Journal Management Expose
Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 18 – 28, Mei 1999
Rating to Hotel Information Sources Analysis
(Domestic Guests on
Ratings Jakarta Star Hotels Information Sources)
Rudy Aryanto
Bina Nusantara
University
Abstract
Information sources a product or
service will potentially affect a domestic guest’s purchase decision. The characteristics of guest’s influence the
manner in which they search for, rate, and use information about tourism
related product or services. The purpose
of this research is to determine the influence of domestic guests’
characteristic to Jakarta Star Hotels and information source importance
ratings. It concludes that word-of-mouth
information is rated most important on image analysis, followed by past
experience and other media sources.
Additionally, several relevant demographic and social psychological
characteristic are related to rating of hotel information sources.
Introduction
Understanding domestic guest’s
decision to purchase specific products or services is becoming increasingly
important to hotel marketing manager.
The consumer behavior encompasses four domains: the psychological core,
the process of making decisions, the consumer’s culture, and consumer behavior
outcomes (Hoyer & McInnis, 1997).
And consumer decision making has the following stages: need recognition,
search for information, pre purchase alternative evaluation, purchase,
consumption, post purchase alternative evaluation, and divestment (Engle, Blackwell,
Miniard. 1995). Research in tourism
consumer behavior must continue to try to understand the factors related to
purchase decisions (Andereck & Caldwell, 1993)
One of major factors influencing
consumer decisions to purchase a product of service information sources about
the product or service. Information
search or information seeking is the process of consulting various sources
before making a purchasing decision, consumer recognize the need for more
knowledge, which activates the decision to search for information about
alternatives (Moutinho 1987). Awareness
of a particular product or service and resulting purchase decisions largely
depend on the information consumer are able to gather and the credibility of
such information (Raitz & Dakhil., 1989).
The search process may be spontaneous and lived of occur over a longer
period of time and involve intense exploration of the product or service. Information may be sought internally from an
individual’s memory (Wicks & Schuett, 1991). Searches may also be conducted externally,
which involves an active process in that information must be sought out. Additionally several information sources may
be used (Moutinho, 1987, Runyon & Stewart, 1987).
Generally the promotion of
Indonesian tourism industry depend on inbound and outbound. The actual fact that inbound and domestic
tourist sector high potential than outbound.
According to the future tight competition, domestic market segment though
our attention necessary (Marzuki U &Ardika IG, 1998).
Jakarta
as the Indonesia capital is
a metropolitan and in the 470th years old has been the gate of Indonesia and
the centre of distribution to other tourist destination. The Jakarta
hotels develop according to the increase of tourism activity. The star hotels in this city have dominated
to provide rooms, facilities, and get large guests than the other
accommodations.
Related Studies & Theories
Past studies have found that
consumers differ in their likehood to seek out product knowledge (Mountinho,
1987), ranging from intensive seekers to those that engage in very limited
searches. Consumers also differ in the
number of sourches consulted for product or service information and the
importance placed on the sources; frequently consumers seek information from
several sources prior to making a purchase decision. Numerous factors may influence a consumer’s
information seeking behavior. Past
information seeking research based on information search theory has found
several general relationships between consumer characteristics and search
behavior (Snepeger, Mcged, Snelling & Worral.1990. Raitz & Dakhil,
1989:Capella & Greco.1987.Runyon & Stewart, 1987, Newman, 1977;
Andereck Caldwell, 1993).
Demographic Characteristic
Individual demographic
characteristics may influence information seeking behavior (Mountinho,
1987-,Thorelli&Becker, 1981). Research in consumer behavior has generally
found that people of higher income and education search more for
product/service information (Runyon & Stewart, 1987; Robertson,
Zielinsld&Ward, 1984.-Newman, 1977).
Age tends io be inversely related to amount of search, while the relationship
between search behavior and other demographic characteristics, such as social
class and occupation, tends to depend on the product/service being investigated
(Newman, 1977). Certain demographic
characteristics of travelers have been
linked to information search behavior.
Studies have found that college educated individuals were more likely to
use destination specific literature (Gitelson&Crompton, 1983), and people
of higher socio-economic class frequarithy used travel agents as information
sources (Woodside & Ronkinc, 1980).
