Selecting a hotel and determining salient quality attributes: a preliminary study of mature British travellers.

The paper presents the findings of a survey of 104 mature British travellers, who rated the importance of 38 hotel attributes when selecting a hotel or judging its quality, through a self-administered questionnaire distributed at local branch meetings of societies for mature people. Respondents had high expectations of hotel service quality. They were a discerning group, placing greater emphasis on value for money than on actual price or discounting alone. The findings highlighted the importance placed on service staff attitude and behaviour. Leisure facilities were found to be relatively unimportant, but certain mature-specific attributes pertaining to mobility limitations were found to be salient to an important proportion of respondents. Significant differences were identified according to gender, age and retirement status, indicating that the mature market is heterogeneous. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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