M.Comm. / South Africa has become an accepted tourist destination since the 1994 general elections and the successful presentation of the 1995 Rugby World Cup event. The increase in the number of overseas visitors is reflected in higher arrival figures at our airports. Overseas tourists initially booked into the higher star rated hotels, but this trend quickly changed when they indicated a preference for the smaller hotels and the more personalised guesthouses. The recent establishment of hotels of well known world brands such as Hilton, Hyatt and others saw an increase in supply. These hotels were established with their links to the global reservation networks through which their reservations are accepted. The South African lodging industry now has to cope with management of the changes in demand in the face of world-wide computerised distribution. The guesthouses, smaller hotels and resorts tend to still utilise the printed media, mail or telephone bookings to communicate with prospective tourists. Although information technology is improving and becoming more accessible, only a few of the bigger South African hotel groups have utilised it to improve productivity and efficiency and to manage demand. A number of central reservation systems are in operation elsewhere in the world which allow the participants to present their establishments through the global travel agent networks such as Galileo and Worldspan. Trends in distribution of the lodging industry make it imperative to participate in such a system or face isolation from the world of tourism. The aim of this study is to establish the need for an integrated computer-based central reservation system for the smaller lodging establishments in South Africa. Depth interviews were conducted with a selected number of experts in the industry and the most important results of this empirical research were: The South African government has effectively withdrawn from the development of the tourism industry. The South African banks should be approached to establish such a system since they have proven expertise and knowledge of the operations of similar systems and would be in a position to make adequate funds available to allow the system to succeed. The system should be established with the capacity to link into world-wide distribution systems such as Galileo. The travel agents should be the first group to have access to this system since they are accepted as the driving force when implementing new solutions in the industry. Access through the Internet could follow. The cost of making a reservation at a lodging establishment is for the account of the hotel or guesthouse. The cost of accepting reservations from overseas tourists must be negotiated to be within the affordable range of the smaller lodging establishments. The establishment

The significant growth in the South African tourism industry in recent years has placed much focus on the hospitality sector in the country. The hospitably sector performs a vital role in the South African economy, as is the case globally, to provide accommodation to international and national tourists. Guest houses in particular have become one of the fastest growing components of the South African tourism industry. However, operating a guest house is not merely providing a bed, shower and breakfast facility for which a client pays and hopefully returns again in future. Rather, it involves significantly more than providing physical amenities. Not only does a potential entrepreneur require a suitable facility in a well-positioned location, but guest house owners and management must adhere to various strenuous safety, security and service measures, as well as municipal by-laws, in a tough and ever-changing business environment. The central theme and the main objective of this study was to investigate the safety, security, service and legal measures that need to be adhered for the successful management of a guest house in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. Together with an outline of the various steps required to start a guest house, a sub-objective was to compile a guest house manual that can be used by new and existing guest house owners and managers to improve their business. The target group was divided into two sections, namely guest house owners and managers on the one hand, and guest house clients on the other - hence two separate questionnaires were developed and used as measuring instrument for the empirical study. The results revealed that clients in the Metro are in general satisfied with the service they receive and safety they experience when staying in guest houses in the Metro. The premises are mostly neat and clean, the towels and bedding are regularly replaced and clean, while the parking bays are sufficient and safe, staff members friendly and approachable, and bookings are done promptly. Over and above the different by-laws to observe, it is the duty of owners and management to provide clients with a safe, secure environment with excellent service, and with sufficient lighting at the entrances, parking and reception areas. All staircases should be steady and iv non-slip, and swimming pools should have secured fencing around and/ or should be covered by safety nets. Staff should follow the correct procedures in emergencies, while concerted efforts should be made to adapt guest houses for the specific needs of disabled and elderly clients. To prevent the outbreak of food poisoning, and to ensure personal and kitchen hygiene, as well as the correct storing of food, are other important responsibilities of owners and management. Therefore, for a guest house to be managed successfully, the owners and management must take into consideration the required safety, security, service and legal measures.