Gitclson and Crompton (1983) found that older people were more likely to
use a travel agent than younger people.
Older people have also been reported to heavily rely on information from
friends and family (Capella & Greco, 1987).
Social Psychological Factors
Perceived benefits of information
search will influence search behavior.
Consumer that already have knowledge of the product will usually engage
in limited search activity perceiving that the benefits of additional
information search are minimal (Robertson et al., 1984). Studies of the relationship between
experience and information search have had mixed results, however. Likely the relationship is mitigated by man),
factors, such as product/service satisfaction (Runyon & Stewart,
1987). Generally, however, it seems that
consumers with more knowledge of a product or service engage in different types
of information search than those with limited knowledge, and frequently less
information seeking behavior will occur (Anderson, Engledow&B&ker,
1979). Such individuals will rely more
hevily on internal information search.
Two tourism studies related to this idea found that:(1) information
seeking for visit to a hotel was related to previous visitation, with
professional sources used more by first-time visitors (Woodside, 1980);and (2)
information seeking was greater with unknown destination (Van Raaij,
1986). Finally, motives for visitation
can influence information seeking, Motivation is a state of need that “pushes”
a person toward actions that may bring to the need for optimal arousal and I
largely effected by social factors (Moutinho, 1987).
Internal Search
Searching for information from
memory. Internal search is a critical
aspect of the judgment and decision making process, almost all decision making
involves some from of memory processing.
Each consumer has stored in memory a variety of information, feelings,
and past experiences that can be recalled in making a decision. Consumer researchers have been very interested in determining (1) the extent of
the search, (2) the nature of the search, and (3) the process by which
information, feelings, and experiences arc recalled to enter into the choice
process (Hoyer & Maclruiis, 1997). Internal
search is knowledge stored in long term memory.
Whether consumers rely solely on internal search will heavily depend on the adequacy or quality of their
existing knowledge. First time buyers
may need to undertake external search.
Experienced buyers may find their knowledge to be inadequate for product
categories characterized by large inter purchase times (the amount of time
between purchase occasions) during which there are significant product changes
in term of prices, features, and new brands and stores. Even if product changes have been minimal,
internal search is hindered by large inter purchase times due to problems of
forgetting. Nor may existing knowledge be sufficient when the present.
Consumption problem is perceived to be different from those in the past (Engel, Balckwell, Miniard,
1995).
Experiences & Familiarity
One important aspect of internal
search that greatly affects decision making is the set of brands. The consider action self. Usually consists of those brands that are
“top of mind” or easy to remember when making decision (Hoyer & Mac Innis,
1997). There are four main sources of
information stored in memory; prior purchase experiences, previous low
involvement learning, previous learning about the environment (latent learning)
and the degree to which one uses internal (one’s own memory) as opposed to
external (packages or lists) memory, all of this stored information can of
course be used by consumers to generate new information by deduction or
inference (Bettman, 1979).
Image Analysis
Each brand within the awareness
set is Rely to have a set of associations between itself and other bits and
pieces of information that are stored in memory. The first step, on an image analysis is to
identify the particular associations that define a brand’s image, the second
step is to assess the strength of a brands associations, Companies may find it
useful to probe for a deeper understanding of what a brands associations
represent in the consumer’s psyche as part of an image analysis. (Engel,
Blackwell, Miniard, 1995). Stephen
Rushmore (1992) defined that gendrally guests choose a hotel considerate on
four basics criteria: (1) facilities offered, (2) convenience of location, (3)
price, (4) quality of amenities.
Product and Location: Engel: Blackweel, Miniard (1995) gift an
example of how information about the strength of association between a brand
and specific attributes could be collected and used for simplicity, our example
will focus on four specific attributes, they are: product/service, location,
price and friendship of personnel.
Price knowledge: Aspect of product knowledge that deserves to be
singled out is that involving product prices.
An examination of what consumers know about an absolute price (for
example, the price of a 1-1b can of Maxwell house coffee), and a relative price
(for example, whether one store charges more than another for the same item)
can provide important information for guiding marketing actions. Marketing executives’pricing decisions may
depend on their perceptions of how well informed consumers are about prices
(Urbany, Dickson, 1988).
