Gender and age preferences of hotel room design

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate what people with different demographic characteristics such as age and gender expect from hotel room design and examine how design preferences affect purchase intent and desire to stay and word-of-mouth behavior. Design/methodology/approach The study was based on a quasi-experimental design conducted on 762 participants. The manipulations of room color and design style were prepared using the 3D modeling software, while age and gender were self-reported variables. Findings The results indicated that age and gender moderate the relationship between hotel guest satisfaction and room design style. Younger guests prefer contemporary design style, while older guests show equal satisfaction with traditional and contemporary styles. Male guests prefer rooms decorated in masculine colors, while women are equally satisfied with masculine or feminine color schemes. Research limitations/implications This study was conducted as a hypothetical, computer-aided experimental scenario. A field experiment captured guests’ satisfaction with an experimental hotel room. A substantive cause–effect relationship between hotel room visual servicescape stimuli and satisfaction was established. Practical implications Identifying design style and color preferences of a hotel target market is paramount for investment payoff and further supports the customization of hotel services. Originality/value This is the first experimental study to manipulate color scheme and type of design in a hotel room and capture their effects on satisfaction and behavior of guests with different demographic characteristics.

Toward Facilitating Team Formation and Communication Through Avatar Based Interaction in Desktop-Based Immersive Virtual Environments

“…Several researchers have explored VR as a tool to elicit users' preferences in the real world. Researchers have investigated the use of VR to elicit preferences of hotel room design (Bogicevic et al, 2018), understanding lighting preferences in office spaces (Heydarian et al, 2015), and student preferences for study spaces (Applegate, 2009). However, few have investigated users' preferences concerning virtual space design, particularly those related to social spaces geared toward team formation.…”

Environmental Sustainability on Tourist Hotels’ Image Development

“…As documented in the literature on the gender predisposition, there is a difference between males and females in terms of their visual attention paid to hotels' marketing images, because they expect the value obtained from the hotel may not be the same [19,24]. The customer's assessment of the importance of the service will vary depending on gender [19,42].…”

“…This phenomenon may be attributable to the fact that people's preference and what they like vary with their age, because the service and value that people pay attention to differ with their age. In general, older customers likely gravitate toward the landscape and serenity in nature, whereas younger customers prefer novelty and unique service experience [11,24]. For example, the study by Noone and Robson [20] found that older customers paid more attention to the area in the marketing images on the website which incorporated the surrounding natural environment.…”

“…However, the influence of customer demographics on image preferences and responses has rarely been examined by previous hotel studies [18,21,22]. Thus, there is a big gap between academics and industry in hotel design and management [23,24].…”

Conceptual Structure of Lodging-Context Studies: 1990-2016

“…In this regard, we consider types of lodging establishments such as hotel, motel, cruise, resort, lodges, bed and breakfasts, time-share, and Airbnb (Birinci, Berezina, & Cobanoglu, 2018; Cheng & Chen, 2018; Guttentag, 2015; Stutts & Wortman, 2006) as temporary accommodations. The lodging industry plays a crucial role in the daily life of people, particularly for travelers to stay in a chosen destination (Bogicevic, Bujisic, Cobanoglu, & Feinstein, 2018; S. Lee & Kim, 2018).…”