Hospitality Consumer Behaviour and Insight - Desklib

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This report evaluates the consumer behaviour in the hospitality sector, with a focus on Maybourne hotel group. It discusses the factors that influence consumer behaviour and attitudes, the impact of technology on changing consumer trends, emerging trends, stages of the consumer decision-making journey, and more. It also provides insights into the ways in which marketers are responding to the decision-making process and the evaluation of different approaches to market research and methods for understanding customer’s decision-making process.

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Hospitality Consumer
Behaviour and Insight

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Factors that influence consumer behaviour and attitude in hospitality sector.............................3
Impact of technology on changing consumer trends...................................................................4
How factors that influence consumer behaviour and attitudes are changing and driving trends
in hospitality.................................................................................................................................4
Emerging trends in consumer behaviour and attitudes................................................................5
Stages of the consumer decision- making journey and mapping a path to the purchasing for
Maybourne hotel services............................................................................................................5
Importance for marketers to map a path to purchase and understand consumer decision-
making in the hospitality sector...................................................................................................6
Ways in which marketers are responding to the decision-making process................................6
Comparison and contrasts between the different hospitality decision-making process in the
context of the B2B and B2C customers ......................................................................................7
Evaluation of different approaches to market research and methods for understanding
customer’s decision-making process ..........................................................................................9
Evaluation of the influence of different stages of hospitality decision-making process with
specific examples ......................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
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INTRODUCTION
The report of understanding consumer behaviour and insight will comprehensively
evaluate the consumer behaviour in the hospitality sector. Consumer behaviour has the capability
to set the trends in hospitality as they are a strong pillar of market (Han, 2021). The Hospitality
organization taken is Maybourne hotel group which is a UK based hotel chain. It is a British
luxury hotel operator which manages multiple hotels such as Berkeley, claridge's and Connaught
across UK. Different factors which significantly impacts the consumer behaviour will be
elaborated.
The way consumer trends are changing will be depicted, along with the impact of digital
technology on the same will be elaborated. Further, stages of consumer decision-making journey
and a path of purchase will be drawn along with the importance of during the same will be
depicted. Key difference between hospitality decision-making in B2B and B2C segment will be
drawn. Ways in which marketers can influence the decision-making process at various stage in
hospitality will be illustrated.
MAIN BODY
Factors that influence consumer behaviour and attitude in hospitality sector
There are various factors which affect the behaviour of the consumers in the market lets
understand each such factors in detail.
Cultural factors:
Cultural factors have significant influence on the buying behaviour of the consumers. It
includes the basic values, wants, needs, perceptions, preferences and behaviours which are
learned and observed by consumer from family members and other people around them. There
are many subcultures and social class under culture which establishes certain beliefs and
principles and it influences the choices of the customers (Dixit, Lee and Loo, 2019).
Social factors:
An individual is a social animal who is being influences by the society and its trends.
Human put efforts to imitate other human they think are better than themselves. Hence, its end
up setting the trends and influencing the consumer behaviour as whole. Family, reference group,
roles and status plays major role in setting buying patterns.
Phycological factors:
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How a person thinks states his tendency to buy a thing or depict the buying behaviour of
the person. Major phycological factors are motivation, perception, learning and attitude beliefs
influences the buying behaviour of the consumer as how thy look at needs, want and luxury is
different subjective.
Personal factors:
Certain individual aspects such as age, income, occupation lifestyle depicts what he or
she will be inclined towards in the Market and it has the capability to define the consumer
behaviour in the market. e.g. when a consumer travels a lot for the holiday purpose and is in low
income group, he will prefer budget hotels for stay (Wai and et.al., 2019).
Impact of technology on changing consumer trends
Market is flooded with rapid technological changes and in such changing times
consumers expect to be served with the best technological facilities which are convenient for
them. As consumers expectation are highly trendy it requires businesses to adapt such
technological advancement sin the business which can satisfy the customers and deliver the
quality customer services. Atomization of business processes has made it very simple, it enables
faster, efficient and convenient form of services to the customers (Eger and et.al., 2021).
Under hospitality industry technological changes like face recognition, covid screening,
temperature scan, online document verification, online booking, flexible date and timing of stay
etc. has been fully backed by the technology. Customer look for the hotels which has best forms
of services with the technological integration which makes their stay smooth and hassle free.
Technology has changed the game of hospitality as nowadays booking is facilitated on the finger
tips of the customer where they can book, cancel, extend add-ons etc. in seconds. This has
changed the consumer behaviour altogether. Hence, it is changing the consumer behaviour
rapidly in the market.
