Customer loyalty is a well researched topic in the marketing literature. However, the application of the loyalty concept to the services industry still lags behind the goods industry. In addition, the bed and breakfast sector within the hospitality industry (as part of the services industry) is neglected even more by marketing academics. This study, by discovering such a gap in the literature, explored bed and breakfast sector in the UK from customer loyalty point of view. The primary data were obtained through a combination of data collection methods, which served Its purpose best. Interviews were conducted with proprietors of the participating bed and breakfasts, in order to establish their views on a gamut of loyalty related matters such as customer satisfaction, repeat guests, complaint handling and so on. Questionnaires with guests of the bed and breakfasts, on the other hand, tackled the same issues from the guests' points of view, so allowing the researcher to compare both matters. The exploratory nature of the study enabled the researcher to pursue a number of themes that were developed during the research, mainly as pointed out by the proprietors. A number of these themes later on found their way to the 'Recommendations for Future Research' section of the final chapter. As a result of the literature review, proprietor interviews and guest questionnaires for this research, two frameworks were developed - 'The Benefits of Regular Guests' (Framework 1) and 'The Key Factors Contributing to Guest Loyalty' (Framework 2) - along with a working definition of a bed and breakfast and 'professionalism' in bed and breakfasts. It is the author of this study's belief that such findings make a valuable contribution to the academic knowledge, along with providing realistic implications to the bed and breakfast proprietors and hotel industry practitioners.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:490498 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Bozkurt, Alper |
| Publisher | Oxford Brookes University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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