Relationship between indoor environmental quality and guests’ comfort and satisfaction at green hotels: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Recent studies have focused on different aspects of green management, practices, and green consumption in the hotel industry. However, there is a need to explore and better understand the association between indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and green hotel guest’s comfort. Therefore, it is essential to explore the effects of IEQ on the comfort and satisfaction of green hotel guests. This study conducts a comprehensive review of the effects of various IEQ parameters, including indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, visual/view, acoustic comfort, building characteristics, decoration, and indoor greenery, on guest’s comfort and satisfaction in green hotels. Based on previous literature, it was also revealed that most current green building schemes lack of comprehensive evaluation of the performance of IEQ dimensions in green hotels. It was also observed that these IEQ parameters show a significant influence on the hotel guest’s comfort and satisfaction. Based on the findings of the literature review, a conceptual model was developed to represent the relationship between the IEQ parameters and guest’s comfort and satisfaction. The proposed conceptual model can be implemented by the hotel management for a comprehensive assessment of guests’ perceptions toward the IEQ in green hotels. The novelty of this study is based on its findings that establish a more effective IEQ evaluation method and serve as the reference scenario of IEQ, which can be a useful tool for both academician and practitioners and contribute to improving the indoor environmental performance of green hotels through highlighting the key IEQ parameters, which affect the comfort and satisfaction of hotel guests.