Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior in Hotel Selection

This research project aims to analyze the factors that change customer's behavior towards the selection of a particular brand or service in the hotel industry. It explores the role of consumer behavior, factors influencing behavior change, and strategies for customer retention.

Research Project
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Abstract
Main aim of doing this study is to analysis the factors that change customer’s behaviour
towards selection of particular brand or services. For achieving this aim, different activities or
tasks have been done effectively. Literature review helped researcher in collecting of secondary
information from various sources such as books, magazines, articles etc. Researcher
methodology is another activity that was done by using number of methods including research
approach, philosophy, qualitative research, interview etc. All these are useful methods that have
been followed by investigator for gathering consistent and suitable information regarding the
current study. In order to analysis qualitative information, thematic analysis will be applied that
is effective in analisation of data within lesser time period. Critical appraisal and
recommendations for further study have been completed by identifying individual experience
and analysing issues in existing methods faced by researcher. For this, some recommendations
have been provided in utilisation of effective method that helps them in conducting of further
study without any difficulty. At conclusion, it has been helped researcher in summarising of each
chapters and activities in short and effective manner.
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Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Acknowledgement...........................................................................................................................4
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................5
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................8
Chapter 3: Research Methodology.................................................................................................10
Chapter 4: Analysis and findings...................................................................................................13
Chapter 5: Critical appraisal, recommendations and suggestions for further work.......................18
Chapter 6: Conclusion....................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20
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Acknowledgement
I am sincerely thankful to Berkeley hotel for giving me with the chance to perform a
researcher over an interesting topic i.e. analysis reasons of changing consumer behaviour
regarding hotels and switching to others hotels.
I am also thankful to my parents, friends and superior for guiding in each stage on this
research project. Without their support it would have been more difficult for me to do this
research in effective manner.
I am also thankful to my all project team that support me by providing accurate direction
in completion of full project systematically.
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction and background of the project
Behaviour of the customer introduces as the study of how an individual and group of
customers select, pay for, use and dispose goods, services and ideas to fulfil their needs and
wants. It introduces to the action of the customers within market and underlying purpose for
those actions. In addition, consumer behaviour refers to the decision process and actions of
people who buy products and services for personal consumptions (Varkaris and Neuhofer, 2017).
This project is based on hotel industry that is the branch of service sector and provides different
services to the customers as per their needs and wants. Berkeley hotel is a given five-star deluxe
hotel, headquartered in Wilton place, Knightsbridge, London. This hotel is owned by Maybourne
hotel group. However, there are various factors that have impact on consumer behaviour in
selecting of particular brand such as lifestyle, occupation, age, economic situation, personality
and self concept. There are other factors that have direct effects on consumer choice towards
selection of hotel such as religion, beliefs, cultural values and practices. These factors will
impact on consumers. Apart from this, service quality, environment of hotel, price, facilities etc.
are different factors that attract customers in changing their behaviour towards the specific
service brand. Main purpose of preparing this project is to analyse main reason of customers in
switching existing service to other service or hotels.
Research question
 What are the factors of change in consumer behaviour regarding hotels and switching to
others hotels?
Sub –questions of research
 What is the role of consumer behaviour in selection of hotel?
 What are the factors due to which consumer behaviour changes?
 How consumer can be retained and what strategies can be followed?
Aim and objectives
Main aim of this project is- To identify factors of change in consumer behaviour regarding hotels
and switching to others hotels."A case study on The Berkeley hotel.
Research Objectives
 To evaluate role of consumer behaviour in selection of hotel
 To investigate factors of change in consumer behaviour
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 To recommend strategies of how consumer can be retained
Approach and methodology
In order to conduct this investigation qualitative research methodology will be used by
researcher because it will be useful in collecting of in-depth and detail information regarding the
topic (Tracy, 2019). Interview is an effective method of qualitative research that will be followed
within a study. Along with this, in order to analysis qualitative information regarding the existing
topic, inductive type of approach has been used as it support in finding and interpreting of
qualitative data in easier manner.
Chapter Review
There are different chapter that will be followed for completing full research report in
systematic manner. All these chapters or activities apart from their important and aim will be
described as below:
Chapter 1: Introduction: This is a main chapter because remaining all chapters is
dependent on this chapter. With the help of this chapter, researcher can easily develop aim and
objectives of study and addressing these aim and objectives research questions will be prepared
by researcher. This chapter assist researcher in recognition of study overview and its important
(Viglia, Minazzi and Buhalis, 2016).
