Accommodation Preferences of the Girlfriend Getaway Market: Self-Image,
Satisfaction and Loyalty
Abstract
The study aims at identifying the dimensions of accommodation and service of importance to
the girlfriend getaway (GGA) market and their relationship with self-image, satisfaction and
loyalty. Analysis of data from 540 women travellers who participated in a GGA in Malaysia
revealed eight dimensions of accommodation preferences such as Room Amenities, Safety,
and Room Design and Decoration, among others. Not all accommodation dimensions
predicted self-image, satisfaction and loyalty. In fact, self-image and satisfaction were
stronger predictors of loyalty than accommodation dimensions. Theoretical and managerial
implications are offered.
Keywords: self-image, women, girlfriend getaway, satisfaction, Asia
Introduction
Existing studies on women’s accommodation preferences have focused primarily on female
business travellers (for examples, Lutz & Ryan, 1993; Marzuki, Chin, & Razak, 2012;
Sammons, Moreo, Benson, & Demicco, 1999). More recent research on women travel have
highlighted the emergence of the GGA market (Berdychevsky, Gibson, & Bell, 2013;
Gibson, Berdychevsky, & Bell, 2012; Khoo-Lattimore & Prayag, 2015), a market that sees
females travelling with other female friends and relatives, typically in groups of between two
and three. When compared to other female travel types (such as business, solo, romance or
family), Khoo-Lattimore and Prayag (2015) argued that female guests on GGAs exhibit
different accommodation and service preferences. Their study revealed that women in the allfemale travel market are heterogeneous and can be segmented into five clusters.
However, an important area of research relevant to the study of women and their
consumption behaviour is the role and influence of the self (Belk, 1988) and self-image
(Grubb & Grathwohl, 1967). Studies in marketing have long theorized that self-image is an
important determinant of consumer behaviour (Ericksen, 1997; Grubb & Grathwohl, 1967;
Heath & Scott, 1998; Hong & Zinkhan, 1995; Landon Jr, 1974; Onkvisit & Shaw, 1987;
Ross, 1971; Sirgy, 1982). Self-image as a concept has been shown to be positively related to
satisfaction (Back, 2005; Kressmann et al., 2006; Sirgy & Samli, 1985), as well as loyalty
(Sirgy, Grewal, & Mangleburg, 2000; Sirgy, Lee, Johar, & Tidwell, 2008). Currently, no
research has been dedicated to understanding women’s self-image and its link to tourism
decisions, including accommodation consumption choices. This study provides insight into
how women’s self-image acts as an antecedent of satisfaction and loyalty in the context of
accommodation. More specifically, the study ascertains the accommodation attributes of
importance to the GGA market and their relationships with self-image, satisfaction and
loyalty (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Theoretical Framework
Accommodation
Preferences
Women SelfImage
Satisfaction with
Hotel Experience
Loyalty
Literature Review
Accommodation Preferences of Female Travellers
Various accommodation attributes such as room cleanliness, self-catering facilities,
views from the room, food and location have been identified as antecedent of guest
satisfaction (Chadee & Mattsson, 1996; Khoo-Lattimore & Ekiz, 2014; Nash, Thyne, &
Davies, 2006). Whether the same attributes apply to female leisure travelers have been
sparsely researched. Relative insights can be drawn from studies on female business travelers
(Lutz & Ryan, 1993; Phadungyat, 2008; Sammons et al., 1999), which suggest women placed
higher priorities than men on safety and security and comfortable dining experiences (Lutz &
Ryan, 1993). McCleary, Weaver, and Lan (1994) also noted that women were more
concerned with the hotel’s safety and security features such as peep hole, surveillance
camera, and bright carpark. Sammons et al. (1999) study of female business travelers’
preference for accommodation revealed that women-only floor, feminine décor (such as
pastel-colored rooms) and female toiletries (bubble bath and nail polish remover) were
unimportant. Instead, they placed high importance on hotel cleanliness and security
provisions. The issue of safety and security seems to be a consistent finding across many
studies on women travelers and accommodation preferences. In the broader services
marketing literature, gender differences on service evaluations are noted for advertising
assessment (McDaniel & Kinney, 1998) and satisfaction judgments (Dubé & Morgan, 1998).
Yet, in evaluating hotel and restaurant settings, Mattila (2000) failed to demonstrate the
impact of gender on service encounter evaluations. Hence, contradictory evidence exists on
whether females evaluate services differently from males.
