Analyzing the Impact of COVID-19 on Customer Behavior in Hospitality

This report investigates the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on customer behavior within the hospitality industry, focusing on the UK market and specifically analyzing the Marriott hotel. The research explores the influence of COVID-19 on the sector, identifying challenges such as decreased revenue, reduced customer numbers, and employee layoffs. The study also examines the initiatives undertaken by Marriott to improve customer experiences, including enhanced safety protocols, flexible booking policies, and strategic pricing adjustments. The methodology includes a literature review utilizing secondary sources and the collection of primary data through questionnaires. The findings highlight shifts in customer preferences, emphasizing safety and hygiene, and a willingness to pay more for enhanced security measures. The report concludes with recommendations for the hospitality industry to adapt to changing customer behaviors and mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic. The report is structured with an introduction, literature review, methodology, analysis, findings, and conclusion. The research employs a positivism philosophy and deductive approach to analyze both qualitative and quantitative data.

Impact of COVID-19
over the customer’s
behaviour towards the
hospitality industry

ABSTRACT
The main cause for doing this research is to know the impact of COVID-19 over the
customer’s behavior towards hospitality industry because it has global pandemic has created high
chaos and confusion among guests, organization and government. Everyone is trying to cope up
with the situation and the highly affected industry is hospitality industry because it has stopped the
travelling of people from one place to another which led to suffering of hotels because they are not
getting enough demand for their accommodation services. To attain all the objectives successfully,
researcher selects secondary sources like scholars, articles, books and journals for conducting
literature review and primary source like questionnaire is used to for getting fresh and raw
information significant for completing the research.

SUMMARY
From this research it is being summarized that COVID-19 has created changes in the
behaviours of customers related to hospitality sector because of certain restriction being imposed in
whole world. People are less interested to move out from their homes and stay at hotels because it is
not safe because pandemic is spreading with high rate. There are various challenges that are faced
by hotels because of global pandemic like low revenue, less number of customers, employee lay off
and many more. For conducting this research, researcher has taken various methods like research
approach, research philosophy, data collection and so on because they assist in successful gathering
and analysis of information. so that their opinions can be determined to achieve the objectives.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am glad I got an opportunity to work on this challenging research project because it has
increased my knowledge related to the global pandemic. I would like to thank my professors who
have given their time to help me in my research.
Also I am grateful to my relatives and friends who have helped me in getting different
sources to collect information related to my project and necessary for completing research on time.

ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................................2
SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................................................3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................8
Influence of COVID-19 on hospitality sector...............................................................................................8
The major challenges faced by Marriott hotel in providing services to its customers in COVID-19
pandemic situation........................................................................................................................................8
The effective initiative taken by Marriott hotel to improve customers experience towards its services.......8
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................................10
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS................................................................................................12
CHAPTER 5: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL, RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR WORK
....................................................................................................................................................................... 20
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................................22
APPENDICES................................................................................................................................................24

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry refers to the industry which is concerned with hotels, eco lodges,
beverage and food and many more. They all provide their services to customers who want to enjoy
their vacations or want invest their time in business meetings. In these hotels are made so that
customers can relax from their hectic or busy life (Walker, 2017). The motive of hospitality
industry is to increase the experience of customers by giving services in accordance with their needs
by high quality service.
COVID-19 is a global pandemic which has affected many organizations but it has high
impact on hospitality industry because people are unable to travel from one city to another as rule
and regulations do not allow moving of people (Cerchione and Bansal, 2020). Behavior of
customers have changed as global pandemic has started spreading, earlier people used to like
moving from one location to another but this pandemic has changed their liking as now people like
to stay home without going anywhere. For the current research the chosen organization Marriott
hotel which come under hospitality industry of United Kingdom.
Research Aim and objectives
Research Aim
“To investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic situation over the customer’s
behaviour towards the hospitality industry.” A study on Marriott hotel.
Research Objectives
 To explore the influence of COVID-19 on hospitality sector.
 To determine the challenges faced by Marriott hotel in providing services to its customers
in COVID-19 pandemic situation.
 To explore the effective initiative taken by Marriott hotel to improve customers
experience towards its services.
Research Questions
 What is the influence of COVID-19 on hospitality sector?
 What are the major challenges faced by Marriott hotel in providing services to its
customers in COVID-19 pandemic situation?
 What are the effective initiative taken by Marriott hotel to improve customers experience
towards its services?
Methodology and approach
In order to attain the aim and objectives of current research, researcher has selected various
types of research methodologies like research approach, philosophy, strategy, data collection,
research instruments, sampling and many more as they assist in analyzing information in a very

