This thesis investigates how hotels communicate their sustainability efforts to their customers on their websites. As sustainability is becoming more known and more expected, businesses feel more pressure to have sustainable initiatives. However, sustainability has no international standards, meaning that businesses can have quite different ideas of what sustainability entails. Therefore, this study looks into different sustainable initiatives that hotels have. The thesis uses discourse analysis to compare what sustainability issues are addressed and how they are presented on the websites. This is done by comparing six theoretical perspectives: sustainability, marketing, storytelling, implementation, and certification. The study was conducted by investigating the websites of 75 hotels in four different cities across the world: Helsinki, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Wellington. In addition, eight international hotel chains were investigated. The hotels are first compared within countries and, afterwards, the countries are compared with each other. The study finds that the most common sustainable initiatives in hotels are environmental changes within the hotels. Furthermore, it is found that there is a lot of variation between how hotels present their sustainability initiatives. While some hotels present their initiatives clearly, some others only vaguely mention them or hide them away. While many hotels have certification, they do not show the certificates clearly. Furthermore, none of the international chains have certification. The thesis concludes in suggesting a possible future study that would examine how the sustainable initiatives on the websites differ from reality.

Magister Legum - LLM / The hospitality industry is one of the largest economic sectors in the world.1 As a result, it is one of the top employment contributors, with its Travel and Tourism sector accounting for an estimated 10.3% of global GDP, translating to a US$8.9 trillion contribution to the world’s GDP and 330 million jobs in 2019.2 In the context of South Africa, the tourism industry also plays a crucial role in economic growth and job creation. Tourism in South Africa accounted for 2.8% of GDP in 2019,3 and employed an estimated 709 000 individuals.4 Therefore, the importance of this colossal industry in economic growth and development, coupled with its potential in poverty reduction cannot be overemphasised.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a conceptual model to examine the effects of work-family conflict, family-work conflict, and emotional exhaustion on job performance and turnover intentions. The paper also aims to investigate the role of gender as a moderator of the posited relationships. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of frontline hotel employees in Turkey serves as the study setting. Data were collected via self-administered questionnaires. A total of 723 usable responses were obtained. Findings – The results show that employees facing conflicts originating from their work (family) and family (work) roles become emotionally exhausted. These two forms of interrole conflicts are also significant predictors of frontline employees' turnover intentions. Gender moderates several of the relationships proposed in this paper. Practical implications – Turkish hotels will benefit from establishing a family-supportive work environment to lessen the detrimental impact of conflicts in the work-family interface on frontline employees' emotional exhaustion and job outcomes. A dual (i.e. gender-specific) approach appears to hold promise in managing frontline employees. Originality/value – When these results are compared to the results of studies conducted in western countries, a number of similarities become evident. These similarities broadly suggest that research findings derived from western countries are generalizable into a culturally different setting, and support the premise that as traditional gender roles continue to expand and change, a convergence of findings in work-family research takes place cross-culturally.

Since its foundation, revenue management techniques on aggregate have added billions of dollars to many firms' bottom lines, while using existing products or services and existing sets of consumers (Cross, Higbie, and Cross, 2010). The recent rapid changes in the business environment have forced firms to adopt strategies that will fit their overall strategies to aid in their survival and success (Pechlaner and Sauerwein, 2002). As a result of the modern reality of business, academic literature has not yet been able to address many important considerations. An example is RM implementation strategies and the performance outcomes as a result of these decisions. This study investigated the advantages and disadvantages of implementation of RM strategies; in-house, centralized, and outsourced. This was followed by the make or buy decision, specifically focusing on Transaction Cost Economics and the Resource Based View to investigate antecedents of outsourcing intention, and if and how these different strategies affect hotel properties' performance. Data were collected using an online survey of lodging properties located in the U.S. in October 2014. A total of 374 usable responses for outsourcing intention study and 591 usable responses for the performance study were collected. Factor analysis, hierarchical multiple regression, repeated measures ANOVA, regression analysis, and pairwise comparison analysis were the statistical analyses used in the study. The results found that specificity is significant and negatively associated with outsourcing intention. In addition, uncertainty is significant and positively associated with outsourcing intention as proposed. The moderating effect of organizational capability is significant and changes from base model to final model with the moderator being statistically significant. The findings of regression and a pairwise comparison test confirmed the difference in strategy choice on performance for US hotels, giving us insights into the importance of selecting the strategy that is optimal for a given property. / Ph. D.