Self-image
Self-image consists of two main concepts - actual self and ideal self (Landon Jr, 1974). The
self-image theory holds that a consumer’s image and concept of themselves can be upheld,
expressed and augmented through the products they purchase and use. Later, scholars began
extending the self-image theory to include self-congruence, that is the match between the
consumer’s self- image and the image of the products they consume. Studies on selfcongruence have revealed that consumers who achieve self-image congruence maintain loyal
attitudes toward, and consuming brands that are perceived to be comparable to their selfimage. Self-image has been measured using semantic scales that depict orientations such as
traditional vs. modern and conformist vs. non-conformist, among others (Dolich, 1969).
Arguably, a woman who prefers her accommodation to be tastefully decorated with stylish
interior design and service customization should be indicative of her being sophisticated and
modern rather than traditional and conformist.
Although the notion that one’s self-image can direct specific purchase behaviours is well
accepted, very few studies have applied the concept to tourists (Hosany & Martin, 2012). One
of the earliest tourism studies on this topic Chon (1992) who investigated self-concept as an
antecedent of destination choice. His work has been subsequently followed up on by several
authors (Ahn, Ekinci, & Li, 2013; Goh & Litvin, 2000; Hosany & Martin, 2012; Litvin &
Goh, 2002; Sirgy & Su, 2000), but such studies primarily focus on destinations. Outside the
destination context, tourism scholars have studied the influence of self-image congruence on
settings such as cruise vacations (Hosany & Martin, 2012; Hung & Petrick, 2011); time-share
ownership (Sparks, Bradley, & Jennings, 2011); country clubs (Back & Lee, 2009) and hotels
(Wilkins, Merrilees, & Herington, 2009). One notable omission in the literature is the role
and influence of accommodation preferences on women’s actual and ideal self.
Self-image, Satisfaction and Loyalty
Studies have only begun to establish some relationships between self-image and satisfaction
(Wilkin et al., 2009), and between image congruence and loyalty (Back, 2005; Han & Back,
2008). While some scholars claim that guest satisfaction is positively related to loyalty
(Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2000), others however argued that satisfaction may not
necessarily lead to loyalty (Bowen & Chen, 2001). As Wilkins, et al (2009) sums up, there
needs to be more empirical work applying self-image theory on guest satisfaction and loyalty.
Our study addresses this knowledge gap and investigates the accommodation attributes
important to women on GGAs and their relationships with self-image, satisfaction and
loyalty.
Method
Survey Instrument
The constructs in this study were measured using items adapted from the literature and multiphases of qualitative research. Initially, 77 attributes of general importance to female hotel
guests were identified from previous studies (Babakus et al., 2005; Lutz & Ryan, 1993;
McCleary et al., 1994; Phadungyat, 2008; Sammons et al., 1999). This list is further refined
after in-depth interviews with 13 women who had previously participated in a GGA. Further,
three groups of four women were invited to experience a girlfriend getaway at a three star
boutique hotel in Malaysia. At the end of their stay, these women were invited to participate
in three focus groups. The qualitative data were used to refine the list of attributes to 63, of
which 14 were safety and security items, and these were measured on a five-point importance
scale (1=Not at all important and 5=Extremely important). Self-image was measured using 8
items representing the dimensions of actual (4 items) and ideal self (4 items) adapted from
literature (Dolich, 1969; Grubb & Grothwohl, 1964) on a five-point semantic scale. Overall
satisfaction was measured on a five point likert scale (1=Very Dissatisfied and 5=Very
Satisfied) using one item adapted from Oliver (1997). Loyalty was measured using three
items of intention to revisit, recommend and willingness to pay more adapted from Zeithaml,
Berry, and Parasuraman (1996).
Sampling and Data Collection
Respondents for the survey were recruited from a resort’s membership database. First, only
female members that are known to have shared their rooms with only other female guests
between February and March 2013 were included. Second, the female guests were travelling
mainly for holiday purposes. These criteria yielded 3,856 females that had holidayed in hotels
of the group in Malaysia (96.7%) and Singapore (3.3%). The survey instrument was emailed
to all respondents that had a recorded email address in the database (2,086). The survey
resulted in 540 useable questionnaires.
Data Analysis
The data were randomly split into two halves to perform factor analysis. One-half of the data
set (n=270) was used to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the accommodation
attributes. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on the other half (n=270) to
establish confidence in the measurement model of accommodation attributes and to test for
convergent and discriminant validity. The maximum likelihood method of estimation was
used for the CFA. Third, regression analysis was used to identify relationships between these
accommodation dimensions, self-image, satisfaction and loyalty.