easy manner without taking much time and efforts. Researcher selects questionnaire to get required
first hand data so that objectives of investigation can be achieved in an accurate manner.
Chapter Preview
The present research involves various chapters like introduction in which hospitality
industry is defined after that literature review is explained where objectives are being answered
with the assistance of secondary sources, the another chapter is research methodology where
different methods are used to gather and analyze information after that data collected is presented in
tabular form so that reader can easily understand about the research topic. Then there is chapter of
conclusion where brief of ever chapter is given.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is a chapter which is considered significant in achieving objectives of
research in an effective way. To attain research objectives successfully researcher uses existing data
and this data is procured from books, articles, journals and scholars to generate required data as per
the requirement of investigation.
Influence of COVID-19 on hospitality sector
According to Filimonau (2020), COVID-19 pandemic made economy to shut of all nations and
that too within a night. So, this has come up with the challenge for hospitality industry. There are strategies
that are formed to flatten global pandemic like lockdowns, orders delivering at home, social distancing,
mobility and travel restrictions have increased which ultimately caused closure of hospitality organizations
and decreased the rate of demand of those businesses which are allowed to function and operate. Every hotel
and restaurant are asked to put their services on hold and limit activities to take outs. Authorities and
government have asked restrictions on travelling and orders like stay home create a large decline in revenue
and occupancy of hotel. As things have started coming on their place, it determined that individuals are
preferring those hotels and restaurants which are following government guidelines related safety and health
and considering needs of customers. In one of the studies it is identified that people are not going to come
back soon for availing services of restaurants and hotels because they feel it is not safe to have food in
restaurants and stay in rooms of hotel. It is determined that customers are willing to visit hotels and
restaurants when the community they belong are able to trace, examine and isolate cases of COVID-19. The
another influence is customers prefer to move out for travelling and enjoy restaurants only after vaccine is
successful and available because this generates the feeling of being safe. It is also identified that customers
are willing to pay more so that they can get best safety and hygiene at the premises of hotels because
individuals are giving importance to their health as well as to other people.
The major challenges faced by Marriott hotel in providing services to its customers in
COVID-19 pandemic situation
According to Shin and Kang (2020), hospitality industry is the most hard hit by the pandemic that
is COVID-19. It has made hotels and restaurants closed. The pandemic has created a long duration of time to
again increase the profits and rate of occupancy like pre COVID-19 time. The profitability rate and revenue
rate of Marriott hotel has started to decline because people were not allowed to travel from one place to
another because it has become risky as it was not safe for people to travel. During the time of pandemic
people were not ready to spend more as they have reduced their spending on restaurants and travelling and
increased their spending on digital services and groceries. The another challenge for Marriott hotel is
decreasing their prices to keep up with competition due to COVID-19 as every hotel is decreasing their
prices to attract more customers which has forced Marriot hotel to reduce their prices for accommodation
services. The next challenge is that Marriott hotel has lost their customer base as they were unable to provide
services to their customers because of global pandemic.
The effective initiative taken by Marriott hotel to improve customers experience
towards its services
According to Sharma (2016), whatever happened due to COVID-19 hospitality industry has
to bounce back from that situation and has come up with various initiatives and measure to cope up
with tough situation like pandemic. So the various measures which are taken by Marriott hotel for
improving customer experiences towards its services are clearly explained below:

 Providing high class security: Customers are considering those hotels which are strictly
following safety and hygiene measures, so hotel has made protocols and strictly
implementing these cleaning and hygiene protocols in their accommodation as well as other
services.
 Giving Flexibility: Due to the pandemic situation, it has been observed by hotels and
customers that nothing is certain so it becomes obvious for Marriott hotel adopt policies
which give flexibility in booking and other significant services. Because travel restrictions
can be imposed in future also so by providing flexibility hotel increases customers who are
worried about their price they have already given because of situation like isolations,
cancellations of flights and many more.
 Strategies of pricing: Many hotels in hospitality industry are reducing their price to attract
large number of customers because this global pandemic has negatively affected their
revenue and profitability. So Marriott hotel has also continuously deciding their prices of
accommodation after analyzing the prices of other firms of same industry so that customers
get attracted towards hotel and they can have great experience with the hotel.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
It is a procedure which is considered by researcher to gather data to fulfill the objectives and
aim of research (Ragab and Arisha, 2018). It involves various methods through which researcher
gathers and analyses data in an effective manner. With this it is determined that how important for
an investigator to use various methods to gather relevant information. The various methods which
are used by researcher for completing research are defined below.
Research Philosophy: Research philosophy is referred as particular set of actions which
concentrates on finding reality related to topic of research. In the research philosophy assumptions
are created which provide right justification about the manner investigation is taken out. Research
philosophy has two kinds of methods that are known as positivism and interpretivism. These both
are very important for an investigator because it takes out tasks of research in a accurate manner. In
respect of achieving objectives of present investigation that is impact of COVID-19 over consumer
behavior towards hospitality industry, positivism philosophy is chosen because it helps in collecting
and analyzing quantitative data which is according to the nature of research and it also defines the
way data is collected and analyzed. Positivism philosophy is great for getting statistical information
for achieving goals of research. Interpretivism philosophy is not selected because it is used for
gathering and analyzing qualitative information which is not the nature of present investigation
(Pajo, 2017).
Research Approach: Research approach is referred as procedure that consist various wide
assumptions for showing various methods of information analysis, collection and interpretation
(Cazeaux, 2017). It is dependent on nature of investigation. Research approach is divided into two
main types: deductive and inductive research approach. As per the need of present research
deductive approach is considered by researcher because it assists in analyzing and collecting right
data for giving right direction the research. It also accommodates in collecting numeric data for
attaining research objectives without taking much time. Basically it is selected to form hypothesis
according to the present theory and after that selecting apt strategy for investigation in evaluating
the hypothesis. It is chosen because it helps in accumulating data in a quantitative way. Inductive
approach is not right because it starts with theories by completing the research process. It focuses
on collecting qualitative information and takes a lot of time.
Research Strategy : Research strategy is a whole plan for doing research in an effective manner.
The stratetgy of research assists researcher to plan, execute and monitor the research. Basically
these strategies tell researcher the way of collecting and analyzing required information. There are
different kinds of research strategies like experiments, case studies, survey, action research,
grounded theory and so on. For the current investigation researcher selects survey because it assists
in getting information from the respondents and in survey, questionnaire is chosen because it is as
per the need of current investigation (Cuervo‐Cazurra and et. al, 2017).
Research Choice: Research choice plays significant role in gathering data for the completion of
research by successfully achieving the objectives of research. There are two types of research
choice: qualitative and quantitative choice. As the name suggests quantitative choice is more
focused towards collecting and analyzing numeric data which is more presentable whereas

