Hospitality Consumer Behaviour and Insight

This article discusses the factors that influence hospitality consumer behaviour and attitudes, the ability to map a path to purchase in a hospitality context, including the decision-making process, appropriate forms of research to understand influences on the hospitality consumer decision-making process, and how marketers influence the different stages of the hospitality consumer decision-making process.

Hospitality Consumer
Behaviour and Insight

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Examine the factors that influence hospitality consumer behaviour and attitudes.....................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
Demonstrate the ability to map a path to purchase in a hospitality context, including the
decision-making process.............................................................................................................5
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................7
Evaluate appropriate forms of research to understand influences on the hospitality consumer
decision-making process.............................................................................................................7
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................9
Evaluate how marketers influence the different stages of the hospitality consumer decision-
making process............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
REFERNCES:................................................................................................................................12
Books and Journals:..................................................................................................................12
Online.............................................................................................................................................13

Introduction
Hospitality industry is one of the fastest growing industry in UK which is having many
emerging trends. It is beneficial for every hospitality company to analyse their current trends and
formulate strategies accordingly (Park and Min, 2020). It is essential for every hotel to analyse
the customer behaviour and what their customers are expecting from them to influence them to
use their services for benefits. Royal Lancaster Hotel London is founded in 1937 by Richard
Seifert. The following file covers the factors that influence hospitality consumer behaviour and
attitude, the ability to map a path to purchase in a hospitality context, including the decision-
making process, appropriate forms of research to understand influences on the hospitality
consumer decision-making process. This file also covers how marketers influence the different
stages of the hospitality consumer decision-making process.
Task 1
Examine the factors that influence hospitality consumer behaviour and attitudes
It is very tough to analyse the customer behaviour because it varies situation to situation.
Hence, companies are required to analyse the factors which help them to influence their
customers to purchase their products. For this companies try to gain their satisfaction level by
selling good quality of products and services. There are various types of factors which influence
customer behaviour and attitude to use the products and services offered by a particular
company. Few factors are explained below-
Cultural factor- This is the factor which consist of beliefs, values, language and many
others (Farmaki and et. al., 2020). Customers of hospitality sector get influenced by such factors
because they feel familiar if the found same services as their culture have. In context of Royal
Lancaster Hotel, their waiters and other staff focus on the culture of their customers and offer
them those services only which will help them to gain their satisfaction. For example if their
customers are from Italy then they offer them Italian food items and offer Italian music. This will
influence customers to use the services of same hotel next time.
Social factors- These are the factors which affect customer's lifestyle. It consist of
buying habit, religion, population density, family size and many others. In context of hospitality

customers, they are getting influenced by by such factors and focuses to take the services of
those hotels which satisfy their social needs. In context of Royal Lancaster Hotel, In context of
Royal Lancaster Hotel, they focus lifestyle of their customers and keep records of those services
which their customers uses most probably every time. Hence, for high standard customers are
offered high standard services on high cost from this hotel and those who are middle standard
customers will offered less services with low prices. This will help to gain their attention point
and help to create a strong customer base by specific hotel.
Personal factors- It consist of income, age, occupation and many others. Many hotels
have different variety of playing section area for kids, clubbing area for teenagers and adults and
park area for adults. This is how a single hotel target to influence all customers of different age
groups. In context of Royal Lancaster Hotel, they focus on this factor of their customers to
influence them to offer their services. They focus on age and income group of their customers.
For high income customers they serve high quality of services and also some additional services
in context of customers needs and wants. On the other hand, their food menu targeted customers
for age factors like in the section of beverages of their food menu they alcoholic drinks for adults
as well as soft drinks for kids and teenagers.
Psychological factor- It consist of motivation, perception, learning and many others. The
motivation level of customers plays an important role in influencing their customers. Hence to
motivate customers Royal Lancaster Hotel focuses on their promotional activities and promote
their brand by highlighting their services and beautiful interior decors to attract more customers.
Perception of customers also impacted upon creating a strong customer base for a specific hotel.
Royal Lancaster Hotel also focuses on brand image to create good perception of their hotel in
customer's minds.
Consumer trends are changing due to the impact of digital technology-
In context of digitalization, customer trends are changing in hospitality sector. Before the
digitalization, hotels are lacking behind to reach to customers and they are not able promote their
brands globally (Tanrikulu, 2021). After digitalization, hotels have gain a great opportunity to
target customers across their geographical boundaries. They promote their brand on social media
and attract more customers. TV ads, print media, promotional agencies and many others help
hotels to expand their business. After digitalization customers book their hotels through online