Findings
Sample Characteristics
The sample profile (Table 1) indicated slightly more single (44.7%) than married (43.5%)
female travellers. Travellers in the 18-20 age group composed 8.6% of the sample, followed
by the 21-30 years old (25.7%). Almost a third (32.4%) of the sample had completed
secondary education, with 37% holding a graduate degree (Table 1). The majority of
respondents were of Malaysian nationality (54.7%) followed by Singaporean (22.5%). In
terms of their stay, the majority of GGA customers stayed for 1-3 nights (89.5%) and
described their main purpose of visit as being leisure oriented (51.4%).
Table 1: Demographic and travel characteristics of the sample
Variable
Marital Status
Age
Educational
level completed
Percentage
Single
44.7
Married
43.5
Separated/Divorced
11.8
18-20
8.6
21-30
25.7
31-40
30.5
41-50
22.7
51-60
Variable
No. of nights
stayed
Main
purpose of
trip
Percentage
1-3nights
89.5
4-6nights
6.2
>6nights
4.3
Leisure
51.4
Socializing
33.5
Bonding
Previous
stay with
hotel group
5
Yes
96.9
12.5
No
2.8
Primary education
14.6
Don't know
0.3
Secondary education
32.4
Graduate degree
37
Post-graduate degree
13.6
Others
2.4
Nationality
Malaysian
54.7
Singaporean
22.5
Indian
6.6
Indonesian
5.2
Chinese
5.5
Thai
3.1
Others
2.4
Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)
Given that there are no established scales to measure accommodation attributes in the tourism
and hospitality literature, a series of EFA was used to reduce the number of items depicting
the various dimensions of accommodation attributes for GGA customers. Using a varimax
rotation, cut-off value of an eigenvalue of 1 or above and a factor loading of 0.4 and higher,
the 14 items of safety and security resulted in three underlying dimensions explaining
61.44% of total variance. As shown in Table 2, all three factors met the minimum
requirement of 0.7 or 0.6 and above in exploratory studies (Hair et al., 2006) for internal
consistency.
Table 2: EFA safety and security items
Safety & Security Factors/Items
Item
Loadings
Factor 1: Safety and Security I
SS10: Hotel has covered parking area
0.826
SS9: Hotel has brightly lit parking area
0.777
SS13: Hotel has a direct dial to security/police/safety authorities
0.622
SS11: Hotel offers smoke detector in individual room
0.579
SS12: Hotel room door has peep hole built in
0.573
SS14: Hotel has telephone call filter service
0.522
SS8: Hotel notifies you before room delivery service
0.521
Factor 2: Safety and Security II
SS1: Hotel offers secure lifts and floor access
0.865
SS2: Hotel offers deadbolt/electronic door locks
0.797
SS4: Hotel offers surveillance/security cameras in hallways
0.756
SS6: The room has an emergency alarm
0.560
Factor 3: Safety and Security III
SS7: The room allocated to you is located at the end of hallways
or near stairwells)
SS5: Hotel offers you to stay on higher floors
SS3: Hotel offers female only staff (from housekeeping to room
service)
Eigenvalue
Variance
explained
(%)
Reliability
alpha
3.32
23.73
0.863
3.32
23.73
0.858
1.96
13.98
0.605
0.814
0.683
0.578
The 49 items representing room amenities and other services offered to guests were factor
analysed. Using the same criteria as before for factor extraction, the results suggested that one
item did not load significantly on any of the factors and were thus removed. The final
solution revealed the existence of fourteen underlying dimensions that explained 71.18% of
total variance. As shown in Table 3, only eleven of the fourteen factors had Cronbach’s alpha
> 0.6 for internal consistency and reliability. The factors were labelled as shown in Table 3.
Table 3: EFA of accommodation attributes
Factor/Items
Item
Loadings
Factor 1: Hotel Room Amenities I
HRA4: Room has full body mirror
0.832
HRA3: Room has ironing board and steam iron
0.830
HRA5: Room has make-up mirror with magnifier
0.795
HRA2: Room has high powered hair dryers
0.691
HRA6: Room has dressing mirror with white light
0.621
HRA8: Hotel offers superior quality bath towels
0.468
Factor 2: Room Design and Atmosphere
RDD4: Hotel room is bright and airy
0.881
RDD3: Hotel offers non-smoking rooms and floors
RDD2: Hotel uses neutral/light coloured scheme in the
room
RDD5: Hotel room has easy to operate light and sound
system
0.860
RDD1: Hotel offers a bigger room for female customers
RDD6: Room has a different feel and atmosphere from
other standard hotels
0.756
Reliability
alpha
4.01
8.36
0.936
3.80
7.91
0.917
3.01
6.27
0.872
2.98
6.21
0.814
2.72
5.68
0.889
2.40
5.01
0.845
2.37
4.94
0.921
2.36
4.92
0.784
0.825
0.815
0.434
Factor 3: Core Services
COS3: Hotel offers hair stylist on site
0.818
COS4: Hotel has indoor swimming
0.779
COS2: Hotel offers free airport transfers
0.726
COS1: Hotel offers 24 hour room service
0.696
COS5: Hotel offers free local telephone call from room
0.637
Factor 4: Room Amenities II
HRA7: Hotel offers branded amenities and luxury bath
products
0.712
HRA10: Room has extra skirt hangers
0.662
HRA1: Room has comfortable mattress & pillows
0.653
HRA14: Room has DVD player
0.583
Factor 5: Room Comfort & Cleanliness
RCC2: Hotel has well maintained furniture and room
fittings
RCC1: Hotel has clean facilities (e.g. bathroom, lobby,
lifts)
0.908
RCC3: Hotel offers pre-arranged check-in
0.823
0.895
Factor 6: Staff Service Delivery
STF4: Staff provide a prompt service
STF5: Staff have knowledge to provide accurate
information and assistance
0.888
STF3: Staff provide a sincere service
0.670
0.872
Factor 7: Staff Attitude
STF2: Staff are respectful and courteous
0.883
STF1: Staff are friendly
0.880
Factor 8: Room Amenities III
Eigenvalue
Variance
explained
(%)
HRA11: Room provides additional bottles of drinking
water
0.744
HRA12: Room has scented candles
0.710
HRA16: Room has sanitary pads
0.563
HRA15: Room smells nice
0.545
Factor 9: Food & Beverage
FNB2: Hotel offers healthy options in room-service menu
0.819
FNB1: Hotel offers healthy options in restaurant menu
0.703
FNB3: Hotel offers a good breakfast buffet
0.701
Factor 10: Room Amenities IV
HRA13: Room has yoga mat
HRA9: Hotel offers luxury feminine toiletries (e.g. nail
polish, nail polish remover)
Factor 11: Augmented Services I
AUS2: Hotel offers discounts for massages and spa
treatments
AUS1: Hotel offers shopping vouchers and discounts
AUS3: Hotel offers free transport to nearby shopping
malls
4.01
0.688
1.90
3.96
0.814
1.89
3.93
0.674
1.86
3.88
0.592
1.66
3.46
0.590
1.29
2.68
0.398
0.798
0.532
0.826
0.661
0.651
Factor 12: Hotel Activities
HOA2:Hotel offers activities that female guests can do
together
0.818
HOA3: Hotel offers board games in room
0.716
HOA1: Hotel offers yoga classes
0.527
Factor 13: Augmented Services II
AUS4: Hotel organizes bonding activities with girlfriends
(e.g. lunch, dinner or pool chats
AUS5: Hotel offers loyalty cards with added value (e.g.
discount on next stay or packaged hotel offers
1.92
0.760
0.739
Factor 14: Bath Amenities
HRA18: Room has bath salts
0.865
HRA17: Room has bathtub
0.507
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
A CFA was used to establish confidence in the measurement model for accommodation
attributes (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). Several goodness-of-fit indices such as NFI >0.9,
CFI>0.9, TLI>0.9, RMSEA<0.08 and χ2/d.f.<3 (Hair et al., 2006) were used to evaluate the
measurement model in terms of parsimony and substantive meaningfulness. While the initial
model displayed poor fit on some indices (e.g., CFI=.831, TLI=.810) and acceptable fit on
others (RMSEA=0.05, χ2/d.f.=1.79), modification indices suggested a more parsimonious
model could be obtained by deleting several dimensions and items. Dimensions with
Cronbach’s alpha < 0.7, as expected, displayed poor consistency and reliability and, hence,
the dimensions of Safety (Factor 3), Staff (Factor 2), Bath Amenities, Food and Beverage,
and Augmented Service (Factors 1 and 2) were deleted. Along with these, five items were
deleted (RDD6, RDD7, COS5, COS6, and SS10). The final model (Table 4) displayed good
fit (χ2=557.36, d.f=399, χ2/d.f.=1.397, CFI=.925, IFI=.953, TLI=.944, RMSEA=.039). The
accommodation dimensions showed good internal consistency reliability (Table 4), with CR
values exceeding the value of 0.7 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). Convergent validity was
supported by AVE values exceeding the value of 0.5. The square root of the AVE of each
construct was larger than the correlation coefficients involving the construct, thus confirming
discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981)
Table 4: Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results for Accommodation Dimensions
Factors/items
Std. β
C.R.
