Premier Inn: Consumer Behaviour and Insight in the Hospitality Sector

This report examines consumer behavior within the hospitality industry, using Premier Inn as a case study. It explores various factors influencing customer decisions, including personal, psychological, cultural, and social elements, alongside the impact of technology on customer trends. The report details the stages of the customer decision-making process, from need recognition to post-purchase evaluation, and highlights the importance of marketers mapping the customer journey. It contrasts B2C and B2B decision-making processes and discusses different market research approaches. Furthermore, the report analyzes how marketers can influence each stage of the hospitality decision-making process, emphasizing the role of understanding customer needs and preferences to enhance satisfaction and loyalty. Desklib provides this solved assignment and other resources to aid student learning.

Hospitality Consumer
Behaviour and Insight

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Different factors which influence customer behaviour within hospitality industry...............3
Impact of technology upon customer trends..........................................................................4
Stages of customer making decision process.........................................................................5
Importance of marketers to map a path to purchase and understand customer decision making
................................................................................................................................................6
Comparing key differences of decision making process of B2C and B2B............................6
Different approaches of market research and methods of research........................................8
The ways marketers can influence different stages of hospitality decision making process. 9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is one of the fastest growing industries in UK which is having good
opportunities to develop the products and services according to their customers needs and wants.
It is essential to handle customer’s behaviour for hospitality industry. Customer behaviour is the
attitude and the way of acting by a customer while purchasing a particular product or services
(Kustos and et. al., 2019). Premier Inn hotel is founded by its parent company Whitbread in the
year 1987 and it is headquartered in Dunstable, UK. It provides various kinds of services like
accommodation services, parking facilities, pool facilities and many others. The following report
covers the factors which influence customer’s behaviour, impact of technology upon customer
trends, stages of customer making decision process. Beside this, it also covers importance of
marketers to map a path to purchase and understand customer decision making, comparing key
differences of decision making process of B2C and B2B, different approaches of market research
and methods of research. The report will finishes with the ways marketers can influence different
stages of hospitality decision making process.
TASK 1
Different factors which influence customer behaviour within hospitality industry
Personal factor- It consist of age, gender, income of customers and many others. In
context of Premier Inn hotel, they influence their customers by serving soft drinks to children
and hard drinks to adults. This is how they influence by targeting age groups. On the other hand,
they also influence their customers to buy their services by targeting both middle income
customers as well as high income customers by having different prices of various kinds of
services. Premier Inn can influence their customers by using these factors. They analyse needs
and wants of different genders and professional customers and try to fulfil them. For example,
Premier Inn hotels are having a meal offer named 'kids eat free' breakfast offer. This offer is for
one breakfast per child and this offer is only for below 16 years of children. Up to maximum of 2
children can eat free breakfast at premier inn if their parents buy full breakfast as per the menu of
adult meals (Premier Inn UK & Ireland terms & conditions, 2022). Hence, this can influence

decision making process of the customers because the adults can think to buy full breakfast
instead of half so that their children will get free breakfast as per their menu.
Psychological factors-; It include motivation, perception, opinion and many others. In
context of Premier Inn, they are having a guarantee service of 'good night's sleep guarantee'
which offers the comfortable mattress of Hypnos and soft pillows. The mentioned hotel is so
confident that in case their guests are unable to get good sleep at their rooms than they can return
their money back (A good night's sleep guaranteed, 2022). This can influence the purchasing
behaviour of their customers as this service will generate a strong opinion in the customers mind
that if the premier inn hotels are so confident about the sleep of their customers than it must
make them comfortable to stay in the hotel. On the other hand, perception of customers also
plays an important role in influencing them to purchase the products and services. Premier Inn
tries to serve best services to their customers so that they will perceive good value and brand
image about the hotel so that they will maintain good relations with customers and their
customers will perceive positive experience for the hotel. This will influence them to become
loyal customers. For creating good perception of their brand image in customers mind, they
promote their products well and try to resolve customer’s issues well.
Culture factor- It is very important in hospitality industry to focus on culture of their
customers like their language, belief, values and many others (Murillo and King, 2019). For
example, offering Russian food to Russian customer will help to influence that customer and
create a good opinion for hotel. Secondly, welcoming the customers in their cultural ways will
impact good impression of hotel on their customer's mind. Culture plays an important role in
gaining more customers for a hotel and restaurant. Premier Inn focuses on the culture of their
customers and tries to convey their promotional messages in such a way which will not hurt the
feeling of their customer’s culture. Most of the customers are cultural conscious and they prefer
to visit those hotels and restaurants only which respect their culture.
Social factors- It is the factor which consist of customer buying habit, religion, family
opinions and many others. In context of Premier Inn hotel, it is beneficial for them to focus on
social factors to influence their customers. Analysing purchasing habit of customers will help
Premier Inn to recognize which kind of services will help them to gain higher customers
satisfaction. For example, the family value of a customer states that they like to stay in a single
room and enjoy their trip together by playing indoor games and eating together. Hence, Premier