qualitative information is considered towards collecting subjective information which is more
theoretical. According to the need of research, researcher chose quantitative choice because it helps
in collecting and measuring quantitative information as per the need of current study of the
research. Qualitative research choice is not selected because of its nature as it collects more
subjective information and needs a lot of time period.
Data Collection: Data collection is referred as collecting data by relevant and useful sources.
Researcher has two options which is known as primary and secondary data collection. They both
are very great source for gathering information for taking research in a right direction. By
considering the requirement of research, researcher selects primary as well as secondary data
collection methods (Bilsborrow, 2016). In the primary data collection researcher has chosen
questionnaire in which close ended questions are asked from respondents and for this 30 employees
are chosen as respondents from Marriott hotel. With this gathered information is raw which means
it has been never used earlier. In secondary data collection different sources are chosen like books,
scholars, publications, journals and articles, in this already existing is gathered to study in-depth.
Time Horizon: In simple language time horizon is basically time required by researcher to
complete the research. Because researcher does different type of activities to gather and analyze
information for attaining all the objectives. There are two types of time horizon: cross-sectional and
longitudinal. For this research, researcher selects cross-sectional because it is practical and give
required time to achieve objectives of research (Basu and Maciejewski, 2019).
Sampling: Sampling refers to the process of choosing specific sixe of sample from the available
large population. Because selecting a part assists in getting required and accurate information from
selected respondents. It has classified into two types: probability and non probability sampling.
Researcher selects probability sampling as it helps in choosing respondents without having any
specific criteria. For this research, investigator selects 30 participants from Marriott hotel as they
are directly linked to the hotel and possess great knowledge about the chosen organization (Singh
and Singh, 2018).

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
QUESTIONNAIRE
Q1 Do you think COVID-19 has changed the customer’s behaviour towards
hospitality industry?
Frequency
a) Yes 26
b) No 4
Q2 What is the influence of COVID-19 on hospitality sector? Frequency
a) Sudden shut down of hotels 11
b) Mobility and travel restrictions 9
c) Limiting operations 6
d) Decreased demand 4
Q3 What are the major challenges faced by Marriott hotel in providing services
to its customers in COVID-19 pandemic situation?
Frequency
a) Reduction in revenue and profitability 6
b) Lost customer base 8
c) Reduction in sales 7
d) Decrease in prices 9
Q4 What are the initiatives taken by Marriott hotel to improve customer
experience towards its services?
Frequency
a) Giving satisfactory services to guests as per their needs 9
b) Analyzing market trends 10
c) Updating pricing strategies 4
d) Generating information about customer’s expectations 7
Q5 Does global pandemic changed the way of doing operations in hospitality
sector?
Frequency
a) Yes 28
b) No 2
Q6 What do you think about the changes that happened due to COVID-19 in
respect of hospitality sector?
Frequency
a) Good 14
b) Bad 7
c) Neutral 9
Q7 What are the changes occurred in the behaviors of customers due to COVID-
19?
Frequency
a) Customers prefer to stay home 8
b) More concerned about hygiene and safety 11
c) Prefer automated hotels 5
d) Direct delivery at home 6
Q8 How has global pandemic impacted employees in Marriott hotel? Frequency
a) Decline in salary 7
b) Laid off 10
c) Not affected 4
d) Planning to lay off 9
Q9 How much time would it take to increase the occupancy rate in hospitality
industry?
Frequency
a) 6 months 8
b) 1year 13