The Influence of Sustainable Initiatives on Hotel Guest Experience

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between sustainable initiatives in hotels and their guest experiences by using big data from online guest reviews. Hotel review data of 1 018 938 hotel guest reviews from 23 international destinations were used. Word recognition software was utilised to filter reviews containing comments about sustainable initiatives resulting in a usable database of 903 reviews. Sentiment analysis was then performed to enable the transformation of the variables into 5-point Likert type scales. Using chi-squared tests and Cramer’s V for statistical and practical significance respectively, sustainable initiatives were found to have a statistical significant relationship with each of the eight hotel experience dimensions as well as overall hotel experience. The eight hotel experience dimensions are value, service, location, rooms, food, ambience, facilities and cleanliness. The hypothesis was accepted as there was a statistically significant relationship between sustainable initiatives and the hotel experience dimensions. The results from the comments, provide hotel management and academics with new insight into the relationship between sustainable initiatives in hotels and the hotel guest experience. Sustainable initiatives should be considered as another important dimension of the hotel experience, and big data analysis is effective to analyse guest reviews.

Keywords

• sustainable initiatives
• hotel experience dimensions
• corporate social responsibility
• sustainability
• hotel online reviews