The history of California's Basque boardinghouses, or ostatuak, is the subject of this dissertation. To date, scholarly literature on ethnic boardinghouses is minimal and even less has been written on the Basque "hotels" of the American West. As a result, conclusions in this study rely upon interviews, census records, local directories, early maps, and newspapers. The first Basque boardinghouses in the United States appeared in California in the decade following the gold rush and tended to be outposts along travel routes used by Basque miners and sheepmen. As more Basques migrated to the United States, clusters of ostatuak sprang up in communities where Basque colonies had formed, particularly in Los Angeles and San Francisco during the late nineteenth century. In the years between 1890 and 1940, the ostatuak reached their zenith as Basques spread throughout the state and took their boardinghouses with them. This study outlines the earliest appearances of the Basque ostatuak, charts their expansion, and describes their present state of demise. The role of the ostatuak within Basque-American culture and a description of how they operated is another important aspect of this dissertation. Information from interviews supports the claim that the ostatua was the most important social institution among Americanuak during peak years of Basque immigration. Since a majority of the Basque sojourners who arrived before 1930 were unmarried, unable to speak English, and intended to return to the Old World within a decade of their arrival, the Basque-American often substituted his "hotel" contacts for his Old World family. At the ostatuak, he found a familiar language and cuisine, as well as an employment agency, a place to vacation, translating services, an occasional loan, explanations of his host culture, and new friends from old villages. This history of California's ostatuak is the first of its kind and encourages future research on Basque boardinghouses throughout the American West.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2007. / Thesis directed by Luke Gibbons and Susan Harris for the Department of English. "April 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 303-314).

The tourism and hospitality industry has made a meaningful contribution to the development of the South African economy. Not only the hotels, but also the demand for self-catering holiday properties such as guest houses and bed-and-breakfast (B&B) establishments is increasing which could boost the tourist industry. Moreover, the prospect of the self-catering holiday properties in South Africa is extremely positive, particularly when the country is given the opportunity to hold the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Thus, expectations and perceptions are significantly shaped and transformed by the prosperous environment. The self-catering holiday properties should provide the best possible service to international and domestic tourists and ensure that their needs are fully met. The general purpose of this study was to evaluate the service quality of guest houses and B&Bs in the Nelson Mandela Bay by comparing guests’ expectations and perceptions. The results of this study could assist the managers of guest house and B&B in improving its service performance to more effectively fulfil the needs of dynamic tourist market. The literature study provided an overview of tourism industry from the management and marketing perspectives, services marketing and a detailed discussion of service quality focusing on the nature of services, determinants of service quality and techniques for measuring service quality. The SERVQUAL model and its derivative, Lodging Quality Index (LQI), were adapted for measuring the guests’ perceived service quality in this research. ii The empirical data was collected by means of a survey, using a self-administered questionnaire distributed to guests who were staying at guest houses or B&Bs in the Nelson Mandela Bay identified in terms of convenience sampling. One hundred and five useable questionnaires were received. The empirical findings based on the perception-minus-expectation (P-E) gap analysis showed that the perception mean scores were consistently lower than the expectation mean scores. This implies that guests perceived service quality of guest house and B&B to be relatively low. It is recommended that the managers of guest houses and B&Bs should: {u10007A} uniform the employees; {u10007A} use every tool to figure out what the guest wants; {u10007A} establish specific working procedures and help employees to understand their job responsibilities and mangers’ expectations; {u10007A} invite suggestions of existing located facilities from guests, and move the inconvenient facilities if possible; {u10007A} employ a communication audit to evaluate the overall quality of the communication system by comparing communication objectives to actual performance; {u10007A} combine useful destination information from different sources and update them on the website frequently; and {u10007A} apply an attracting layout to build positive image.

The need for successful management of a guest house in the increasingly competitive hospitality industry in South Africa, compels guest house owners to understand their customers’ needs and deliver service of acceptable quality. The objective of the research is to find out what business travellers expect from a guest house and how these expectations compare with the perceptions of guest house owners in Port Elizabeth. Conclusions drawn from this research would also benefit guest house owners in other parts of the country. A literature review was conducted to provide an understanding of the nature of service and the role “evidence of service” can play in the perception of quality. The empirical study aimed at comparing business travellers’ expectations of guest house service with guest house owners’ perceptions of their guests’ expectations. The empirical findings showed that business travellers deemed secure parking and professionalism of staff as the most important attributes, while guest house owners thought it would be friendliness of front desk staff and efficient handling of complaints. Moreover, both groups indicated that cleanliness of rooms and services performed by staff adequately the first time, were of particular importance. It was also found that the importance rating of the different service dimensions were not significantly influenced by the business travellers’ gender, managerial position, nights of stay or by the guest house grading. The study proposes that guest house owners continue to focus on strategies for training and developing competent employees, simplify the steps of service delivery and improve on the standards of the servcie to ensure that business facilities are in line with the expectations of business travelers.