mode and all payments will also done through online which further help to save the efforts and
time of customers as well as hotels.
Task 2
Demonstrate the ability to map a path to purchase in a hospitality context, including the decision-
making process
Stages of customer decision making process is explained below-
 Need recognition- This is the stage where customers create self awareness that what kind
of products and services they want. In context of customers in hospitality sector, they
recognise their needs that why they want to take hospitality services.
 Search for information- After analysing needs and wants of customers they start getting
searching that what all alternatives their market have to fulfil their needs and wants. In
context of hospitality sector customers, they search for different hotels information that
which hotel will fulfil their need in expected budgets.
 Evaluation of alternatives- After collecting information, customers evaluate pros and
corns of different hotels products and services (Viglia and Dolnicar, 2020). Here,
customers eliminate those hotels which are not under their expected budgets or which is
not providing appropriate services as compared to their expectation.
 Purchase decision- After eliminating unwanted hotels, customers make a proper
purchase decision and use the services of their selected hotels.
 Post- purchase evaluation- This is the stage where customers analyse whether they get
appropriate services or not according to their expectations. In case customers gain good
experience then they prefer to share it with their contacts which will further help the hotel
to gain more customers and make loyal customers. This will also help hotel to gain good
brand image in market.
Path map to the purchasing for a given hospitality service-
In context of Royal Lancaster Hotel, their customers get to know about their services by
the promotional activities they have done through digitalization. The path map of specific
hospitality service is explained below-
 Awareness- This is the first stage where customers have general knowledge about the
hotel services and ask the particular hotel that how they can meet their expectations.

 Consideration- Here customer need the answer of the question that what special things
can be done by the hotel to meet customer's demand and wants. In context of Royal
Lancaster Hotel, their accommodation services is popular within their targeted customers.
 Interest- Here, customers analyse and compare the accommodation services of different
hotels to analyse which is best for them which cover their expectation and budgets (Zak
and Hasprova, 2020).
 Preference- Here, customers analyse that whether the particular services which they plan
to use from specific hotel is suitable for them or not to meet their expectations. Purchase- Here, finally customers decided to take purchase decision and decided that for
how long period of time they must rely on the services which they decided to take. In
context of Royal Lancaster Hotel, their customers decided that for how many days and
nights they need to take accommodation services for themselves.
Important for marketers to map a path to purchase
Marketers are the individuals or a group of individuals who act like the link between
company and their customers which provide essential information about he customers behaviour
to company and the information about the company's products and services to customers. It is
essential to create a map of path for them because this will help them to create communication
strategies that who are their targeted customers and how they communicate well with them to
influence them to use Royal Lancaster Hotel services.
Important for marketers to understand consumer decision- making
It is also essential for Marketers to understand the customer decision making process
because it will help them to analyse what customers are expecting and how they behave to know
about the new trend in the hospitality sector (Mishra, Singh and Koles, 2021). This will further
help them to analyse marketing trends which are liked by customers so that this information will
be conveyed to hotels. It consist that how and what activities a customer did in market to collect
any information. For example, customers uses social media sites to analyse the services of Royal
Lancaster Hotel and analyse their special services and reviews of customers on their each
services. This information is collected by Marketer and conveyed to Royal Lancaster Hotel so
that they will promote their services on social media to capture more attention of customers.

Task 3
Evaluate appropriate forms of research to understand influences on the hospitality consumer
decision-making process
key differences of the hospitality decision- making process in the context of B2C and B2B-
Decision
making
process
B2B B2C
Need
recognition
This stage consist of analysing
need of a business from another
business. In context of Royal
Lancaster Hotel, they recognise
their needs like what all raw
material for examples furniture is
required for them.
This is the stage where customers analyse
their needs that which kind of services they
are expecting in market to satisfy their
needs and wants. For example, custiomer
analyse that they need food and beverages
services from hospitality sector.
Search for
information
Here, Royal Lancaster Hotel
collect information about
different furniture companies and
the quality and designs of their
furniture which will help them to
develop the décor of their hotels
(Pop and et. al., 2021).
Here, customers gather information
through internet sources about different
hotels and their food menu that what all
dishes they have and how their interior
décor will look to feel good. Here,
customers uses social media sites,
websites, word of mouth and many other to
gather different kind of hotels.
Evaluation of
alternatives
Here, Royal Lancaster Hotel
compare the products of different
furniture companies like IKEA,
Dunelm, dfs, wayfair and many
others and eliminate the
companies which provide high
range of furnitures as compared to
their budget and whose quality is
Here, customers compare different hotels
with their menu and prices. For example
customers compare the prices of Royal
Lancaster Hotel prices and Premier Inn
Hotel prices to decide which hotel will
meet under their budget.

low.
Purchase
decision
After eliminating companies,
Royal Lancaster Hotel decided
that IKEA is the best company
which can be chosen by them to
purchase furniture. In this stage
they finally purchase their
furniture from IKEA.
Here, customers selected one hotel to use
their services. For example, Royal
Lancaster Hotel is selected for this purpose
because the prices and quality of their
menu is lower them Premier Inn Hotel and
they also have better and attractive décor
for their customers.
Post-purchase
decision
Here, they recognise that whether
their purchase decision is satisfied
for Royal Lancaster Hotel or not.
In context the furniture is well
suited in their hotels then they
may make decision to purchase
furniture from IKEA company for
lifetime and in case they are not
satisfied with their purchase
decision then it will impact upon
the IKEA brand image.
This is the stage where customers
recognise that whether they have to use the
facilities of Royal Lancaster Hotel again or
not by their satisfaction level. For example,
if customers get satisfied with the taste of
food provided by the Royal Lancaster
Hotel then they will spread good image of
Royal Lancaster Hotel to their family and
relatives which is beneficial for the hotel
and the customer will try to gain the same
services from same hotel again and again.
Different approaches to market research and methods of research used for understanding the
decision-making process-
 Survey- This is the method where companies prepare a questionnaire for their target
market and distribute between them to analyse their preference (Laudazi, J., 2020). In
context of Royal Lancaster Hotel, they use three types of survey like In- person survey
where researcher ask face to face questions to their customers that whether they are
satisfied with the services of Royal Lancaster Hotel or not. 90% customers respond to
this survey type. Telephone survey is performed on telephones where researcher
communicate their samples through calls and analyse their satisfaction level of purchase
decision. 50-60% customers respond to this survey.

 Observations- It is also the best way to research about the purchase decision making
process of customers. In context of Royal Lancaster Hotel, their staff will observe the
expression of their customers while using their facilities to gain that they are expecting or
they are satisfied or not. This is one of the most effective method but it is essential that
the researcher must have good observation skills. They can also install camera in their
hotels to keep the records of all the activities done by their customers so that they can
analyse them all together whenever they need it in future.
 Focus groups- Here, a group of customers is selected and they are asked a set of series of
questions. This is a type of session which take place at neutral place (Sivakumar, 2021).
In context of Royal Lancaster Hotel, they can select a group of their customers and let
them sit in a different room where video tapping cameras are located to analyse the
answers and behaviour which is given by their selected group of customers while asking
the questions.
Task 4
Evaluate how marketers influence the different stages of the hospitality consumer decision-
making process
The ways where marketers can influence the different stages of the hospitality decision-
making process-
Need recognition- This stage consist of analysing the need of customers to use
hospitality services. In context of marketers, they influence their customers by promoting their
brands to customers and show the beautiful pictures and videos of hotel services so that they will
take interest to use particular hotel service to get experience.
Search for information- This is the stage where customers search information about
different kind of hotels, their services and their prices (Shimizu, 2021). In context of marketer,
they influence their customers by the information of their selected hotels with which they have
dealt. They influence their customers by taking the services of those hotels only which are surest
by them. Here, they share all those information to customers which can attract them for
particular hotel. For example marketer want to promote Royal Lancaster Hotel then they must
share most of the information and benefits of Royal Lancaster Hotel to their customers so that
they will set their mind that Royal Lancaster Hotel is best for them.

Evaluation of alternatives- Here, customers eliminate those hotels which are not
looking good from customer's perception after comparing the alternatives. Here, marketers can
influence heir customers by again and again attracting the customers that the Royal Lancaster
Hotel is best choice for them to fulfil their needs and wants. Marketers make sure that customer
will not select Royal Lancaster Hotel in their elimination list and for this they will remind their
customers that Royal Lancaster Hotel is having best facilities in adequate prices.
Purchase decision- This stage states that customers decided to use the product or
services of a particular company. In context of marketers they appreciate their customers to
choose Royal Lancaster Hotel and they ensure that this hotel will help them to gain the best
experience of their life. This will influence customers that they have chosen good hotel for their
needs and wants.
Post-purchase decision- This is the stage which tells the experience of customers after
using the specific product and services. In context of marketer, they influence their customers to
provide good reviews for Royal Lancaster Hotel if they like their services and also help
customers to provide suggestion to the hotel that what all services are disliked by customers.
Here, marketers ask their customers to fill feedback form of the hotel as soon as possible to
recognize their experience.
The ways where marketers can respond the different stages of the hospitality decision- making
process-
Need recognition- Hotels basically track the google searches to analyse what their
customers are searching on internet to recognize their needs (Santeramo and Lamonaca, 2020).
In context of Royal Lancaster Hotel, they will recognize that what their customers are searching
with the help of google track and then they offer the same services which is searched in majority
for hospitality industry to gain the attention of their customers.
Search for information- When customers start searching information about the same
kind of services which they recognize then companies will again and again share the information
of their specific service to gain the attention of their customers. For example, customers
recognize that they need to take food and beverages services from a specific hotel then here
marketers again again highlight the catchy menu and prices of their food items.
Evaluation of alternatives- When customers start eliminating the alternatives which
they do not like then here, marketers respond to communicate with their customers and try to

attract their attention toward the high quality of food and beverages of Royal Lancaster Hotel
which is better than other hotels so that they bot eliminate this hotel. Here, they also uses to share
comparison chart to their customers.
Purchase decision- Here, customers decided to use the appropriate service like food and
beverages of Royal Lancaster Hotel then this hotel must try to provide best quality of food at
reasonable prices to their customers to satisfy their customers.
Post-purchase decision- Here, marketers respond to the experience of customers by
ensuring them that in case they did not get the appropriate service then this will be corrected by
specific hotel so that customer will provide good rating to that hotel (Shimizu, 2021).
Conclusion
It is concluded that there are various type of factors which can influence hospitality
customer behaviour and attitude like cultural factor, social factor and many others. Digital
technology has impacted a lot on customer trends in hospitality industry. There are five stages in
customer decision making process. The customer decision making process is different for
business to business and different for business to customer. There are different approaches to
market research like survey, observations and many others. Marketers are the individuals and the
group of individual who act as a link between customers and hotels. They influence their
customers decision making process in a positive way.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
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Masiya, R., 2020. The impact of mobile marketing on consumer decision-making, brand equity
and customer relationships: a UKZN student perspective (Doctoral dissertation).
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.
Ormevik, E., 2020. Deciding What to Purchase: Factors Impacting Consumer Decision-Making
Behavior in Social Commerce (Master's thesis, NTNU).
Park, J. and Min, H.K., 2020. Turnover intention in the hospitality industry: a meta-
analysis. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 90, p.102599.
Pop, R.A and et. al., 2021. The impact of social media influencers on travel decisions: The role
of trust in consumer decision journey. Current Issues in Tourism, pp.1-21.
Santeramo, F.G. and Lamonaca, E., 2020. Evaluation of geographical label in consumers’
decision-making process: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Food Research
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Shimizu, A., 2021. A New Decision-Making Process—A Circulating-Type Communications
Model. In New Consumer Behavior Theories from Japan (pp. 189-209). Springer,
Singapore.
Shimizu, A., 2021. Evolution of the Comprehensive Decision-Making Process: Emergence of
Outspoken Consumers. In New Consumer Behavior Theories from Japan (pp. 17-40).
Springer, Singapore.
Sivakumar, S., 2021. Application of Howard Sheth Model of Consumer Decision Making for the
Purchase of a Television. Available at SSRN 3899873.
Tanrikulu, C., 2021. Theory of consumption values in consumer behaviour research: A review
and future research agenda. International Journal of Consumer Studies.
Viglia, G. and Dolnicar, S., 2020. A review of experiments in tourism and hospitality. Annals of
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Zak, S. and Hasprova, M., 2020. The role of influencers in the consumer decision-making
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Online
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