Colin Johnson

Boutique hotels: technology, social media and green practices

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to link consumer use of technology to two very popular themes in the hospitality industry: boutique hotels and environmental responsibility.Design/methodology/approach – The case study focuses on how boutique hotels legitimize their green practices through the use of technology – web sites, social media – to communicate their environmental recognitions to discerning eco‐conscious consumers seeking small lodgings. The authors analyze the type of environmental legitimacy practices used by the boutique hotel segment of the tourism industry, using a variety of international, regional, or trade recognized environmental evaluation assessments to legitimize their boutique hotel green practices. A diverse sample of boutique hotel accommodations in two attractive, but similar international destinations – Istanbul, Turkey and San Francisco, California – are used, through content analysis of hotel web sites.Findings – San Francisco Bay Area hoteliers, in the majority of instanc...

Youth Patrons’ Trip Preferences and Perceptions of Accommodations in Switzerland

This research compares youth tourists’ trip preferences and their perceptions of accommodation in Switzerland among visitors staying at three different types of properties (e.g., hard budget, budget, and mid-sector). Attractive price was found to be the most critical reason for the selection of accommodation for those staying at hard budget properties. Proximity to points of interest represents the main reason for choosing budget and mid-sector accommodations. When examining the differences in preferences for eating outlets, the respondents from the mid-sector lodging facilities prefer full-service restaurants while the other groups of visitors prefer to use self-service eateries. The study further finds that the youth guests of hard budget properties express reluctance in joining evening activities that are fee-paying. Managerial implications along with suggestions for future study are provided in the conclusion.

When “Last-Minute” Really Is “Last Minute”

“Last-minute” deals in travel and tourism services are very appealing not only to travellers but also for service providers. Timing and pricing are central to an optimization strategy for last-minute deals for both sides. This study analyses last-minute timing behaviour for self-catering customers and proposes to the supplier an estimation of the critical Last-Minute Momentum (LMM) that is, the optimal moment for launching these kinds of deals. The data emanates from the largest booking of self-catering accommodation platform in the Romand Valais in Switzerland, containing more than 154,000 transactions. The results show that last minute behaviours depend not only on the origin country and season (as previously postulated) but also on the length of the stay, the composition of the party and the destination. For practitioners, the results shed some light on the timing optimization of last-minute campaigns. For scholars, the results demonstrate that last-minute behavior challenges traditional paradigms of the Planning Vacation Process (PVP).

Key Factors in the Booking Activity Process: The Case of Self-catering in Valais, Switzerland

One of the most important phases in planning a vacation is the booking activity process. The aim of this research is to study if the country of origin and/or seasonality has a link with the booking period (BP). The data used is from the largest booking platform of self-catering accommodations in the region of the Romand Valais in Switzerland. The data set contains more than 141,000 transactions from 1st January 2010 to 26 December 2016. This research uses the Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival method for modelling the length of BP after the resampling process. Seasonality of travel shows a higher discrimination level on BP than country of origin. This demonstrates that the importance of socio-demographical factors have been over-estimated against other factors such as travel motivations that may include external constraints such as school holiday timing. For practitioners, the results shed some light on planning behaviour across different markets and seasons. For scholars, beside methodological issues, the results show that countries of origin are less relevant than seasonality in the characterisation of the planning vacation process (PVP).