Consumer satisfaction: The degree of satisfaction with prior
purchase “I also determine the consumer’s reliance on internal search. If the
consumers has been satisfied with the result of previous buying action,
internal search may suffice (Kiel, Layton, 1981). In assessing the key dimensions of quality
for a hotel, the servqual
determinants are a useful starting point: reliability, respormv veness,
communication, credibility, security, competence, courtesy, understanding,
access (Lewis, 1995).
External search
Searching for information from
the environment. Sometimes a consumer’s
decision can be based entirely on information recalled from memory. Other times, information is missing or there
is uncertainty surrounding the recalled information when this occurs, consumers
can acquire additional information from outside sources through an external
search. Outside sources include dealers,
trusted friends or relatives, published sources (magazines, pamphlets, or books),
davertisements, or package itself.
Consumers can collect information on what brands are available as well
as information on the attributes and benefits associated with those that are in
the consideration set (Boyer&Malcnnis, 1997).
Word-of-Mouth
Marketers are especially
interested in a form of influence called word-of-mouth (WOM). WOM refers to
information about products or services communicated verbally. Consider the
number of consumer behavior that are likely to be affected by WOM. WOM
pervasive with another person; it is also more pervasive than written
information (Boyer & Maclnnis, 1997).
Advertising and Media
We define advertising as any paid
from of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by
an identified sponsor. (Kotler, bowcn, Makens, 1997). Advertising is mass, paid communication which
is used to used transmit information, develop attitudes and induce some from of
response by providing information to potential customers, by trying to modify
their desires and supplying reasons why they should pref6r that particular
company’s services (Palmer, 1994).
Billboard/Highway sign:
This is useful for reminder copy and can support other media activities the
effect of an advertisement on television can be prolonged if recipients are
exposed to a reminder poster on their way to
work the following day, if strategically placed, the posters can appeal
to segmented audiences.
Radio: radio advertising
has often been seen as the poor relation of television advertising, appealing
only to the sense of sound. The threshold cost of advertising is much lower
than for television, reflecting much more local segmentation of radio audiences
and the lower production costs of radio adverts.
Television: This is an
expensive but very powerful medium. Although it tends to be used mainly for the
long term task of creating brand awareness, it can also create a rapid sales
response the very fact that a message has been seen on television can give
credibility to the message source, and many smaller service companies add the
phrase’as seen on TV to give additional credibility to their other media
communications. The power of the
television medium is enhanced by its ability to appeal to both the senses of
sight and sound and to use movement and colour to develop a sales message.
Newspapers: Daily
newspapers tend to have a high degree of reader loyalty reflecting the fact
that each national title is targeted to specific segments of the
population. This loyalty can lead to the
printed message being perceived as having a high level of credibility on the
part of the reader. Therefore, daily
papers may be useftil for prestige and
reminder advertising. They can be used for creating general awareness of a
product of a brand as well as providing detailed product information.
Magazines: Advertising in
magazines may at first seem relatively expensive compared to newspapers, they
represent good value to advertisers in terms of the large number of readers per
copy and highly segmented nature of their audience (Palmer, 1984).
Brochure/Folders and
Guidebooks/Catalogues: Direct marketing normally involves direct
response to media such as advertisements, catalogues, and direct mail
(brochures). Direct marketing offers the possibility of selecting specific
target markets through the use of specialized mailing lists, data bases, or
media. This permits customized appeals
and creative strategy based on the lifestyles and needs of the target market
segments. Direct marketers are also
heavy users of predictive modeling, mailing list enhancement, life time value
analysis, and advanced forms of cross-selling or up selling. They arc heavy
users of controlled testing and experimentation (Engel, Balckwell, Miniard,
1995). Various product rating agencies have risen to the forefront in recent
vears. The most widely known being
consumers’ union, which publishes consumer report. Several manufactures have found, frequently
to their dismay, that rating by such agencies have a potent effect, especially
the if rating are negative (Weinberger & Dillon, 1980).
Study Purpose And Hypotheses
Marketing managers of hotels must
have knowledge of the importance guests place on various information sources
because of its influence on purchase on purchase decisions.
The effectiveness of information
varies with the nature of the product/service and the characteristics of the
people interested in consurning the product/service. The purpose of this paper
is to explore the relative importance guests to star hotels placed on various
information sources. Additionally, this
study will determine the relation sources.
