The goal of the research is to investigate the hotel innovation behavior in one of the most important tourism regions of Hungary. The Lake Balaton Region is a very popular area of the country with quite a short season (from the middle of June to August 20). The region is the second most visited area based on the number of guests and guest nights in Hungary. The topic of innovation plays a growing role in the Hungarian hotel sector as well, because competition is very high and keeping guests and employees can be a great challenge. The study involved both qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research aimed to identify the best practices of the Hotel Európa Fit****superior which introduced an “innovation by inspiring” strategy and applies several types of innovation in a highly recommended way. The respondents of the questionnaire included 28 hotel general managers (52% of the 54-person sample). The results showed a strong relationship between the type of the hotel and the number of innovations as well as the type of the hotel and the frequency of innovation.

The goal of the paper is to investigate the innovation behaviour of the hotels in the Balaton Region of Hungary and identify the best practice which is further analysed. The specific region has been chosen due to its popularity among Hungarian and foreign tourists, which is demonstrated by its second place in the number of guests and guest nights in the country. The research only considered those hotels which are members of the Hungarian Hotel and Restaurant Association and classified as three-, four-or five-star accommodation facilities. In the first stage the hotel general managers were asked to complete a questionnaire about the hotels' innovation behaviour. Then the best practice was identified and followed by an interview with the managers. There were 28 questionnaires completed, which is 52% of the hotels fitting the criteria. The results show that the definition of innovation is hard for the hotel general managers and hotels are focused on technological innovation, they do not concentrate on the environmental innovations and the most important barrier is the cost. The identified best practice hotel is Hotel Európa Fit****superior, which emphasises human resource and organisational innovation and introduces socalled 'innovation by inspiring'.

A szállodai szálláshely-szolgáltatás minősége és a vendégelégedettség mint kulcsfontosságú tényezők az elmúlt évtizedekben a szállodák sikerességének alapvetően meghatározó elemei lettek. Hazai vonatkozásban egyedi az olyan kutatás, amely vizsgálja az egyes hotelek vendégelégedettsége és jövedelmezősége közötti kapcsolatot. A COVID-19 pandémia tükrében megállapítható, hogy a pénzügyi mutatók szállodaigazgatók számára is legalább olyan súlyúak, mint a világjárványt és válságot megelőző időszakban. Ugyan a kutatócsoport egyik elsődleges kutatása a járvány előtti időszakban készült, viszont a második már a világjárvány ideje alatts egyrészt ezek a kutatási eredmények, másrészt az egyre növekvő számú szakirodalom is bizonyítja, hogy a nem financiális indikátorok fontossága folyamatosan növekszik (SIGALA 2020, AGARWAL 2021, JUNG et. al 2021. A tanulmány legfőbb célja, hogy feltárja, milyen kapcsolat mutatkozik a négycsillagos hotelekbe érkező vendégek elégedettsége és a szállodák jövedelmezősége között. Vagyis egy nem pénzügyi és egy financiális mutató közötti összefüggés vizsgálata a fő téma. Kérdés továbbá, hogy mely tényezők hatnak leginkább az ebbe a kategóriába tartozó szállóvendégek elégedettségére. A kvantitatív kutatás 78 négycsillagos hotel adatainak elemzésével korreláció-, rangkorreláció valamint varianciaelemzést tartalmaz és az értékelő oldalakon fellelhető elégedettségre vonatkozó információkat elemez. Kiemelendő eredmény, hogy az "értékesítés nettó árbevétele", illetve a Booking értékelések esetében a kapcsolat léte bizonyítható. Ezen kívül több változó között is fellelhető összefüggés: a hotel típusa, a szobák száma, az értékesítés nettó árbevétele, valamint a Booking-és TripAdvisor értékelések között.

In tourism and the hotel sector standardisation is sometimes an advantage and other times a disadvantage, though it has been mentioned several times. This research explores the topic of standardisation in the Hungarian hotels. The paper determines the level of standardisation in hotels and the extant of the relationship between the level of standardisation and the hotel affiliation, the Hotelstars Union membership, the number of rooms and the star rating. There are 81 questionnaires filled out by hotel general managers of those hotels which belong to the Hungarian Hotel and Restaurant Association. Only the three-, four-and five-star hotels were questioned by this survey. The results show that the level of hotel standardisation depends on the hotel chain membership but only weakly by 5%. There are also proven significant relationships with the Hotelstars Union membership, the number of rooms and the star rating of the hotels.Keywords: Standardization, hotel, chains, hotel stars, rooms. ResumoNo turismo e no setor hoteleiro a padronização é, por vezes, uma vantagem e outras vezes uma desvantagem, embora tenha sido mencionada várias vezes. Esta pesquisa explora o tema da padronização nos hotéis húngaros. O documento determina o nível de padronização em hotéis e o relacionamento existente entre o nível de padronização, a afiliação hoteleira, a associação do Hotelstars Union, o número de quartos e a classificação em estrelas. Conseguimos 81 questionários preenchidos pelos gerentes gerais dos hotéis que pertencem à Associação Húngara de Hotéis e Restaurantes. Somente os hotéis de três, quatro e cinco estrelas foram questionados para esta pesquisa.Os resultados mostram que o nível de padronização do hotel depende da adesão à cadeia hoteleira, mas apenas ligeiramente em 5%. Também há relações importantes comprovadas com a adesão da Hotelstars Union, o número de quartos e a classificação em estrelas dos hotéis.Palavras-chave Padronização, hotel, cadeias, estrelas do hotel, salas.

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