Chapter 2: Literature review: This chapter require number of secondary sources such as
books, articles and so on. All these are important sources that have been followed for gathering
secondary data for literature review. Main idea of this literature review is to identify research
gaps in previous study and fulfilling this gap with the use of research questions (Horner and
Swarbrooke, 2016).
Chapter 3: Research methodology: It is another chapter that is based on number of
methods that have been applied for gathering data regarding the study. For conducting this
research report, there are various methods that will be used such as qualitative approach,
interview, inductive data analysis approach etc. All these are main and effective methods for
researcher in gathering of consistent data about the current study.
Chapter 4: Analysis and findings: This part of the research is based on collected data
from any sources. Interview has been used for collecting data and in order to analysis qualitative
data; thematic analysis will be applied by researcher. Main principle of this activity is to analysis
reliable data within limited time period (Subramanian, Gunasekaran and Gao, 2016).
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Chapter 5: Critical appraisal, recommendations and suggestions for further work: This
is another chapter that helps researcher in identification of best method as an alternative for
further work. In this chapter, individual experience will be explained and provides some
recommendation in doing of further research in systematic manner.
Chapter 6: Conclusion: This is last chapter that cover entire summary of report in short
way. This is main chapter because it assists in identification of aim and objectives are achieved
or not.
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Chapter 2: Literature review
Literature review is a process of collecting secondary information about the topic. In
order to gather secondary data for literature review, various sources available for researcher.
These sources are magazines, journals, articles and many other valuable to the current study.
Main motive of this chapter is to find out literature gap by using research questions (Liu and et.
al., 2017). Main literature gap of this study is number of factors that impact on customer
behaviour and its decision making process in selection of hotel. In order to fulfil this literature
gap research questions will be described as below:
What is the role of consumer behaviour in selection of hotel?
According to the Nawal (2019), consumer behaviour refers to the research of how
consumers make decision about what they need, would like, and want and how do they pay for,
use and order of goods. Consumer behaviour within hotel industry plays very important role to
know what influences the purchasing decisions of the customers and why does it so. Consumer
behaviour is a main factor that effect on them in selection of hotel. By understanding how
customers decide on a service it is possible for hotel to fulfil in the gap as well as analysis which
service is required and which services are obsolete in the marketplace. It also supports hotel in
deciding how to present their service such that they have greatest impact on consumers.
Therefore, customer behaviour is important in selecting process of specific brand or hotel.
What are the factors due to which consumer behaviour changes?
According to the Shah (2018), there are number of factors that have to change behaviour
of customers towards specific product or services. Some important factors will be explained as
below:
Economic situation: Consumer’s Economic situation has great impact on its buying
behaviour or nature. If the income as well as savings of a consumer is high then they will buy
more expensive services. However, a customer with low income as well as savings will buy
inexpensive services.
Social factors: These factors are also influence on consumer’s purchasing behaviour.
There are some essential social factors which are family, reference groups, role and status. All
these factors have impact on consumer behaviour.
Lifestyle: Consumer’s Lifestyle is another main factor that has affect on buying
behaviour of consumer. Lifestyle introduces to the manner an individual lives in a society as well
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as is expressed through the things in his/her surroundings (Liu and et. al., 2017). Along with this,
it is determined by interests, opinions, activities etc. of customer and shapes their entire pattern
of acting as well as interacting in the world.
How consumer can be retained and what strategies can be followed?
As per the view presented by Galetto (2015), Retention of customer introduces to the
activities as well as actions that are taking by companies for reducing the number of consumer’s
defections. Main purpose of retaining customers as it supports an organisation in improvement of
its performance and profitability. There are different numbers of strategies that can be followed
for retaining consumers in the hotel. These are, explored CRM for old lads, assess past booking
to identify priority guests, market their guest’s past interests etc. All these are more effective
strategies of retaining customer in the organisation for long time. There are various benefits of
retaining customers such as improved brand image, reduced guest acquisition cost, encourage
direct booking to decrease OTA commission fees and develop a profitable, loyal customer base.
Along with this retention of customers in the organisation is significance for the development
and success of business in preset time period.