How factors that influence consumer behaviour and attitudes are changing and driving trends in
hospitality
Factors like personal, social, cultural, phycological depicts the buying behaviour of the
individual and these individual incorporate this change into market by putting their habits in
place which drives the market in turn. Not only the buying but the way a customer shops, times
he shops, brand he is choosing, problems he is facing are something which cumulatively works
to run the trends in the market (Gopinath, 2018). Back in 2014 when online hotel booking

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services were entered by only few hotels, later customers liked this feature and majorly of
customer traffic was diverted to online booking channels, this led to all hotel business switching
online and producing all the options to the customer through online channels only. This is the
biggest examples of how factors directly and indirectly drives the market trends.
Emerging trends in consumer behaviour and attitudes
Maybourne is a luxury hotel chain which has a large customer base, such customer base
incudes people from high income group and above average income group. What made this above
income group prefer the maybourne hotel for stay is the sense of richness and luxury which is
attached with the brand name of maybourne. Luxury in hospitality is not just about accessibility
but also about money. People in toady's time may not have money enough to have the experience
of luxury, yet they are constantly looking for the options which can provide them a touch of
luxury at fair cost or affordable prices, this has led to maybourne change its operational strategy.
It has incorporated the hourly system and kept its restaurant open for people who want to visit
the hotel property. Just to cope with the market trend of accessible luxury maybourne is topping
its business game and increasing the customer base constantly.
Stages of the consumer decision- making journey and mapping a path to the purchasing for
Maybourne hotel services
When a consumer makes a decision to buy something he goes through 5 typical stages
which are problem recognition, information search, alternatives evaluation, purchase decision
and post purchase evaluation. Each of these stages have its own crucial role to play in making the
final decision. Problem recognition is where customer identifies the need to buy a service or
product, information search is where customer gather information of availability of the products'
and services, evaluation of the alternatives is where they compare the available options to satisfy
their needs and wants (Zhang, Zhao and Gupta, 2018).
Purchase decision is the final decision of selecting among the alternatives. Post purchase
is where they decide satisfaction or dissatisfaction from the availed services. All these stages are
crucial and depicts the consumer's journey with maybourne. Whereas path to purchase has 3
steps such as first is awareness stage, consideration stage and decision stage. Awareness is where
customer thinks of utilizing the hospitality services, consideration is where they consider which
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hospitality services to choose from and decision stage is where they make a final choice
regarding the maybourne hotel services among the available option.
Importance for marketers to map a path to purchase and understand consumer decision- making
in the hospitality sector
As a marketer it is the duty to solve any problem which can cause a negative impact on
the sales of the services. When marketers identify the path to purchase utilized by the customer,
they simplify the spotting of areas where there is shortcoming. It is easy for marketer to
determine that after which stage customers are leaving the path to purchase the Maybourne
services. This way they will start working on fixing things on the stage customers leave the path.
This works as a problem solving agent (Martínez, Herrero and Gómez‐López, 2019).
When a company identifies the customer's decision-making process, they sort out what is
the process that individuals are following to choose the services of the maybourne. Like making
the online booking services efficient, in case customer leaves after coming to the online process.
In case there is cost issue launching discounts and offers which can attract customers. It helps
business create an effective tailored experience. By mapping all the potential points of
interaction and touch points of customers which an individual may have with the company,
marketers can easily design improved, effective customized customer experience.
Ways in which marketers are responding to the decision-making process
Consumer's decision-making process and its five stages have significant role to play in
understanding the consumer's and their behaviour. These steps can act as guide for marketers to
analyse and understand the consumer and communicate with them effectively. Marketers look at
each of these stages carefully and try to identify what can be root cause of the problem or which
customers are leaving after reaching certain stage of the path. As consumer do not always follow
the same path for different products and services (Hossain and et.al., 2020).
Hence, it is important for marketers to choose different stages and look at them close
enough to understand how they can make the buying processes or decision-making process of the
customer more effective, faster and business oriented. The ultimate goal of the marketers is to
bridge the gap between customers and business, and they try to stick around understanding the
customer behaviour with the help of way they make decisions. Marketers responding to the
decision-making process has power to enhance the business of the organizations.
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Comparison and contrasts between the different hospitality decision-making process in the
context of the B2B and B2C customers
The differences that are present between the hospitality decision making process are as
follows,
Basis B2B B2C
Meaning B2B means the hotel offering
its services to the other
business entities which are
not end customers. Here the
business and the customers
are the companies in which
the meetings are organised for
offering the conferences in
city or country.
B2C means the services of
the hotel that are directed
towards the needs of the end
customers. In this the
intercontinental cater is to
provide the customers with
the visit to the hotel for
leisure comfort for the
recreational activities.
