PURPOSE: This paper aims to understand the perception and attitude of the hotel customers about the sustainability in hotel management and examine the impact of sustainable practices on the decision-making process of the guests in the luxury hotel environments in Vietnam. It will help the hoteliers in Vietnam to take the advantages of on-going sustainable practices as well as future innovative green practices by providing the findings on the effective factors influencing the customers, and the important points of time during their hotel selection journey.
METHODOLOGY: An exploratory and inductive qualitative approach has been applied in this research progression to discover the insights of the hotel guests to find the answer for the research questions. Semi-structured interviews, therefore, have been organised with twenty participants who have experienced luxury hotel service in Vietnam.
FINDINGS: Sustainability management may not pose a significant influence directly to the consumers’ decision of hotel selection. However, after encountering the service imposing sustainable practices, it can be an additional influence positively to other’s consumer decision-making process. Additionally, with the importance of referrals from family, friends and acquaintance connections and the prominence of social media today, sustainable practices referred by the previous consumers might influence indirectly to the other consumers’ hotel selection journey.
IMPLICATIONS: The study elucidates how a number of factors can influence the hotel selection process including social media. It could help the marketing managers to position the hotel services according to different demands classified by different purpose of the trips based on their profiles. In addition, the result not only reveals the advantages of sustainability management by being the forthcoming trend itself but also proposes the applicable behavioural patterns that would help the marketing manager to advertise hotel’ sustainable practice in satisfactory ways. The research also indicates that it is essential to help the consumers understand whats exactly the hoteliers can do to be more sustainable or to be a green hotel.
KEYWORDS: Hotel industry, Luxury hotel, Consumer decision-making process, Sustainability, Sustainable Management, Hospitality marketing practices, Green practices, Consumer behaviour
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