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Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Research methodology introduces to the systematic process of collecting information
regarding the specific area of research. This is an important part of the report because it will be
beneficial in gathering as well as analysing of information in appearance of qualitative as well as
quantitative. There are different methods that will be suitable according to the research project
(Atmowardoyo, 2018). These will be described as below:
Research approach:
In order to collect data, there are primarily two approaches i.e. qualitative and
quantitative. Qualitative approach helps in collecting of information in accurate and quality
manner, whereas quantitative approach assists in gathering of numerical information. According
to the current research, qualitative approach will be applied because it provide detail and in-
depth data factors of change that have impact on consumer behaviour about hotels and switching
to others hotels (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). However, quantitative approach is not useful
because it creates difficulties in data analysis.
Research philosophy:
For doing investigation, two types of philosophy has been used which named are
interpretivisim and positivism. Both are effective types of research philosophy but in order to do
present study, interpretivisim philosophy has been applied. Main purpose behind using
interpretivisim philosophy as it helps researcher in interpretation of qualitative information. On
the other side, positivism is another type that not use within an investigation because it require
quantitative data which is difficult in analisation process (Belotto, 2018).
Sources of data collection:
This is another section of research methodology that is classified into two sources which
are primary and secondary. In order to gather primary data regarding the factors that have direct
impact on customer behaviour about the selection of hotel and switching to other hotels,
Interview will be used because it is a method of qualitative research. In order to gather secondary
information about the existing topic, there are numerous sources such as articles, publication
study, books, journals etc. All these sources will be used in collecting secondary data regarding
the topic. Therefore, both sources are data collections are useful within an investigation
(Bloomberg and Volpe, 2018).
Sampling:
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In order to select sample, there are two techniques or methods such as probability and
non-probability. According to the current research, probability sampling has been taken because
it not takes more time and provides valid outputs from the respondent’s side. 20 mangers of
Berkeley hotel will be recruited randomly under probability sampling. Non-probability is another
technique of sampling that is not applies in this study because it requires maximum sources
(Brannen, 2017).
Data analysis approach:
To analysis data, there are two approaches i.e. inductive and deductive. These are
effective in analysing of data. Inductive approach has been applied for analysing qualitative data;
whereas deductive approach is apply in analisation of quantitative information. In a current
study, inductive approach has been used as it assists in analisation of qualitative type of
information in limited time period (Cho, 2017).
Research instruments:
There are numerous research instruments such as interview, questionnaire, focus group,
modelling, observation etc. All these instruments help in collection of primary data. In order to
gather information about the factors that impact on consumer’s behaviour, interview will be
applied (Hathcoat and Meixner, 2017). Main purpose behind selecting interview method as a
primary data collection, it is useful in obtaining detailed or in-depth information regarding
personal opinion and perception.
Interview
Q1) Do you have information in relation to the factors that have impact on consumer behaviour?
Q2) What are the main factors that have direct impact over consumer behaviour about selection
of Hotel?
Q3) What are the main factors due to which behaviour of consumer can be changes?
Q4) In your opinion, what are the main factors that pressure customer’s buying behaviour
towards specific brand?
Q5) What are the ways that may be use by Berkeley hotel for attracting more customers towards
their services?
Q6) As per your opinion, Berkeley hotel has strong relationship with their customers?
Q7) According to you, what strategies used by Berkeley hotel in retaining customers for long
time?
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Q8) What types of strategies followed Berkeley hotel for increasing awareness about their
services or products among customers?
Q9) Does customer retention helps Berkeley hotel in improvement of its business performance
and profitability?
Q10) Do you have idea about why customer switch a particular brand for other brand?
Q11) Do you think the advertisement of Berkeley hotel services has a main impact in purchasing
decision of customers.
Research reliability and validity:
This is another essential part of methodology that support researcher in testing of
reliability as well as validity of the information. For this testing, Interview has been taken
because it support researcher in collecting of valid and reliable data about the selected
respondents. Therefore, interview will be useful in gaining valid and reliable outcomes easily
(Hong and et. al., 2018).
Ethical consideration:
There are various principles of research ethics such as informed consent, confidentiality,
beneficences etc. These are main principles that must be following by researcher because these
will help them in completion of full project in ethical manner (Queirós, Faria and Almeida,
2017).
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Chapter 4: Analysis and findings
Analysing and findings of the information is based on collected data. Interview has been
used by researcher for collecting qualitative information. In order to analysis qualitative data,
inductive approach has been followed because it interpreting qualitative information in easy
manner. Along with this, thematic analysis as an analytical tool will be used for analysing
quantitative information or data about the factors that influence consumers in its purchasing
decision. In this analysis, researcher will require to make themes on each open-ended question.