Inn hotel will serve large size room to those customers who prefer to stay with family in a single
room and they can also offer some indoor game facilities to make them satisfied. Premier Inn
analyse the buying habit of customers and try to influence their customers to use their
accommodation facilities. Here, they analyse which searching tool is commonly used by
customers to analyse facilities of accommodation services. This will help them to advertise on
same searching tool so that customers will gain effective information about their hotel and get
influence to use their facilities.
Impact of technology upon customer trends
Digital technology plays an important role for the development of hospitality industry.
Today, most of the hotels promote their services on social media and customers check reviews of
particular hotel through social media. Today, most of the customers pay their bills through online
mode. Hence, Premier Inn must have online payment option for attracting more customers and
gain customer satisfaction. With the help of development in digital technology, customers
become more aware about their rights (Lugosi, 2019). In case of any complaint regarding their
satisfaction, they directly complaint at the official website of particular hotel and demand for
resolving quarries as soon as possible. With various online tools, customers can easily compare
the services of different hotels and choose their best alternative which can match their budgets.
On the other hand, companies share their information regarding new service launch through e-
mails, messages and many other digital media. Hence, customers expect from hotels that they
will regularly convey them information regarding any change in their products or services. This
is how digit technology plays an important role in changing customers tends in hospitality
industry. For example, most of the hotels use various technologies like digital conference
facilities, robots and infrared sensors, smart room keys and many others. In context of Premier
Inn hotel, they use smart room keys so that their customers can open the door of their rooms by
single scan. Technological condition within a company impacted customer’s behaviour because
most of the customers get satisfied when staff members of hotels serve services quickly and this
is possible with advanced technology. For example, when customer want to convey about any
additional housekeeping service then they directly call or message the staff member rather than
reaching at front desk of hotel and convey their message. This will save the time and efforts of
both customers and employees.

Task 2
Stages of customer making decision process
There are five stages in customer making decision process which are mentioned below-
Need recognition- Here, customers identify their basic need and wants. Here, customers
create self awareness about their needs that what kind of products and services they want to use
and why. In context of hospitality sector, their customers recognize that whether they need food
and beverages service, accommodation services or any other kind or services. For example, in
context of Premier Inn hotels, their most of the customers search first analyse their basic need to
use their hotel facilities such as few customers use their hotels to celebrate birthday parties, few
customers use it for business meetings and many others.
Search for information- Here, customers search for information about which hotel can
fulfil their needs and wants. Here, most of the customers use internet sources to collect any
information (.Li, Hallsworth and Coca‐Stefaniak, 2020). For example, customers of Premier Inn
search the facilities of the hotels as well as facilities of other hotels through internet and their
official websites so that they can analyse whether Premier Inn is fulfilling their basic needs of
requirements or not.
Evaluation of alternatives- This is the stage where customers eliminate those hotels
which are over expensive and have bad quality of services is not prefer by customer. Once the
customers analyse the hotels facilities then they will decide which hotel should be eliminated.
For example, Marriott hotels are more expensive for customers as compared to the prices of
Premier Inn. Hence, the customer will eliminate the Marriott hotel option.
Purchase decision- After eliminating many hotels, finally customer makes a decision to
purchase the services of specific hotel which fulfil their needs. Premier Inn customers prefer to
choose that hotel which are low in price and offer good quality of products and services. For
example, when customers decide that Premier Inn hotel is fulfilling their basic needs then they
choose this hotel and use their services for their requirements.
Post purchase evaluation- This is the stage where customer set their opinion that
whether they are going to purchase same services of similar hotel or not. This is the stage of
analysing customer experience by their feedback and reviews after using specific services. For
example, when a customer leave the hotel than hotel ask for feedback to analyse their reviews