El objetivo principal de esta investigación es analizar de forma académica dos características principales de hoteles boutique que obtuvieron reconocimiento internacional, enfocándose en el estudio de la infraestructura y los estándares de servicio. Los hoteles boutique cuentan con un estándar de servicio personalizado para sus clientes, con pocas habitaciones y con una infraestructura de un estilo y carácter propio. Esta investigación sirve como fuente confiable a cualquier estudio con fines académicos, que aporte al rubro de hoteles boutique. La metodología utilizada fue la revisión bibliográfica descriptiva y sistemática. Adicional a ello, se recopilaron diversas fuentes de información publicadas en los últimos 8 años relacionadas al sector hotelero en diversas partes del mundo en donde fueron aplicadas y evaluadas las variables de estudio. Adicional a ello, se realizó un análisis de los 6 criterios que evalúa la “Boutique Hotel Awards” en comparación con las reseñas de huéspedes que se exponen online en plataformas intermediarias de hospedaje. Los resultados se obtuvieron siguiendo la rúbrica de dicho certamen antes mencionado y demostraron que el hotel que mejor cumple con las variables de servicio e infraestructura y que es más valorado por los clientes es el hotel Riad Kheirredine, Marrakech ubicado en Marruecos. Finalmente, la conclusión principal es que para que un hotel boutique logre un reconocimiento internacional tiene que poner énfasis en cumplir los caracteres analizados de infraestructura y servicio, ya que ambos factores son apreciados por los clientes y logran posicionar óptimamente a los hoteles boutique. / The main objective of this research is to conduct an academic analyze academically of two main characteristics of the boutique hotels that they presented to be internationally recognized, focusing on the study of infrastructure and service standards. Boutique hotels have a personalized service standard for their clients, they have few rooms and each of these hotels has an infrastructure with its own style and character. This research serves as a reliable source for any study for academic purposes that contributes to the category of boutique hotels. The methodology used was the descriptive and systematic bibliographic review. In addition, various sources of information published in the last 7 years related to the hotel sector were collected in various parts of the world where the study variables were applied and evaluated. Furthermore, an analysis of the 6 criteria that the “Boutique Hotel Awards” evaluates in comparison with the guest reviews that are exposed online in intermediary hosting platforms was carried out. The results obtained were obtained following the rubric of the aforementioned event and were able to demonstrate that the hotel that best meets the service and infrastructure variables and that is most valued by customers is the Riad Kheirredine hotel, Marrakech located in Morocco. Finally, the main conclusion is that in order for a boutique hotel to achieve international recognition, it must place emphasis on meeting the analyzed characteristics of infrastructure and service, since both factors are appreciated by customers and manage to optimally position boutique hotels. / Trabajo de investigación

Over the past several years, some hotels in St. Lucia, Caribbean have experienced declining occupancy rates and revenues. The failure of general managers of large hotels on the island to increase and sustain occupancy levels may threaten the economic stability of the island. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that general managers from 3 large hotels on the island in St. Lucia have used to increase and sustain occupancy levels in their hotels. The general managers selected for each case had over 15 years of experience in managing large hotels in St. Lucia. The conceptual framework applied in this study was system theory. Data were collected from hotel general manager interviews, review of government gazettes, select social media sources, and personal hotel property observations. The results of the interviews were analyzed and coded. Review of documents and property observations provided supporting information that corroborated the findings of the interviews. Methodological triangulation and member checking were used to interpret and analyze the data. At the conclusion, the following 4 theme collations were identified: marketing, air transportation, guest experience, and product development. The conclusions yielded that increased occupancy rates were dependent on the alignment of the hotel operational model, the services provided, and meeting customer expectations. Implications for social change include the possible creation and sustaining of new jobs in the hotel sector as well as in other possible sectors, such as construction, financing, and material supplies.