Customer The customers of B2B are the
governmental organization
both public and private firms
and those which come for
meeting exhibitions,
conferences and incentives.
Business to customers are the
ones to which the hotel
provides their services (Shim,
Shin and Kwak, 2018). They
are locals or foreign
customers which utilizes the
services for the leisure or
other activities.
Focus The main aim of B2B in
business is to develop the
trust and relationship with
other institution as a builder
of reputations.
The focus of Maybourne
Hotel Group is to give
services to customers that
matches their needs and
demands.
Volume Merchandise For the B2B the exchange of
services in hospitality takes
place in high levels.
Business to customers has in
general a low volume of
merchandise comparison to
the B2B in order of length of

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stay.
Buying decision Business decision for B2B is
based on the rational needs. It
depends on the design and
development of marketing
strategy which would
influence the decisions.
The consumers buying
decision is said to influences
by the psychological social
and personal cultural and
economic factors.
Brand Value For B2B the activities of
Maybourne hotel group is
based upon the brand value
on the basis of trust and
mutual relationships (Mishra,
R., Singh and Koles, 2021). It
also serves to the other
business institutions for
increasing the brand
awareness.
At B2C the customer’s
services by this hotel is used
for promotional techniques to
create a brand awareness. It
also uses social media
platforms for these activities.
Similarities between B2B and B2C for Maybourne Hotel Group are,
Basis B2B B2C
Purpose The purpose of Maybourne
Hotel Group in providing
services to the organization is
delivering services to match
the needs.
In B2C providing srvices is to
help the end customers in
ensuring the services that
derive the value for the
customers that are looking for
availing hospitality services.
Brand Value The mutual trust and the
relationship is developed by
Maybourne hotel by serving
other business via creation of
brand value and gaining
Development of trust in the
customers is also a very
effective way in which the
business builds brand value
with its customers.
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competitive advantages.
Loyalty The hotel ensures that the
relationship between the
business partners is very
strong.
The hotel provides
exceptional services for
making sure that the relations
with the customers is at
continuous improvement.
Evaluation of different approaches to market research and methods for understanding customer’s
decision making process
Prior to the establishment of the business introduction of new product and services, in the
organization helps in the conduction of research that is concerned with the relevant information
that provides a brief about the current markets. It depends also on the taste preferences and the
target market about the availability of the natural resources. The approaches to the market
research are,
Approaches to market research
Primary research
In this method the primary research is conducted in which the company interacts directly
with the customers. The data collection in this form of research is quantitative or qualitative.
Maybourne Hotel focuses on understanding the needs of the target market and preparing a
business plan for the serving the customer group.
Secondary research
The name suggests secondary research is on the basis of the collection of information that
help the other resources that are collected by other people and company itself. Sources can be of
government that are conducted by other people than company itself. A detailed screening is done
in order to find the information that is essential for the research specific. For this organization
online data and data from government agencies are considered to be the most effective.
Methods of research to understand the decision-making process
Qualitative research:
The qualitative marketing research is based on the non-numeric data that focuses on the
individual concepts, opinions and experiences. Different methods are used for this research that
grounds theory research and narrative research, ethnographic and phenomenological research.
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Ethnographic research is conducted in the natural environment to observer the
analysation of how the individual behave and interact with things around them. The
research is for observing the actions used for period of time, week, month and year
(Bettiga and Lamberti, 2020). The evaluation of individual behaviour action is given in
environment. Experimental research is the one in which two variables are taken as the common feature
and used for help of trial and error method. It allows to the method based on hypothesis
to be developing an organization to check whether it is correct or not. The effects that
these factors have over each other are said to be observed and analysed over the period of
time for drawing conclusion with regards to the relationships between these factors.
Quantitative research
At this type of research, the numeric data is analysed for the collection of information. In
this the surveys, questionnaire, polls, focus group and face to face interview are used for the
conduction of the quantitative research.
Questionnaire is prepared for the series of questions that can be close ended questions
that are needed for responding yes or no. It is said to be the intercontinental uses of the
method that is generally used for seeking feedback and suggestion from their customers.
Survey is one of the most common primary method of collecting quantitative data as a
hospitality organization. It allows the research to collect information from a group of
people on the basis of their demographical features such as the age, sex, religion and
income level.
Evaluation of the influence of different stages of hospitality decision making process with
specific examples
B2C Needs recognition: In this stage the customer recognizes their need for the services from
hotel that they desire. The role of marketer is important at this stage for finding solution
to serve their needs. Markers are the ones stimulating the desire of the customers through
advertisement, promotional campaign and attractive design for the customers of
Maybourne Hotel. Information search: After recognizing the customer finds the information about the
products and matches it with the needs that derives a desired value. The search of

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information completely depends on the awareness of the customers and the products that
are related. It makes the company strong and visible to the customers over search engine
to provide a relevant information about the products. Identification and evaluation of alternatives: Customers at this stage looks for the
different options of hospitality that it is looking for to compare and contrast the various
alternatives on the basis of their features, functions, budget, availability and brand image
of the customer. For this the organization focuses on the continuous interaction with the
customers to maintain the trust and the customer reviews that are required.
Purchase decision: The weighing pros and cons are said to be the alternatives customers
that finally decide to use a service (Mason, Narcum and Mason, 2020). The marketers
with a help of strong and promotional techniques helps in influencing them to opt for
their services and to build the trust with the customers.
B2B Problem recognition: Other businesses which want to avail the services in bulk develop
the need to purchase the product. Markets at this stage have to identify their needs and
convert them into opportunity for the Maybourne Hotel. Need Description: Markets have to focus on the elaboration of the qualities and value for
the services that are matched for the demand of these business customers. Maybourne
Hotel at this stage provides the detailed information about their services as promotional
campaign for meeting the demands of the both the business and customers. Product specification: The product and services of the organization in comparison to the
other competitors and the ways in which it would attract the businesses are specified.
Marketers at this stage focus on highlighting the unique features of their offering. Supplier Search: The business customers look for suppliers to find out the various
alternatives that match their needs within the budget. Marketers at this stage ensure that
the Maybourne Hotel is ready to serve the needs and the demand of the business. Proposal Solicitation: An effective presentation is provided for increasing the chances of
serving the business customers (Golnar-Nik, Farashi and Safari, 2019). It is made
keeping the customer and the services they are seeking in mind. Order Routine specification: At this stage the customers help in providing the required
for the achievement of the return policy and expected delivery time.
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Performance review: The businesses are asked to provide feedback and suggestions
regarding the quality of the services that have received.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that the customer decision making at
Maybourne Hotel plays a very important role in finding out the ways in which consumer
behaviour changes the level. Marketers are said to be responsible for analysation of the decision
making process in both segments B2B and B2C. The company helps in the development of a
strategic plan that helps in directing the meeting needs of the customers. It allows in the
differentiating the customers segment for the development of the consumer decision making
process.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bettiga, D. and Lamberti, L., 2020. Future-oriented happiness: its nature and role in consumer
decision-making for new products. Frontiers in Psychology. 11. p.929.
Dixit, S. K., Lee, K. H. and Loo, P. T., 2019. Consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism.
Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science. 29(2). pp.151-161.
Eger, L. and et.al., 2021. The effect of COVID-19 on consumer shopping behaviour:
Generational cohort perspective. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 61.
p.102542.
Golnar-Nik, P., Farashi, S. and Safari, M. S., 2019. The application of EEG power for the
prediction and interpretation of consumer decision-making: A neuromarketing
study. Physiology & behaviour. 207. pp.90-98.
Gopinath, R., 2019. Factors Influencing Consumer Decision Behaviour in FMCG. International
Journal of Research in Social Sciences. 9(7). pp.249-255.
Han, H., 2021. Consumer behavior and environmental sustainability in tourism and hospitality: A
review of theories, concepts, and latest research. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 29(7).
pp.1021-1042.
Hossain, M. S. and et.al., 2020. Factors influencing customer citizenship behaviour in the
hospitality industry. Annals of Leisure Research. pp.1-24.
Martínez, P., Herrero, Á. and Gómez‐López, R., 2019. Corporate images and customer
behavioral intentions in an environmentally certified context: Promoting environmental
sustainability in the hospitality industry. Corporate Social Responsibility and
Environmental Management. 26(6). pp.1382-1391.
Mason, A., Narcum, J. and Mason, K., 2020. Changes in consumer decision-making resulting
from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Customer Behaviour. 19(4). pp.299-321.
Mishra, R., Singh, R. K. and Koles, B., 2021. Consumer decision‐making in Omnichannel
retailing: Literature review and future research agenda. International Journal of
Consumer Studies. 45(2). pp.147-174.
Shim, D., Shin, J. and Kwak, S. Y., 2018. Modelling the consumer decision‐making process to
identify key drivers and bottlenecks in the adoption of environmentally friendly
products. Business Strategy and the Environment. 27(8). pp.1409-1421.
Wai, K. and et.al., 2019. Perceived risk factors affecting consumers’ online shopping behaviour.
The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business. 6(4). pp.246-260.
Zhang, H., Zhao, L. and Gupta, S., 2018. The role of online product recommendations on
customer decision making and loyalty in social shopping communities. International
Journal of Information Management. 38(1). pp.150-166.
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