Additionally, this study will determine the relationship between guest
characteristic and information source importance ratings. It is hypothesized
that:
1.
Word-of-mouth will be rated as the most important
external information source influencing guests’ decision to visit an hotel.
2.
Courtesy will be rated as the most important internal
information source influencing guests’ decision to visit an hotel.
3.
Differences in importance ratings of information
sources “ill be related to guest demographic and guest motives to visitation
4.
If memory scan reveals sufficient information to
provide. A satisfactory course of action, external search is unnecessary. When
internal search proves inadequate, the consumer may decide to collect
additional information from environment (Engel, Blackwell, Mianiard, 1995).
Methods
Procedures and Sample
Data were collected from guest to
Jakarta star
hotel who overnight to that hotel more than one time. From October 12 through October 31,
1998. On the days of data collection,
research assistants approach every domestic guest and asked his or her
cooperation in the study. The sampling interval was pre-determined based on a
three years history of overnight rates. If the guest agreed to participate in
the study, the research assistant asked a set of questions, The guest then
completed a set of self administered questions.
The “interview” technique was utilized to establish rapport and
therefore increase response rate for the entire study, 200 people agreed to participate. Of those 200 people, 150 response are valid
and become study data.
Variables
To determine the importance of
various information sources. Respondents were asked to respond to the query
“how important were the following sources of information influence you to
overnight the Jakarta
star hotels?” using a five point scale, where I=not important/influence and 5 =
extremely important/influence. Thirteen
sources of internal information were listed: past experience/familiarity,
facilities offered: price, convenience of location, reliability, responsive
ness, communication, credibility, security, competence, courtesy,
understanding, and acces. And eight
sources of external information were listed: word-of-mouth, billboard or
highway sign, radio or program, TV commercial or appearance, newspaper ad or
article, magazine ad or story, brochure or folder, guidebook or catalogue.
These twenty one source of information were used as dependent variables in
later analyses. The process by which
these variables were collapsed is described in the results section. Measurement of the independent variables is
described bellow:
§
Age was categorized in fours from less than 30
to over 50.
§
Guests respondent to gender and married or not
married.
§
Education categories of: less than and SMA
graduate.
§
Respondent to occupation categories of:
employee, supervisor, manager, director, owner and other kind of occupation.
§
Income was measured in incremental Rp. 1000.000
categories up to over Rp. 6000.000. This were collapsed into categories of Rp. 3000.000.
§
The final independent variables of motives were
categories of Business and leasure overnight motive.
Data Analysis
The major type of data analysis
employee was multivariate analysis of variance (One Way ANOVA) and factor
Analysis. MANOVA is used when there are
multiple dependent variables that are interval or ratio-scaled variables. There may be one or more nominally scaled
independent variables (Zikmund, 1997).
The MANOVA technique was originally developed to analyze the effects of
experimental treatments on a set of two or more dependent variables, but can
also be used in non experimental studies which employ random selection. MANOVA is analogous to the more commonly used ANOVA in univariate analysis. However, in situations when more than one
dependent variables is being investigated, and the dependent variables are
conceptualized as measuring aspects of a single underlying variable, the
multivariate test is more appropriate.
Using univariate statistics to measure multivariate data increases the
chance of finding significant results where none exit (type 1 error). Additionally, the likehood of making a type 1 error increase as the number of
dependent variables increases (Biskin, 1983).
The one way analysis of variance
(One-Way ANOVA) is the appropriate statistical tool. This bivariate statistical technique is
referred to as “one-way” because there is only one independent variable (even
though there may be several levels of that variable). The F-test is procedure for comparing one
sample variance to another sample variance.
In the analysis of variance situation, the basic consideration for the F
test is to identify the total variance.
There will be two forms of variation: (1) variation of scores due to
random error or within group variation due to individual differences, and (2)
systematic variation of scores between the groups due to the manipulation of an
independent variable. Thus we can
partition total variance into within group variance and between group
variance. The larger the ration of
variance between groups to variance within group, the greater the value of F.