The objective of the study was to identify and measure the magnitude of the gap that may exist between the corporate level Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) culture and its ensuing policies and their equivalent at the property level. This gap was hypothesized to be a function of a number of personal characteristics of the General Managers (GMs) coupled with the organizational profile of the hotel. The data were collected via an online survey based on a CSR scale developed by Turker (2009) in combination with other original and previously used smaller scales. The study‟s population consisted of general managers of hotels that were managed by a corporate office and were members of the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association and the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. In total, 564 hotel GMs were contacted by email by their perspective associations and invited to participate in the study. A total of 123 surveys were returned which equated to a 22% response rate. The results indicated that the gaps for all factors were very small. This suggested that based on the GMs‟ perceptions, there was not much variation between their corporations‟ CSR policies and their properties‟ CSR policies. Hence, because of this small variation, it can be speculated that, in this study, hotel GMs were committed to follow precisely the corporate CSR policies and initiatives at their property levels. Notwithstanding the above, the results supported three hypotheses as follows: (a) the more GMs were involved in the community, the less they were committed to CSR policies relating to the government; (b) the more hours per week GMs spent in community volunteerism, the higher was their commitment to overall CSR policies; and iv (c) the higher was the demonstrated commitment of GMs to their corporation‟s CSR policy regarding responsibility to employees, the more they were rewarded through nonmonetary perceived personal success. This study and its ensuing results were of significant importance to the general CSR body of knowledge and unique in terms of their contribution to CSR in the hotel industry. The practical implication from this study was that it sets a number of benchmarks relating to CSR corporate and property level policies and initiatives in a given sector of the hotel industry. In addition, due to the fact that few, if any, gaps were found between the corporate and property level cultures, corporate officers can at least feel fairly comfortable that from the GMs‟ perspectives, CSR initiatives are being implemented at the property level in accordance with corporate policy

Brand loyalty measurement is important because of the extensive use of branding in the lodging industry during recent years. As the industry has matured, segmentation strategies have been adopted by lodging companies. Brands were supposed to protect market share,build brand loyalty, and differentiate the product (Withiam 1985). / Master of Science

In this thesis, we use methods from econometrics to empirically measure and quantify how digital information influences industries and markets. Specifically, we focus on two important areas of marketing: online reputation management, and competition between online and offline markets. In the first part of the thesis, we study the impact of management review responses, a popular reputation management mechanism, on consumer ratings. To do so, we exploit a difference in managerial practice across two hotel review plat- forms, TripAdvisor and Expedia: while hotels regularly respond to their TripAdvisor reviews, they never do so on Expedia. Based on this observation we employ a “difference-in-differences” design to identify the causal impact of management responses on ratings, and show that responding hotels see an average increase of 0.1 stars. We then turn to analyze the mechanisms behind this increase in ratings and show that by responding to reviews, hotels attract consumers who are inherently more positive, and therefore more likely to leave good reviews. In the second part of the thesis, we study peer-to-peer markets and their impact on traditional industries. We do so by looking at Airbnb, a sharing economy pioneer offering short-term accommodation. We combine data from Airbnb and the Texas hotel industry, and estimate the impact of Airbnb’s entry into the Texas market on hotel room revenue. To identify Airbnb’s causal impact on hotel room revenue, we use a “difference-in-differences” empirical strategy that exploits the significant spatiotemporal variation in the patterns of Airbnb adoption across city-level markets. We estimate that in Austin, where Airbnb supply is highest, the impact on hotel revenue is roughly 8-10% for the most affected hotels. Further, we find that affected hotels have responded by reducing prices, an impact that benefits all consumers, not just participants in the sharing economy. The results presented in this thesis have practical implications for firms seeking to improve their operations and marketing strategies, platforms seeking to design better and efficient marketplaces, and consumers who are often not aware of important dynamics that can be helpful in their decision-making process.

Although marketing has been prevalent for many decades, the concept of green marketing remains relatively novel to both consumers and businesses. In the light of the evolving global climate, and escalating concerns regarding sustainability, businesses are compelled to explore new approaches. Among various industries, the hotel industry has been affected one of the most, particularly in recent years. Both green and conventional hotels have been facing challenges stemming from sustainability. A particular emphasis has been on fulfilling market demands. Consequently, hotels need to contemplate how to effectively communicate their ongoing changes in their sustainability practices. This is where marketing assumes a pivotal role. Given the nascent nature of green marketing and its lack of standardised definition, this research endeavours to open hotel managers` interpretations of green marketing in Sweden. The author conducts an in-depth examination and analysis of the websites of four prominent hotel chains - Scandic Hotels, Nordic Choice Hotels, Radisson Hotel Group and Ligula Hospitality Group. To enhance comprehension, ten interviews with managers from the mentioned hotels in Sweden are also conducted and analysed. To address the research questions, this paper employs discourse analysis as a methodological framework. The study encompasses spoken and written text analysis utilising Fairclough's Discourse Analysis Framework on different levels, as well as visual analysis from the theoretical perspective of Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen.