying behaviours. Various aspects and
factors that influence these were analysed about how in the hospitality sector these play a great
role in the decision-making process. A path map about the consumer decision-making process
was also determined in order to understand the role of consumer's thinking process. Furthermore,
B2B and B2C relationships in consumer trends of hospitality sector was analysed to mark the
difference between the two in terms of hotel chains.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Daldanise, G., 2020. From place-branding to community-branding: A collaborative decision-
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Dimitriou, C. K. and AbouElgheit, E., 2019. Understanding generation Z’s travel social decision-
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Gursoy, D., 2019. A critical review of determinants of information search behavior and
utilization of online reviews in decision making process (invited paper for ‘luminaries’
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Hospitality Management, 76, pp.53-60.
Han, H., 2021. Consumer behavior and environmental sustainability in tourism and hospitality: A
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pp.1021-1042.
Jiang, Y. and Gao, Y., 2019. Factors that influence potential green hotel customers’ decision-
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styles and decision-making stages. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
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Xu, H., 2021. Career decision-making from a dual-process perspective: Looking back, looking
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Online
Consumer Decision Making Process. 2022. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.marketingtutor.net/consumer-decision-making-process-stages/>