If the F value is large, it is likely that the results are statistically
significant (Zikmund, 1997)
The Factor Analysis is procedure
that takes a large number of variables or objects and searches to see whether
they have a small number of factors in common which account for their inter
correlation. The factor Analysis has a number of possible applications in
marketing research. These include data
reduction, structure identification, scaling and data transformation. There are essensial three steps in a factor
Analysis solution. The first is to
develop a set of correlations between all combinations of the variables of
interest. Since we are using correlations,
we must then be second step is to extract a set of initial factors from the
correlation matrix developed in the first step.
The third step is to “rotate” the initial factors to find a final
solution (Kinnear & Taylor, 1990).
Table 1. Factor Analysis of
Internal Information Sources
 Factor
intrl. inf.sourc
|
Factor loading
|
||||
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
|
|
Experience/familiarity
|
0.170
|
0.049
|
0.196
|
0.810
|
0.085
|
|
Image analysis:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
·
Facilities offered
|
0.232
|
0.070
|
0.1144
|
0.087
|
0.870
|
|
·
Price
|
0.070
|
0.850
|
0.034
|
0.068
|
0.064
|
|
·
Convenience of Location
|
0.123
|
0.021
|
0.827
|
0.221
|
0.183
|
|
·
Quality of amenities:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
o
Reliability
|
0.710
|
0.303
|
0.016
|
0.041
|
0.063
|
|
o
Responsiveness
|
0.771
|
0.185
|
0.095
|
0.074
|
0.146
|
|
o
Communication
|
0.714
|
0.099
|
0.094
|
0.205
|
0.042
|
|
o
Credibility
|
0.800
|
0.222
|
0.156
|
0.244
|
0.058
|
|
o
Security
|
0.672
|
0.334
|
0.057
|
0.110
|
0.215
|
|
o
Competence
|
0.601
|
0.280
|
0.284
|
0.004
|
0.291
|
|
o
Courtesy
|
0.677
|
0.125
|
0.469
|
0.133
|
0.236
|
|
o
Understanding
|
0.662
|
0.184
|
0.070
|
0.402
|
0.005
|
|
o
acces
|
0.726
|
0.108
|
0.223
|
0.215
|
0.01-71
|
Table 2. Factor Analysis of
External Information Sources
 Factor |
Factor loading
|
||
|
Extrt.inf.sourc
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
|
Word-d-mouth
|
0.017
|
0.121
|
0.900
|
|
Billboard/highway sign
|
0.769
|
-0.055
|
0.054
|
|
Radio ad/program
|
0.896
|
-0.017
|
0.070
|
|
TV commercial/appearance
|
0.829
|
0.246
|
0.006
|
|
Newspaper ad/article
|
0.756
|
0.261
|
0.044
|
|
Magazine ad/story
|
0.654
|
0.532
|
0.172
|
|
Brochure folder
|
0.306
|
0.812
|
0.031
|
|
Guidebook/catalogue
|
0.268
|
0.806
|
0.146
|
Table 3. Importance of Internal
Information Sources in Decision to Overnight the Jakarta Star Hotel
|
influence
intrl. inf.sourc
|
high
|
Influence rate
|
low
|
|
||||
|
5
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
mean
|
|||
|
Experience/familiarity
|
24
|
19
|
33
|
49
|
25
|
2.787
|
||
|
Image analysis:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
·
Facilities offered
|
43
|
51
|
31
|
25
|
0
|
3.747
|
||
|
·
Price
|
25
|
52
|
16
|
31
|
16
|
3.127
|
||
|
·
Convenience of Location
|
33
|
85
|
28
|
2
|
2
|
3.967
|
||
|
·
Quality of amenities:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
o
Reliability
|
26
|
104
|
18
|
2
|
0
|
4.027
|
||
|
o
Responsiveness
|
27
|
100
|
19
|
3
|
1
|
3.993
|
||
|
o
Communication
|
27
|
101
|
18
|
3
|
1
|
4.000
|
||
|
o
Credibility
|
31
|
70
|
45
|
2
|
2
|
3.840
|
||
|
o
Security
|
38
|
70
|
35
|
5
|
2
|
3.913
|
||
|
o
Competence
|
17
|
75
|
52
|
4
|
2
|
3.673
|
||
|
o
Courtesy
|
43
|
91
|
12
|
3
|
1
|
4.147
|
||
|
o
Understanding
|
13
|
63
|
61
|
4
|
9
|
3.447
|
||
|
o
Accessibility
|
25
|
89
|
28
|
6
|
2
|
13.8001
|
||
Table 4. Importance of External
Information Sources in Decision to Overnight the Jakarta Star Hotel influence
high influence rate low
|
factor
|
High
|
influence
|
rate low
|
|