As it will support researcher in analisation and interpretation of qualitative data within lesser
time and in effective manner (Rogers, 2018).
Theme 1:- Knowledge about the factors that have impact on consumer behaviour
Q1) Do you have knowledge on the subject of the factors that contain impact on consumer
behaviour?
Interpretation: There are 20 mangers of Berkeley hotel in which majority of respondents have
idea regarding the factors that have effect on consumer behaviour. Some mangers not have any
kind of idea and knowledge regarding those factors that impact on customer behaviour.
Theme 2:- Factors that impact on consumer behaviour about selection of Hotel
Q2) What are the main factors that impact on consumer behaviour about selection of Hotel?
Interpretation: Various number of factors involved in impacting customer behaviour towards
selection of hotel such as location, personal experience, hotel facilities, nature of staff, price and
advertising and many more. All these are main factors but most of the respondents have
knowledge as personal experience is main factor in selection of hotel. Remaining respondents
have agreed with rest of the factors.
Theme 3:- Factors due to which behaviour of consumer can be changes
Q3) What are main factors due to which behaviour of customers can be changes?
Interpretation: Financial and economic situations are main factor due to which customer change
their behaviour about the selection of hotel. As if the customers are not sure those will impacts
their purchasing power. Here Age and life cycle of the customers are the two crucial factors that
come under the personal factors. Through life cycle as well as age are other factors that impact
on consumer behaviour. Along with this, there are other main factors due to which behaviour of
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consumer can be change such as social, personal, physiological and cultural. For this most of the
population have opinion as personal factor is major factor because it is based on lifestyle, social
status of consumers.
Theme 4:- What type of factors has more influence over consumer’s purchasing behaviours
towards specific brand
Q4) In your opinion, what are the major factors that pressure buying behaviour of customers
towards specific brand?
Interpretation: There are various numbers of factors that influence customers to chance their
purchase decision in selection of specific brand such as hotel product, personal prefer-ences and
received information. These are main and important factors and majority of participants have
knowledge about that factors and its impact on purchasing behaviour of consumer. Remaining
respondents said as price and advertisement is another factor that influences customers to buy
service from specific brand.
Theme 5:- Ways that may be use by Berkeley hotel for attracting more customers towards their
services
Q5) What are the ways that may be use by Berkeley hotel for attracting more customers towards
their services?
Interpretation: As per the view of managers, there are numerous factors used by Berkeley hotel
for attracting various customers towards their services. In order to attract new customers,
company used different types of marketing strategies such as chat-based service, devise
ingenious loyalty programmes, optimise guest’s insights, track guests through CRM, promote
direct reservation via their website etc. All these are effective and essential ways that are used by
hotel for attracting various numbers of clients easily.
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Theme 6:- Berkeley hotel has strong relationship with their customers
Q6) As per your opinion, Berkeley hotel has strong relationship with their customers?
Interpretation: Most of the mangers have agreed about this statement as Berkeley hotel has
strong and long lasting relationship with their customers. In order to maintain this relationship,
hotel has to provide different facilities to their customers such as information about the discount
and offers, hotel facilities etc. This service will support them in maintaining of effective and
strong relationship with clients. Some managers not have idea about the same concept.
Theme 7:- Strategies used by Berkeley hotel in retaining clients for long time
Q7) According to you, what strategies used by Berkeley hotel in retaining consumers for longer
time?
Interpretation: There are various strategies used by Berkeley hotel for retaining gusts for long
time. These are assess past booking to identify priority guests, explored CRM for old lads,
market their guest’s past interests, understood the motivations behind repeat booking, offer right
repeat booking incentives, applied guest feedback to future stay and many other. All these are
main strategies that have been used by hotel for retaining customer for long time and maintaining
them with strong relationship. Majority of mangers are agreed as these strategies used by hotel
for retaining customers, whereas rest of the participants not have idea about the business
strategies that help in retaining of customers.
Theme 8:- Types of strategies followed Berkeley hotel for increasing awareness about their
services or products among customers
Q8) What types of strategies followed Berkeley hotel for increasing awareness about their
services or products among customers?