S.E.
Room Amenities
Room Amenities Factor 1
0.929
N/A
Room Amenities Factor 2
0.686
12.146***
0.063
Room Amenities Factor 3
0.565
9.583***
0.063
Room Amenities Factor 4
0.764
13.85***
0.073
Room Design and Decoration
Hotel room is bright and airy
0.863
N/A
Hotel offers non-smoking rooms and floors
0.827
14.524***
0.069
Hotel uses neutral/light coloured scheme in the room
0.895
14.699***
0.074
Hotel room has easy to operate light and sound system
0.680
14.068***
0.055
Hotel offers a bigger room for female customers
0.705
12.227***
0.066
Core Services
Hotel has indoor swimming
0.551
7.001***
0.1
Hotel offers hair stylist on site
0.856
8.921***
0.126
Hotel offers free airport transfers
0.692
7.934***
0.113
Hotel offers 24 hour room service
0.774
N/A
Room Comfort and Cleanliness
Hotel has clean facilities (e.g. bathroom, lobby, lifts)
0.865
N/A
Hotel has well maintained furniture and room fittings
0.956
19.48***
0.056
Hotel offers pre-arranged check-in
0.782
15.748***
0.051
Hotel Activities
Hotel offers board games in room
0.755
N/A
Hotel offers activities that female guests can do together
0.785
4.249***
Staff
Staff provide a sincere service
Staff provide a prompt service
Staff have knowledge to provide accurate information and
assistance
AVE
0.831
0.559
0.897
0.638
0.814
0.529
0.903
0.758
0.745
0.593
0.821
0.615
0.773
0.514
0.710
0.502
0.252
0.625
N/A
0.998
9.293***
0.174
0.678
9.810***
0.112
Safety Factor 1
Hotel has brightly lit parking area
0.618
N/A
Hotel room door has peep hole built in
0.567
7.370***
0.142
Hotel has a direct dial to security/police/safety authorities
0.742
8.817***
0.152
Hotel has telephone call filter service
0.577
6.624***
0.19
Hotel notifies you before room delivery service
0.510
6.792***
0.158
Hotel offers smoke detector in individual room
0.586
7.552***
0.172
Safety Factor 2
The room has an emergency alarm
0.625
N/A
Hotel offers surveillance/security cameras in hallways
0.676
7.993***
0.133
Hotel offers deadbolt/electronic door locks
0.537
6.911***
0.117
Hotel offers secure lifts and floor access
0.587
7.397***
0.131
***significant at p<0.001
CR
Regression Models of Self-Image, Satisfaction and Loyalty
Due to the large number of items for the accommodation dimensions, composite measures
were created and the full sample (N=540) was used for the regression models. Five step-wise
regression models were run. Prior to this, the main assumptions of regression in terms of
multicollinearity and homocedasticity were tested. All models had Durbin-Watson statistic
close to 2 and VIF/Tolerance values were all within the limits.
Accommodation Dimensions and Self-Image
A step-wise regression model showed no significant relationship between a woman’s actual
self-image and the importance of accommodation dimensions on a GGA. However, there was
a significant relationship between accommodation dimensions and ideal self-image. The stepwise model showed that only four accommodation dimensions explained 7.8% of the
variance in social self-image. The more women travellers assigned higher importance levels
to Hotel Activities (β=-0.239, p<0.001), the less likely they would like to see themselves as
unsophisticated, traditional, conformist and disliking new experiences. The more they
assigned higher importance levels to Core Services (β=0.118, p<0.01), Safety Factor 2
(β=0.088, p<0.05), Room Amenities (β=0.088, p<0.05), the more likely they would like to
see themselves as unsophisticated, traditional, conformist and disliking new experiences.
Accommodation Dimensions, Self-Image and Overall Satisfaction
Overall satisfaction with the hotel experience was significantly predicted by three dimensions
explaining 4.9% of total variance. The step-wise model showed that ideal self-image (β=0.15,
p<0.001) entered the model first, followed by actual self- image (β=-0.115, p<0.01) and room
comfort and cleanliness (β=0.11, p<0.05). For example, the more women travellers perceived
their ideal self-image as being unsophisticated, traditional, conformist and disliking new
experiences, the more satisfied they were.
