Världen står inför stora utmaningar i framtiden sett till hur vi överanvänder de resurser som jorden har att erbjuda. Jordens miljö och dess hållbarhet är allt vi människor har och så som Bruntlandrapporten beskriver det måste vi agera nu för att bevara den för våra framtida generationer (WCED, 1987). Samtidigt ökar medvetenheten kring klimatförändringarna som vårt agerande har lett fram till. I och med det ställs allt större krav dels på individer men även på företag att ta sitt ansvar för klimatet och jorden.  För företagen har det blivit alltmer vanligt att arbeta med CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) som är ett verktyg för att integrera miljöansvaret, det sociala ansvaret samt det ekonomiska ansvaret i företagets verksamhet. Det privata resandet ökar allt mer och därmed även behovet av hotellboende. Hotellboendet är det gästen konsumerar och då detta är en upplevelse som inte fysiskt går att ta med sig hem benämns hotellbranschen som en del av tjänsteindustrin. Tjänster är komplexa och det finns utmaningar som hotellen därmed ställs inför då det blir mycket svårare att förmedla rätt information till gästerna innan gästen anländer till hotellet, vad är egentligen det de köper? Vi vill i denna studie sammanfoga hotellens hållbarhetsarbete med komplexiteten kring att hotell ingår i tjänsteindustrin och få en förståelse för vilka värderingar konsumenter har kring hållbarhet generellt och hur dessa värderingar relaterar till beteendet gällande bokning av hotell i synnerhet. Vidare undrar vi vad som skulle kunna motivera gäster att välja mer miljövänliga boendealternativ och hur, utifrån gästens värderingar, hotellen bör positionera sig. Detta undersöker vi genom att utföra en kvalitativ studie genom fokusgrupper och med en deduktiv forskningsansats i och med att vi utgår från tidigare forskning och teorier. Deltagarna i vår studie uppger att det för dem är ovanligt att relatera hotellbokning med hållbarhet men att det är intressant för dem att väcka dessa tankebanor. Resultatet visar också att de anser att hotellen har ett stort ansvar att vara miljömedvetna och hållbara men när det kommer till dem själva har vissa deltagare svårt att ta sitt ansvar fullt ut då hållbarhetsdebatten anses för ny för dem medan andra deltagare hävdar att det är rätt att tvingas göra aktiva val som väcker tankar hos individen om hur en kan påverka sin omvärld. Med det sagt så tyder resultatet av studien på att deltagarna har miljövänliga värderingar men att dessa värderingar inte alltid implementeras i beteendet, detta på grund av att vårt agerande baserad på vårt egna behov snarare än vad som är bra för hela världen. Deltagarna framhäver dock att i dagsläget så är det alltid pris och läge som kommer först när det gäller viktiga faktorer vid hotellbokning. Vi ser också tendenser i fokusgruppernas diskussioner som vi tolkar som att för att ett hotells arbete inom hållbarhet ska fungera behöver fyra faktorer uppfyllas. Arbetet skall vara Givande för gästen, Trovärdigt, Påtagligt och Utbildande. / The world faces great challenges in the future due to how we overuse the resources of the earth. The environment of the earth and its sustainability is all that we as humans have and as the Bruntland report describes, it is important to act now in order to preserve the earth for future generations (WCED, 1987). At the same time, the awareness of climate change is increasing and with that, the impact that our actions have had so far on the climate. With that being said, a greater demand for responsibility is being called for, both for individuals and corporate businesses. For businesses it has become more normal to work with a tool called CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, which integrates the environmental, social and economic responsibilities for the business and its activities. The private travelling increases more and more and with that also the need for staying at hotels. The stay at the hotel is what the guest consumes and because the stay is an experience that you physically cannot bring home with you, the hotel trade is a part of the service sector. Services are complex and there are challenges for the hotels in conveying the right information to the guest before he or she arrives to the hotel and letting them know what it actually is that they buy and pay for. In this study, we want to merge the hotels sustainability work with the complexity of being a service company. We also want to gain an understanding of which values consumers have regarding sustainability in general and how these values relate to the behavior when booking a hotel particularly. Further on, we wonder what could motivate guests to choose more environmentally friendly hotel options, and from the guest’s values, how hotels should position themselves. We investigate this by performing a qualitative study by using focus groups with a deductive approach, meaning that we base our work on previous studies and theories and uses them to draw conclusions of the result. The participants in our study declare that it is unusual to relate hotel booking with sustainability but at the same time they think that it is interesting to awake this way of thinking. The results also shows that the participants think that the hotels have a great responsibility in being sustainable but when they are to apply this on themselves, some participants struggle a bit more and meaning that the debate of sustainability is too young for them. In the other hand, several other participants think that it is right to be forced into making own decisions that raise awareness about how individuals can influence the world around themselves. With that being said, the result of the study points towards that the participants have environmentally values but that these values not always is being implemented in their behavior, probably because that we base our behavior on our own needs rather than what is good for the whole world. The participants point out that price and location always comes first when booking a hotel. Lastly, we see tendencies in the discussions in the focus groups which we interpret into four factors which hotels need to fulfill in order to conduct functional sustainability actions. The actions should be Awarding for the guest, Trustworthy, Tangible and Educational.