Interpretation: There are different number of strategies applied by Berkeley hotel for enhancing
awareness about their business and services among customers. These are referral programs,
social media contests, re-marketing, paid social advertising, charity sponsorship, partnership with
local events etc. These are effective strategies used by hotel for providing information about their
product, services, discounts and offers to the customers. Most of the mangers said as social
media contests is best strategy because it will help hotel in increasing of awareness in large
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number of customers in single time period. Remaining participants said re-marketing is useful
because it support in identifying needs and wants of the customers towards business.
Theme 9:- Customer retention helps Berkeley hotel in improvement of its business
performance
Q9) Does customer retention helps Berkeley hotel in improvement of its business performance
and profitability?
Interpretation: Most of the respondents said Yes, as customer retention supports Berkeley hotel
in enhancement of its business profitability and performance easily. There are different benefits
get by hotel by retaining customers for long time such as low marketing costs, loyal customers
boost sales, improved brand image, retentions equal acquisition, achievement of competitive
advantages and so on. For this, most of the respondents said as improved brand image is main
advantage of customer retention for Berkeley hotel. Rest of the participants have idea as
customer retention helps Berkeley hotel by improving their performance and productivity level
easily.
Theme 10: Why customer switch a particular brand for other brand
Q10) Do you have idea about why customer switch a particular brand for other brand?
Interpretation: There are various reasons of customers for switching hotel to other hotel such as
value of money, marketing mix, outdated technology, business environment, marketing
communication; customer service is non-satisfactory, brand reputation and so on. All these are
main reason for switching a particular brand to another brand. Most of the participants said as
marketing mix is major factor that influence customer mind in switching of brand. Some
mangers said as brand reputation is main factor because good brand image attract customers and
poor brand image reduce number of customers.
Themes 11:- Advertisement of Berkeley hotel services has a main impact in purchasing
decision of customers
Q11) Do you think the advertisement of Berkeley hotel services has a main impact in purchasing
decision of customers?
Interpretation: Majority of participants are agreed as advertisement of Berkeley hotel services is
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major factor that impact on customer’s decision making process. Remaining respondents not
have any idea about the same.
Therefore, analysis and findings of data are important for researcher. According to the
above data, it has been concluded that there are various factors that impact on customer’s
behaviour and decision making process in selection of particular brand. Along with this, number
of strategies was used by company for retaining customer for long time. This will be beneficial
for hotel in improvement of its business performance at marketplace.
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Chapter 5: Critical appraisal, recommendations and suggestions for further
work
I am happy for conducting this research over a broad topic “To find out those factors that
have effect on consumer behaviour about hotels and switching to others hotels”. This is an
interesting topic that helped me by increasing my understanding about the factors that impact on
customer’s behaviour. For collecting information, I used Interview because it facilitate in
gathering of in-depth information about the respondents. Under this method, I make number of
open-ended questions that helped me in exploring respondent’s opinion about the topic easily.
By applying interview, I faced certain issues such as time, lack of numerical information etc. In
order to overcome these issues, there is recommendation about alternative research methodology.
Questionnaire is an alternative methodology that would be used by researcher if they get another
chance for performing this investigation again. Questionnaire is useful because it will be help
them by providing numerical data in letter time duration.
Along with this, there are suggestions for further work which are: to analysis the
importance of customer loyalty in improving business performance, to explore various factor that
effects on customer’s decision making process in selection of particular brand, to identify
importance of customer satisfaction in increasing sales of hotel etc. All these are effective
suggestions for further work if researcher gets another opportunity for doing this investigation.
There is also suggestion for methodology is they could use questionnaire because it provide
reliable as well as quantitative information within limited time period.
Chapter 6: Conclusion
This report has been concluded that customers are main part of the business success and
growth because they help an organisation in increment of their sales. Most of the respondents
have knowledge regarding the factors that impact on consumer behaviour. There are some
factors that discussed in research findings such as personal experience, location, price and
advertisement etc. These factor impacts on behaviour of customers in selecting specific hotel.
Along with this, most of the mangers have knowledge as hotel products, received information are
another factor that has to influence customers towards buying services from that particular hotel.
Hotel used different ways for attracting customers in which some are devise ingenious loyalty
programs, track gust through customer relationship management etc. Along with this, various
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ways also used by hotel for retaining customers including offer right repeat booking incentives,
collect feedbacks etc. These ways support hotel in retention of customer for long time and
maintaining of strong relationship with them. In order to increase awareness about the products
and services, social media has been used by hotel. This helped them in increasing awareness
among customers in single time.
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