Hotel choice attribute of business and leisure travellers in Cape Town

Abstract

As competitiveness between hotels increases, hotel managers are realising that improving their hotel's performance can be a competitive advantage. The rapid growth of the hotel industry has been driven by growing demand. The increased use of hotel services has resulted in hotels facing more demanding customers. Some of the characteristics of the successful activity of a business organisation are a presentation and constant improvement of the quality of services, which meet and exceed the expectations of customers. Understanding the customers’ needs is important, and identifying the attributes that meet customer needs is essential for hoteliers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the different hotel attributes that influence guests when selecting hotels in Cape Town. This was a quantitative study that used a cross-sectional design. The study was conducted using a closed-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire used consisted of a general question section and a sociodemographic section to obtain the background data of the respondents (travellers’ information) and a hotel attributes section, which determined the selection criteria influencing guests’ choice of hotel. The respondents of this study were guests who stayed in various hotels based on the Atlantic Seaboard, the Central Business District and the surrounding areas in Cape Town. A convenience sampling method was used to select the hotels and guests who participated in the study based on their availability and willingness. A total of 91 respondents from five hotels took part in this study. Data were captured in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 28.0. The findings are presented using descriptive and inferential statistics in the form of tables. The background of the respondents (sociodemographic, visiting category of the particular hotel, hotel visitors, hotel information, booking ratings and duration of stay section) of this study shows that 75% of the respondents were regular (meaning they go to that particular hotel often). Of these participants, 86% were from South Africa, and 68% of the respondents were between 18 and 35 years of age. Participants who stayed at the hotels for business and leisure reasons accounted for 46.2% while, 37.4% were just for business reasons and only 12.1% were for leisure. Only 4.4% indicated that they stayed at the hotels for other reasons. The results showed that most of the respondents were young South Africans, which suggests that these hotels attracted domestic travellers. These findings are helpful in the current environment whereby the tourism and hospitality industry is in the process of recovery and reshaping its market segmentation to focus more on domestic travellers. Most of the respondents had a university national diploma or degree or a college certificate, both at 38.5%, which was the highest among the other categories; this implies that most of the respondents were educated. This study identified 34 hotel attributes and grouped them into ten themes. Themes were established as follows: brand image, marketing, pricing, reservations, transport and location, food and beverage, business facilities, facility structure, hotel hygiene & security and lastly, hotel services. Among these hotel attributes studied, guests rated hotel hygiene and security as the most important (71%), followed by the business facilities theme: business centre (68%) safety hotel hygiene and security, in addition, cleanliness of the room (67%), room comfort (66%). Furthermore, the guests also reported interpersonal skills under the hotel service theme, such as efficient service provision (65%). staff responsiveness (63%), understanding of guest requests (63%), as well as politeness and friendliness (56%) as important. The highest attribute rated was safety and security which falls under the hotel hygiene and safety theme. Knowing the essential attributes to consider in satisfying their guests will increase the number of returning guests and increase loyalty and profitability. Therefore, managers should pay attention as these factors play an important role in investments in the hotel industry.