Perceived experience value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions

Abstract

Purpose Globally, guesthouses provide an important source of accommodation to visitors and tourists. Surprisingly, research into this sector is rather sparse. The purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensions of experience value, determine guests’ perceptions of experience value, analyse the influences of various profile variables on experience value, and investigate the relationship between experience value, satisfaction, and customer behavioural intentions regarding guesthouses in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research design was followed. A total of 541 useable questionnaires were received from 650 guests conveniently selected from 51 guesthouses in Ghana. The guesthouses were selected by means of stratified random sampling. Findings The results of the study reveal that atmospherics, enjoyment, entertainment, escape, efficiency, excellence and economic value measure guests’ perceptions of experience value. Atmospherics and economic value attracted the highest positive rating while escape had the most negative rating. In addition, the study showed that there is a strong positive relationship between experience value, satisfaction and behavioural intention. Research limitations/implications The first limitation relates to the sample. Only the major city from each of four regions was selected for the study. These regions include Accra, Koforidua, Cape Coast and Kumasi. Future research should investigate perceived value provided by guesthouses in the remaining six regions of the country in the quest to generalise the findings. Lastly, the study derived the experience value dimensions from the literature and verified these. While this is not regarded as a limitation, future research could investigate further dimensions of experience value such as novelty, nostalgia and social interaction. Practical implications Guesthouse managers could use the outcome of this study as a form of differentiation. Second, managers should take note of the positive relationships between experience value, satisfaction and respondents’ intentions to return to the guesthouse and tell others about their experiences (behavioural intentions). This can strengthen the organisation’s competitive position within the accommodation industry. Finally, the research resulted in a fairly simple instrument guesthouse managers can use to assess their guests’ perceptions of value provided by the guesthouse. It is recommended that guesthouse managers measure guests’ perceptions of value on a regular basis. Originality/value Theoretical implications and recommendations following the empirical findings and recommendations are provided. First, defining the concept of value is complex. While the underlying foundation of value as benefits relative to sacrifices (Zeithaml, 1988) remains relevant, affective forms of value should also be considered. This suggests that organisations that focus only on providing benefits may be at a competitive disadvantage. Second, experience value is multidimensional. Seven dimensions, namely atmospherics, enjoyment, entertainment, escape, efficiency, excellence and economic value were shown to contribute to the guesthouse experience. These included emotional factors in addition to the conventional functional factors.

Model of Customer Experience and Purchase Intention in Online Environment

“…Bilgihan (2016) Online marketing is expected to be different as they process website information five times faster than older generations and are the most emotional and least loyal customers as compared to all other generations in providing customer experiences Bilgihan, Kandampully, and Zhang (2016) Online shopping environment is dynamic because consumers connections with e-vendors, researchers and professionals that are important for understanding and that create a compelling online user experience Stein and Ramaseshan (2016) Customer experience elements like touch points, which include; atmospheric, technological, communicative, process, employee-customer interaction, customercustomer interaction and product interaction elements are most important Amoah et al (2016) Customer experience strategy that can enhance customer satisfaction, positive behavioral intentions, growth, and sustainability Rukhsana Gul Gilal (2016) The self-concept emerged as a stronger driver for brand experience and consumer brand relationship, then for brand preference and customer satisfaction Sun (2002) Customer experience helps marketers in establishing powerful Brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand Loyalty…”

Examining the Trip Experience on Competitive Advantage Creation in Tourism

“…In tourism context, revisit purchase, sharing positive experience, and spreading positive publicity are the greatest importance for the tourism industry and a key element of many firms' Besides repurchase behaviour, loyal tourists create positive word of mouth publicity (WOM) and it is the most powerful influence for the purchasing decision of the potential tourists. Supported that loyalty is a significant antecedent of behavioural intention such as saying positive things about the business or called as "word-ofmouth (WOM)" (Amoah, Radder, Eyk and van Eyk, 2016;Harris and Khatami, 2017) it is the most powerful influence for the purchasing decision of the potential tourists. Thus, tourist loyalty will be shown through many ways, such as revisiting, recommendation, and positive word of mouth publicity (Gnanapala, 2015).…”

“…Previous studies found that tourist loyalty as an outcome was affected positively by tourist satisfaction. Therefore, when customer satisfaction increases, lead to intention to return and recommend to other rises, whereby significant for customer loyalty (Amoah et al, 2016;Chiu et al, 2016;Liang, 2008;Wahyuningsih, 2012). As Kotler et al (2017) stated the customer loyalty drives to continue to use the same product or service, able to reduce cost of promotional, decreased the price sensitivity.…”

Exotic or Home? Tourists’ Perception of Guest Houses, Guest Houses Loyalty, and Destination Loyalty in Remote Tourist Destinations

“…Guest houses present an alternative to the traditional hotels and are gaining increasing attention in tourism studies. Existing literature has identified some main characteristics of guest houses, focused on two types: the first type is on the traditional salient attributes, including comfort of bed, privacy, cleanliness [20], economic value [25], location [18], efficiency [26], facilities, and employees' empathy [13,26]; the second type contains items concerned with tourists' engagement with remote destinations, such as the unique characteristics of guest houses compared with regular hotels (e.g., the sense of home and exotic local culture) [20]. Exotic local culture is one significant indicator affecting tourists' pursuit and experience in guest houses in remote destinations [21].…”