Accommodation Dimensions, Self-Image, Overall Satisfaction and Loyalty
Loyalty was represented by intention to return, recommend and willingness to pay more.
Intention to return was significantly predicted by two dimensions, overall satisfaction
(β=0.176, p<0.001) and actual self-image (β=0.143, p<0.01), explaining 4.6% of total
variance. Intention to recommend was significantly predicted by two dimensions, overall
satisfaction (β=0.353, p<0.001) and actual self-image (β=0.095, p<0.05) explaining 12.6% of
total variance. Willingness to Pay More was predicted by overall satisfaction (β=-0.158,
p<0.001) and Room Amenities (β=-0.098, p<0.05), explaining 3.4% of total variance.
Discussion and Implications
The objective of this study was to identify relationships between preferences for
accommodation attributes and self-image, satisfaction and loyalty. The results show that of
the eight dimensions of accommodation attributes of importance to GGA customers, only
Hotel Activities, Core Services, Safety Factor 2, and Room Amenities can significantly
predict a women’s ideal self-image. Similar to the study of Dolich (1969), the results confirm
that ideal self has more influence on consumer choices than actual self. In fact, in the
hospitality sector, it seems that some hotel attributes are capable of explaining a women’s
desired level of sophistication, modernity, non-conformity and new experiences.
Accordingly, hoteliers should offer activities that females can do together (e.g., group spa
treatments, culinary workshops, wine and chocolate tours). Yet, some safety and security
items such as room emergency alarm, surveillance cameras, and deadbolt/electronic door
locks are of importance to women even when they perceive their ideal self-image as being
traditional and conformist. This is unsurprising given Asian women are more susceptible to
travel risks, especially when travelling without male companions (Asbollah, Lade, &
Michael, 2013). Likewise, if the ideal self-image of a woman corresponds more to traditional
and conformist types of experiences as well as a dislike for new experiences, she is more
likely to place high importance to standard offers of hotels such as free airport transfers,
swimming pool, and hair stylist on site. The implication for hoteliers is that: (i) they should
understand the self-orientation of their female customers, and (ii) female friendly offerings to
attract the GGA market should not be treated as trade-offs against core services.
Overall satisfaction with hotel experience is predicted by self-image, i.e. both actual and
ideal. Interestingly, the more they perceived their actual self as being sophisticated, modern
and non-conformist, the more they were satisfied. Despite this satisfaction, they are less
likely to return and recommend the hotel to others. This is not surprising for tourism and
hospitality products, given that previous studies have shown negative relationships between
satisfaction and loyalty (Bowen & Chen, 2001). GGA being an emerging niche market
(Khoo-Lattimore & Prayag, 2015), guests are more likely to try other competing hotel
products and experiences rather than being loyal to a specific provider or set of experiences.
However, overall satisfaction is positively related to ideal self-image, suggesting that the
more they perceived their ideal self as being traditional and conformist, the more satisfied
these women were with their hotel experience. A plausible explanation for this could be their
associated expectations of amenities and service provided by a three-star hotel that were
adequately fulfilled. However, these Asian women who would like to see themselves as
conformist and traditional would follow conventional Asian values and social expectations
and therefore would not express dissatisfaction.
Moreover, in line with other studies (Nash et al., 2006), the findings confirm a positive
relationship between overall satisfaction and room comfort and cleanliness. Also, in
conformance to the literature (Bowen & Chen, 2001), a negative relationship was found
between overall satisfaction and willingness to pay more. GGA women are not likely to pay
more despite being satisfied possibly due to consideration for the financial capabilities of
others within group travel dynamics. Likewise, the negative relationship between willingness
to pay more and room amenities confirm that despite GGA women placing high importance
on attributes such as extra-coat hangers, full body mirror and superior quality bath towels,
they are willing to pay extra for such amenities possibly due to the women’s sense of
entitlement. This sense of entitlement could be amplified by group travel.
In conclusion, the study identified eight dimensions of the hotel offer that are of importance
to GGA customers and how they predict significant relationships with self-image, satisfaction
and loyalty. However, this study is not without limitations. First, the study does not
investigate self-congruence which possibly would have identified stronger relationships
between accommodation dimensions and self-image. Second, the findings pertain to Asian
women only and it would worthwhile to compare the findings of this sample with those of
Western women.
(4,145 words, excluding references)
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