Background Today the hotel industry has become very digitalized compared to when there was only a travel catalogue to look in. Nowadays people search for information about hotels and read reviews from past guests online. There are different kinds of accommodations and lately it has become popular with shared services like Airbnb. With the rise of digitalization the hotel market competition has increased tremendously, therefore it is important for the hotels to keep a good reputation. Services like a hotel stay can be experienced differently from person to person and thus it is important for the service personnel to possess emotional intelligence.  Purpose The purpose with this study is to find out how the consumer behavior changes depending on the reviews. The study should give knowledge to hotel management about how it is possible to improve their relationship with guests by service, reviews and the use of digitalization. This study wants to update the research on the topic reviews and how it affects the consumers when booking a hotel with new information since the technology changes constantly and thus some research about the field in the past might not mirror the reality today.  Method This study was conducted using a quantitative method survey study in the form of an internet questionnaire. This questionnaire contained mostly closed ended questions however there were some open questions that allowed the participants to name a factor that was important for them. The survey used convenience sampling to be able to receive a lot of answers quickly. To ensure that the answers were of good quality anonymous answers has been applied and there was a qualification question that can sort out unqualified and spam answers to obtain the best quality. To analyze the results from the survey, descriptive analytics and statistical inference will be used and compared with previous research. The statistical analysis will be done by SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and Excel.  Conclusion  The study has come to the conclusion that reviews affect and have an impact on all the different stages in the consumer decision making process. The study also conclude that it is important for the hotel to try to increase the number of reviews since with the rise of reviews the more trustworthy the reviews will be. The study also concluded that it has become important with digitalization in the hotel industry and that 29,5% of the study participants use the mobile app when booking a hotel. Thus, the hotel management must follow and adapt the hotel to the new way of communication.

This dissertation aims to examine the concept of ―online customer experience‖, ―flow‖, and its role in influencing online customers‘ loyalty to a hotel booking website. To achieve this aim, a model was developed, which proposed that online flow is generated by both hedonic and utilitarian website features. A model was developed based on literature review to measure the relationships between the constructs. To initiate this research, a survey approach was taken. After conducting a pilot study, a marketing company was contacted to distribute the link for the online questionnaire. Five hundred and eleven (511) questionnaires were completed by guests who booked a hotel room online. Participants completed the self-administered online questionnaire by answering questions related to their last hotel booking experience. Study results found that hedonic and utilitarian website features affect the flow experience positively. Results highlight that hedonic website features has a stronger effect on the flow experience compared to utilitarian ones. In addition, the results revealed that hedonic features positively impact brand equity and utilitarian features impact trust towards the hotel booking website. Further, both trust and brand equity have significant and positive relationship with e-loyalty. However, according to study results, flow experience does not have a direct significant effect on e-loyalty. The study findings suggest that consumers who are able to achieve a state of flow while shopping online will perceive higher brand equity and trust. Therefore, their perceptions of the brand are improved. With enhanced levels of trust and brand equity, consumers are more likely to build bonds and stay loyal to the hotel booking website. It is important to note that iv enhancing the brand equity and trust via hedonic and utilitarian website features is important to increase loyalty because flow experience does not directly influence loyalty. This study contributes to existing research on flow experience in several ways. Firstly, it developed and tested a model with precursors of flow experience in ecommerce by establishing a link between website features and flow experience. Antecedents and consequences of flow experience can help researchers understand when this experience occurs and what to expect from this optimal experience in online environments. Thus, this study makes a contribution to the existing literature by examining the effects of features of the website on flow experience. It is worth noting that in the model, hedonic website features had the largest impact on flow experience. This is particularly an important contribution, considering that precious related research examined variables such as attractiveness, novelty, playfulness, personal innovativeness, content of the website, interactivity, teleperesence and perceived ease of use as the precursors of flow experience, but they have not examined the website characteristics that derives from shopping orientations. Study results can give hotel booking website designers and marketers a better understanding of the online consumer experiences and loyalty

Background: Promotional cues are commonly applied on online travel agency websites. The most common cues were identified to be scarcity, popularity and pricing, which are said to increase consumers’ perception of scarcity, popularity and price and following enhance consumers’ booking intention. There is an increasing interest in promotional cues’ impact on booking intention in the online booking context, however, the results are not coherent as well as previous studies have looked only into intention to book. By applying the theory of planned behavior model to measure booking intention, new theoretical insights regarding promotional cues and booking intention should be given. Furthermore, this should help hotel suppliers to increase booking intention on the own hotel’s website. Purpose: The purpose is to explain how promotional cues found on online hotel booking sites impact the relationship between (1) perceived scarcity, (2) perceived popularity, (3) perceived price and consumers’ booking intention, by using the theory of planned behavior model. Method: This study has taken a deductive approach with quantitative data collection methods. By using a between-subjects experimental design, a fictional online hotel booking scenario was created. In total, data from 379 respondents were collected with a web-based survey. Thereby, respondents were assigned to six different groups (three treatment groups and three control groups). With conducting a manipulation check, it was identified that the perceived pricing group did not show a significant difference between control group and treatment group, however, perceived scarcity and perceived popularity did. For the analysis a correlation and regression analysis were conducted. Several t tests were conducted to find significant differences between diverse variables. Conclusion: A positive moderate relationship was found between perceived scarcity and booking intention, when applying scarcity cues. Furthermore, implementing popularity cues, led also to a moderate positive relationship indicated between perceived popularity and booking intention, however, the relationship was not as strongly correlated as when applying scarcity cues. Thereby, implementing scarcity and popularity cues is an effective tool to increase bookings, however, only to a small amount. Hence, it is important to also pay attention to the other factors influencing booking intention and simply using the cues as support to increase the number of booking.