and to analyse which service help them to make more satisfied so that in case of negative
reviews hotel will change or modify those services which dissatisfied their customers.
Path map to purchasing for Premier Inn hotel's services-
Awareness- Here, customers recognize their need and wants and ask the company that
what kind of products and services they have to fulfil their needs. In context to Premier Inn hotel,
they customers communicate with them through telephone or social media to ask whether they
are having such kind of services or not.
Consideration- This is the stage where customers need answer from company about the
benefit of using their product and services rather than opting other company.
Interest- This is the stage where customer analyse the benefits of using Premier Inn
services and now they compare the specific service with other hotel substitute services. To
analyse best suited budget and quality of services (Khoo-Lattimore and Yang, 2018).
Preference- Here, customer plan to buy a particular service of premier Inn hotel and
analyse that whether their decision will meet their exact expectations or not.
Purchase- This is the last stage where customers make a purchase decision and analyse
for how much time they need to use particular service of Premier Inn hotel.
Importance of marketers to map a path to purchase and understand customer decision making
Marketers are the individuals of a company which act link a intermediator between
companies and their customers. Here, in context of hospitality industry, their companies ask for
those intermediators which can easily understand the products and services of specific company
and have good communication skill to make their customer understand about the benefits of
using specific hotel products and services. In context of Premier Inn hotel, their marketers help
them to suggest those changes which are required by their customers (Buhalis and Sinarta, 2019).
Marketers are well aware about the needs and wants of customers because they directly
communicate with customers.
It is very essential for marketers to decide a path map for their actions and performance to
analyse the factors for customer decision making process. It is essential for marketers to have
polite and soft behaviours and have good communication and understanding skill to analyse what
actually preferred by their customers and then adopting only those influencing factors only
which is preferred by customers to gain their attention toward Premier Inn services. It is essential
that marketers must help their customers to compare the services and products on accurate data

and suggest them that which hotel services will beneficial for them and comes under their
budget.
Task 3
Comparing key differences of decision making process of B2C and B2B
Consumer
decision
making
process
B2B B2C
Need
recognition
In context of business to business,
companies deal with other company.
For example, Premier Inn hotel is
analysing that they need to change
their old fashioned furniture with new
designed furniture in their hotel. This
is need recognition stage.
In context of business to
customers, companies deal
with customers directly. For
example, customer analyse
their need that they need to
use better accommodation
services.
Information
search
Here, Premier Inn search information
about various furniture companies that
what kind of prices and quality they
have. There are various kind of
sources through which they can search
information like internet sources, their
old supplier of furniture and many
others.
Here, customers search
information about various
kind of hotel which provides
those accommodation services
which comes under the budget
of customers (Zhang, Zhao
and Gupta, 2018).
Evaluation of
alternatives
Here, Premier Inn hotel compare all
companies prices and qualities with
each other and eliminate those options
whose furniture prices are too
expensive and whose quality or design
is not matched with expected by hotel.
Here, customers compare
various kinds of hotels with
each other and neglects those
option which did not fall
under their budget and which
are having security issues.

Purchase
decision
Here, Premier Inn finally made
decision that they are going to
purchase their furniture from one
specific furniture providing company
and they purchase their new furniture
from that company and paid them all
the bills. For example, Premier Inn
decided that Arthur Brett will be the
perfect company for them to purchase
their furniture. They deal with this
company.
In context of B2C, their
customers finally selected a
purchase decision. For
example, Premier Inn hotel is
selected by customer because
their prices are affordable and
their quality and security
services are good (Meng and
Choi, 2018).
Post
purchase
evaluation
Here, Premier Inn will personally
check the quality of their purchased
furniture and decide whether they are
going to purchase furniture from
Arthur Brett company once again or
not in future. If the quality of furniture
is good then Premier Inn will decide to
purchase furniture in future again with
the same company and in case the
quality is not good then they will
switch to other supplier and provide
bad reviews to them (Ratasuk, 2019).
Here, customers will decide
whether the services which
they use is providing them
positive customer experience
or negative customer
experience. In case, customer
perceive positive customer
experience then they will
provide positive feedback to
Premier Inn and choose to
become their loyal customer
and in case they perceive
negative customer experience
then they will neglect to use
Premier Inn services again in
future.
Different approaches of market research and methods of research
There are different kinds of approaches of marketing research to analyse customer purchasing
decision. These methods are mentioned below-

Focus groups- This is the type of research which consist of selecting a particular group
of people for analysing their preference toward a particular service. In context of Premier Inn
hotel, they select a group of customers and let them sit in a separate room where video trapping
cameras are set to record their answers which is asked by researcher. Here, researcher has a
serious of questions which they ask with their respondents (Liu and et. al., 2019). The main
feature of this approach is that it is having a video tapping camera to record the answers of their
respondents which can be kept as records for future use. Here, researcher can analyse the
answers at any time by playing the video which is recorded earlier.
Survey- It is one of another important approach of research which can be opted by
Premier Inn to analyse need and preference of their customers. Here, they can prepare a set of
questions in a questionnaire form and distribute it to their customers as well as non- customers
groups in the market. After collecting questionnaire with them they can analyse which factor can
help them to influence more. Survey questions can be sent to customers through e-mails, social
media and many other mediums. It is helpful when company need large amount of data from
their customers. For example when Premier Inn hotel need customer preference of 400-500
customers then they can use this method of research. There is various kinds of benefits of using
survey like it is inexpensive, it is flexible which means it can be sent in any form like telephone,
social media, through a paper and many others. For example, in context of Marriott hotels, their
marketing research allows them to analyse different services for their customers by analysing the
preference of customers. On the other hand, marketing research for Marriott hotels will help
them to understand their market share and take effective decisions to improve their marketing
shares (Marriott marketing research, 2017).
Observation- It is the approach of research where researcher observes the behaviour of
their customers to analyse what kind of preference they are having toward a particular product
and services. Here, it is important that researcher must have good skill of observation and
analysing (Huseynov, 2021). This type of research is inexpensive. Here, researcher observe the
behaviour and actions of their customers while purchasing as well as using any service of their
hotel and analyse whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with that particular product or service.
This will help them to analyse specifically those services which are providing more satisfaction
to customers so that Premier Inn will invest more on such services. It also helps to analyse those

