Hospitality management strategy importance of human resources customer cultural awareness: The case of the Asian market

Abstract

Purpose –This study examines the strategy of luxury hotels operating in Portugal concerning Asian Market in general and Chinese and Japanese in particular, identifying factors behind Japanese and Chinese customers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with hotel attributes. Theoretical framework – Comparing with Western, Asian tourists prefer the basic and practical aspects of service, giving higher ratings for variables such as “staff understanding your problems and needs,” and “responding effectively.”. (Tsang and Ap, 2007). Expectations of hotel hospitality are influenced by personal factors (Ariffin and Maghzi, 2012). Compared with the Chinese, the Japanese seem less comfortable when they are not shown politeness in situations where they would expect it (Tao, 2013). Luxury hotels should focus on staff training, cleanness of rooms and location choice to improve customer satisfaction (Chang et al., 2023). Asian Customers are not all the same and hotels strategy should take in consideration the customer country of origin to retain, attract and recover these customers and markets seen as very profitable, delighting them (Tavares de Carvalho and Reis, 2023). Design/methodology/approach – A three-steps methodological approach is used: literature review; 1.354 booking.com content analysis of customers reviews, 501 questionnaires had been sent to managers, valid responses were analysed using SPSS (Principal Components, Hypothesis test and Structural Equation Modelling). Findings – Tools of digital age (online travel agencies reviews) can be an useful tool to discuss and improve the customer strategy approach and to the development of Hospitality Human Resources. Findings of content reviews analysis reveal that Japanese and Chinese customers are pleased differently concerning hotel attributes and it falls into six dimensions: location, facilities, room, breakfast, staff-service, finance. The hotels strategy is not taking in consideration the customer origin, having negative customer satisfaction implications. Training to hotels human resources in Asian culture (Japanese and Chinese) should be made. Research, Practical & Social implications – Asian Customers are not all the same and hotels strategy should take in consideration the customer country of origin to retain, attract these customers. Originality/value – There are few studies made about this subject. This study contributes for the understanding of the improvement that Hotel Management should do if they want to attract and delight the Asian customers, confirming that the use of digital platforms are a big help in the understanding of the customers ‘satisfaction and dissatisfaction factors with hotel attributes.