Hospitality Experience - Differentiation in the Industry

This paper explores the differentiation brought in by the hospitality industry transforming themselves from their previous stance on cultural and traditional grounds. It discusses the ways in which the industry can achieve differentiation and the significance of branding.

Running head: HOSPITALITY EXPERIENCE
Hospitality Experience
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In the industry of lodging, all-suite hotels along with the extensive-stay hotels are
good examples of the products that are been differentiated by initiating considerably different
attributes of products (Cetin and Walls 2016). One recent example of differentiating by
actually being different has been the 21st century Museum Hotels that have been able to
introduce important attributes of differentiation through integration of modern art museum in
every hotel it possesses. This paper would dig into the differentiation brought in by the
hospitality industry transforming themselves from their previous stance on cultural and
traditional grounds.
Previously the hospitality industry was highly influenced by social and cultural
meanings. Hospitality industry has always given significant value to the society. Countries
like Thailand and Turkey have come to the forefront globally with their history and
tradition that plays a considerable role in displaying their images to the world (Ren et al.
2016). An analysis that has been made on the knowledge of hospitality factor in the above
mentioned countries portrays that the conventional structure will endure through the years to
come.
However, tourists do face issues regarding their relations with tourists. It has
happened a number of times that the small villages lose authenticity along with the other
metropolitan cities within the area. Previously, tourists have always wanted to possess arts,
cultural manifestations and souvenirs from such villages that displayed their culture and
rituals but with the change in time, craftsmen have reacted to the demand that has been ever-
growing. They have altered and made changes in the designs of their products for bringing
them more in line with the new taste and preferences of the customers (Kasemsap 2017).
The interest that is being shown by the tourists generally contributes to the sense of artistes
self-worth, helping in conserving a cultural custom, erosion of culture might take place due to
commoditization of the cultural goods.

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Keechak Dance, a significant part on the conventional religious ceremony, is
originally being performed on special occasions in the Agama Hindu culture of Bali,
Indonesia, has been shortened in recent years and has been taken out of the religion
framework. The hotels in Bali have started displaying it in different way for the tourists and it
is being performed on regular source to the paying tourist groups. Manufacturing of molas, a
kind of blouse that is generally being worn by Columbia’s Kuna women, is stated to be an
art that replicated the world’s conception along with the spirituality of the Kuna nation.
However, recently, it is being transformed increasingly through factors of tourism, more into
commercial trade that would cause loss of its spiritual quality and importance. This is altering
the designs of the molas for corresponding the tourists’ interests, while at same time the
women representing Kuna are losing out on the understanding and knowledge of the older
designs along with the interpretations of the design of molas (Hosseini and Zainal 2016).
Destinations in recent years have risked standardization in the course of satisfying the
desire of the tourists for facilities that are familiar to them. While factors like food, drinks and
accommodation must fulfil the desire of the tourists for the unfamiliar and new, they at the
same time must not be too outlandish or new because few of the tourists do look for new
kind of things (Zhang, Li and Law 2015). It is in the habit of the tourists to look for familiar
facilities on unfamiliar territories like the chain of hotels and well-known fast food
restaurants.
As per Cetin and Walls 2016, differentiation within the industry of hospitality can
be achieved in number of ways which includes features of the products, services of
complementary nature, and innovations in service, creative advertising and better
supplier relationship that generally leads to better sort of services. Certain kind of resources
has been more effectual as an origin of sustainable differentiation than the others. Brands
along with reputations are complicated to imitate, whereas particular features of service

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might be easy. In general sense, resources of intangible nature like the high-performing
culture of an organization is often hard to emulate and are the strong base of competitive
advantage. But, resources of tangible nature like furniture and equipment existing within a
hotel is easy to emulate.
The aspects used in differentiating the company from its competitors needs to be
significant for the customers. Attributes of such unique nature needs to be made use of in
building loyalty of the customers that can interpret into prices of higher nature accompanied
with greater margin of profit (Ren et al. 2016). The more complex it is to emulate a specific
attribute, the greater is its benefits and the longer a company can make use of is its
competitive advantage. Within the industry of hospitality it is a hard affair in creating any
sort of innovations and there exists many copycats. It is a true fact that, nonetheless, an
innovator can achieve and often tackle a significant benefit by being the first in implementing
a concept on the broader scale.
Branding has become progressively more significant within the segment of
hospitality. There are the bigger hotel brands that seems to grow outsized with the strategic
tiers of market segment, along with the well-known, single-entity hotels that would by no
means be more than ‘brand of one’. Branding needs to expand beyond the sticking of a logo
on building signage along with the letterhead. A brand of any sort must bung into the
customers’ psyche in simulating the highest level of interactivity.
It can be concluded that there does not exist any heterogeneity within the market
power. One hotel is like another where reasoning becomes easy. However, that is not the way
the market works. Hotels have the ability in distinguishing from one another in certain ways,
as do some of the products. Location is one simple feature of distinguishing, and
specialization within a particular service is another. Such forms of differentiation often give

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rise to the likelihood of ‘star’ hotels that possess the power of brands. They are the ones that
demand high prices. They have the power of monopoly pricing and can incriminate mark-ups
over the marginal costs. It is the reality and it is relatively harder in modelling it, though
there exist a lot of techniques in doing so. They generally tend to fit well on the envelope
back. They are more intricate than the market for commodities.

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References:
Cetin, G. and Walls, A., 2016. Understanding the customer experiences from the perspective
of guests and hotel managers: Empirical findings from luxury hotels in Istanbul,
Turkey. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 25(4), pp.395-424.
Hosseini, R.S. and Zainal, A., 2016. The effects of indirect experience of hotel customers on
brand association and loyalty in Iran. In Proceedings of the 1st AAGBS International
Conference on Business Management 2014 (AiCoBM 2014)(pp. 417-426). Springer,
Singapore.
Kasemsap, K., 2017. Mastering customer service, customer experience, and customer
orientation in the hospitality and tourism industry. In Handbook of research on holistic
optimization techniques in the hospitality, tourism, and travel industry (pp. 115-140). IGI
Global.
Ren, L., Qiu, H., Wang, P. and Lin, P.M., 2016. Exploring customer experience with budget
hotels: Dimensionality and satisfaction. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 52, pp.13-23.
Zhang, Z., Li, H. and Law, R., 2015. Differences and similarities in perceptions of hotel
experience: The role of national cultures. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 32(sup1),
pp.S2-S14