services which provide dissatisfaction to customers so that they can modify these services for
organisational benefit.
Task 4
The ways marketers can influence different stages of hospitality decision making process
Marketers play an important role to influence customer purchase decision in every stage which is
mentioned below-
Problem recognition- This is the stage where customers identify that what kind of
products and services they want to purchase to fulfil their needs and wants. In context of Premier
Inn, their marketers influence customers at this first stage by advertising their brand on social
media, Google searches, TV ads and many others. Here, marketers again and again show their
ads and convince customers to use any service of Premier Inn hotel. Here, marketers can
influence their customers by making changes in the content of their messages and make sure that
their advertisements messages will not harm the feelings of any community. Here, customers
recognize that they can use accommodation services but it is not clear that which hotel’s
accommodation service can be used. Here, marketer also analyse customers needs and wants by
the Google searches. For example, if customers search more about accommodation services then
Google will show accommodation services option on the top of their search lists. This will help
marketers to analyse what kind of services is recently searched by customers.
Information search- This is the second stage where customer search information about
various kind of hotels which provide good accommodation services (Varkaris and Neuhofer,
2017). This stage can also be influenced by marketers of Premier Inn because here they can only
suggest Premier Inn accommodation services more than other hotels. Here, marketers analyse
that which hospitality services are more attractive for their customers. Hence, they again and
again show the advertisements of the same services to their customers so that they mainly focus
to use premier Inn services. Hence, psychological factors are used to influence customers. For
example, whenever a customer search for hospitality services on Google or any other search
medium than this information is collected by Premier Inn marketers. They start marketing
activities and aware their customers about offers and discount coupons for Premier Inn hotel so
that customers will get attracted to Premier Inn hotel options only in their searching process.

Evaluation of alternatives- This is the third stage where customers eliminate those
hotels which are having higher prices as compared to their budgets and whose quality of
accommodation services is not good. This stage is also influenced by marketers of Premier Inn
hotel because here they make sure that they can impact positive upon customers mind and again
and again influence customers that Premier Inn hotel’s services are better than other hotel
services in both ways quality as well as low prices. Here marketers show few comparison of
hotels services with Premier Inn services and their comparison chart critically evaluated that
Premier Inn accommodation services is better than other hotels so that customers will not
eliminate Premier Inn hotel from their list. Marketers also influence this stage for example, after
collecting information about various hotel and their services customers start eliminating those
options did not cover their feasibility factor. Here, marketers make sure that they will influence
the customer to eliminate those options which are best competitors of Premier Inn hotels. Hence,
marketers start highlighting about bad reviews of those hotels which attractive for customers and
start sharing good reviews of Premier Inn hotels so that they will focus to chose Premier Inn
hotel services only.
Purchase decision- This is the stage where customers finally make purchase decision.
Marketers play an important role in influencing their customers in this stage also (Sun and et. al.,
2017). Here, when a customer selected to use Premier Inn hotel’s accommodation services then
their marketers thanks them for choosing their hotel’s services and appreciate them for their
correct decision. This is the stage where services of hotel are serving to their customers. Hence,
marketer makes sure that the need and wants of customers must be fulfilled. Here, customers
look for those options which are covering their budget and also serve high quality of services to
satisfy the customers. This is the basic need of customers in this stage that the chosen hotel will
pay attention toward their actual needs and expectations from that hotel which is chosen. Hence,
marketers make sure that they will communicate well with their customers and analyse their
requirement and convey the same message to chosen hotel so that they will prepare them elf to
welcome their customers.
Post-purchase evaluation- This is the stage where customers provide feedback to
specific company regarding their products and services. In context of Premier Inn hotel, their
marketers ask their customers to provide an actual and true feedback at company’s website.
Here, they thank their customers to provide them feedback whether it is positive or negative.