Even though many organizations invest in IT, the value that IT is expected to contribute is still not clearly understood. Researchers agree that IT has become a crucial element to business operations and business existence. However, while there is continued investment in new information technologies and systems, organizations are not certain whether significant value is derived from IT investments. The failure to realize good return on IT investments is ascribed to a lack of understanding of IT by organizations and also the failure by organizations to align IT strategies with business strategies. The lack of alignment leads to the failure to match the right IT to the correct task, which leads to the poor application of systems and poor allocation of human resources to tasks. Therefore, organizations such as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in particular Boutique Hotels, are noted for their failure to derive better IT value. Their unique characteristics are understood to be influential in the way IT is used and managed by affecting the delivery of value from technology. In order to enable Boutique Hotels to derive more value from IT, the IT governance frameworks, Val IT and CobiT (ITGI, 2007), were examined as these integrate good practices to ensure that an organization‘s IT supports the business objectives. In addition, the Task Technology Fit (TTF) (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995) and Gap Analysis (Heeks, 2001) theories were highlighted as these prescribe the platform ideal for more value to be derived from IT. The current status of Boutique Hotels in Buffalo City was assessed through the use of questionnaires and interviews. The collected data was analyzed and resulted in the development of a model that can be used by Boutique Hotels in order to derive more value from IT and to maximize the use of IT.

M. Tech. (Tourism and hospitality Management, Faculty of Human Sciences)|cVaal University of Technology / The growth of the tourism industry led to the development of various different types of tourism products. In order to remain competitive it is important that tourism products provide high-quality services for tourists. Tourists are, however, becoming more demanding due to higher education levels, more sophisticated tourists that travel more and are more exposed to various types of experiences. It is therefore important that tourism products satisfy the expectations of the guest to increase loyalty levels as well as return to the product. It is difficult today to exceed the expectations of the guest but high levels of service quality can make a difference in the customer experience and it is thus worthwhile to go the extra mile for guest. Although service quality has been measured in various research studies it has not been measured for the guesthouses in Kimberley and this information can be to the advantage of the tourism products as well as to that of Kimberley as a destination. The main aim of this study was to measure service quality levels of guesthouses in Kimberley based on the SERVQUAL instrument to gain a competitive advantage over similar tourism products and to assist these products in meeting and exceeding guest’s expectations. Questionnaires were distributed at participating guesthouses in Kimberley. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed among guests guest of which 450 were used in the analyses. The questionnaire was divided into four sections, namely socio-demographic information, the expectations of guest, the perceptions of guest and the overall service quality of the guesthouse. The data resulting from the questionnaires was captured and analysed by means of descriptive and exploratory analyses in SPSS. A factor analysis was applied to the 29-attribute scale measuring service expectations and perceptions. The paired-samples t-tests were used to determine the differences in the expectations and the perceptions. The multiple regression analysis was done to determine the aspects best predicting the overall service quality levels in the guesthouses. From the descriptive analyses it was clear that the two main expectations from guests include the following: employees will be willing to serve and that employees will always be available when needed. The highest mean value was obtained for the first aspect mentioned. In terms of the perceptions, the main perceptions of the guest included: employees gave individualised attention, the operating hours of the guesthouse are convenient and the guesthouse provides a safe and secure environment. In the case of perceptions, the aspect that yielded the highest mean was: employees are always available when needed. The paired t-test revealed very few differences in expectations versus perceptions and this indicated that respondents are satisfied with the service levels and that the guesthouses did better than expected. The factor analyses revealed the following five factors: Tangibles, Adequacy, Understanding, Assurance and Convenience. Before visiting the guesthouse it was clear that Assurance made the strongest contribution to overall service quality but after visiting the guesthouse Understanding and Convenience made the strongest contribution to overall service quality; thus indicating what is important to the guests. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in guesthouse management but also to service quality in accommodation establishments such as guesthouses. Knowing that service levels in the participating guesthouses adhered to the needs of the current guests guest is encouraging, but these establishments need to plan strategically for when these guests guest overnight again and might expect something additional, extra or even different. / National Research Foundation

Mineral springs were a popular aspect of American culture prior to World War II. In conjunction with the rest of the United States, Texas offered visitors numerous locations for people to “take the waters.” Unfortunately, for various reasons, the springs fell out of favor and the buildings associated with them were largely abandoned. I briefly discuss the history of the springs through the ages and then move onto a discussion of the different styles of architecture associated with the springs in the United States and how these styles differed in Texas. Due to the loss of architecture associated with the mineral springs in Texas, this paper uses Heath, Oc, and Tiesdell’s five forms of obsolescence to analyze the reasons for failures in adaptive reuse, discusses the successes, and presents some extant buildings where futures are undetermined. In order to answer these questions, I gathered a collection of case studies, focusing on locations in Texas, but including several from the United States and Europe. I analyzed these case studies and gathered information from the result of the studies to deduce why the forms of obsolescence could not be overcome, and how some sites differed and successfully surmounted these difficulties. / text