||||
|
Extrt.inf.source
|
5
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
mean
|
||
|
Word-d-mouth
|
50
|
57
|
40
|
2
|
1
|
4.020
|
||
|
Billboard/highway sign
|
6
|
N
|
73
|
44
|
3
|
2.907
|
||
|
Radio ad/program
|
5
|
22
|
70
|
48
|
5
|
2.827
|
||
|
TV commercial/appearance
|
12
|
53
|
59
|
22
|
4
|
3.313
|
||
|
Newspaper ad/article
|
6
|
46
|
66
|
30
|
2
|
3.160
|
||
|
Magazine ad/story
|
9
|
51
|
61
|
26
|
3
|
3.247
|
||
|
Brochure folder
|
20
|
49
|
59
|
21
|
1
|
3.440
|
||
|
Guide book/catalogue
|
127
|
59
|
52
|
12
|
0
|
13.6791
|
||
Table 5. Hotelings Multivariate
lest MANOVA Between Independent Variables and Information Sources
|
Variables
|
V*
|
|
Sig.Of
|
|
Value
|
D.F.
|
F
|
|
|
Internal Information
|
|
|
|
|
o
Age
|
0.238
|
3.146
|
0.789
|
|
o
Gender
|
0.084
|
1.148
|
0.579
|
|
o
Marriage
|
0.037
|
1.148
|
0.972
|
|
o
Education
|
0.547
|
3.146
|
0.002
|
|
o
Occupation
|
0.732
|
5.144
|
0.012
|
|
o
Income
|
0.531
|
3.146
|
0.003
|
|
o
Motive
|
0.193
|
1.148
|
0.024
|
|
External Information
|
|
|
|
|
o
Age
|
0.198
|
3.146
|
0.297
|
|
o
Gender
|
0.036
|
1.148
|
0.755
|
|
o
Marriage
|
0.41
|
1.148
|
0.670
|
|
o
Education
|
0.190
|
3.146
|
0.355
|
|
o
Occupation
|
0.400
|
5.144
|
0.074
|
|
o
Income
|
0.235
|
3.146
|
0.131
|
|
o
Motive
|
10.082
|
1.148
|
0.184
|
Result
Before testing the hypotheses,
the thirteen internal information sources were factor analyzed to identify
internal information sources that tended to group together. Principles components factor analysis with
Quartimax Rotation resulted in five distinct (Table 1). Past
experience/familiarity, facilities offered, price, and convenience of location,
respectively, all of the other internal information sources factored together
united in quality of amenities group.
The eight external information sources tended to group together
too. Quatimax Rotation result in three
distinct (Table 2). Word of mouth was
factor by itself, brochures/folders and guidebooks/catalogues were factor by
direct marketing group and all the other external information sources allied
into mass media group.
Finding suggest that two
information sources stand out as the major sources that influenced guests:
courtesy (mean = 4.147) as an internal information (table 3) and word of mouth
(mean = 4.020) as an external information (table 4). This supports the first hypotheses that word
of mouth information will be rated as the most important external information
as the most important intemlil
information source influencing guests decision to overnight the Jakarta star hotel.
Relationship between individual
independent variable and the information sources, tested with MANOVA, appear in
table 5, 6, and 7. Results suggest that over 50 and 31-40 years old male people
rated information as mote important than female that lower 30 and 41 -50 years
old. The married people rated external
information as least important than unmarried people.
The information source of past
experience/familiarity was rated differently by individuals depending on their
educational level. People with higher
educational levels rated past experience/familiarity as more important than
people with lower educational levels, although education did not influence importance
ratings of mass media, direct marketing, and word of mouth (table 6&7).
Finally, testing the last
hypotheses (table 6 & 7) for occupation, income, and motive individual
variables, that people who have more knowledge and internal information sources,
searching relative least important to information sources from external (word
of mouth, mass media, and direct marketing) and so on the contrary. The
business motive guests searched information from external relative than leasure
motive guests, because they have had better knowledge and them internal
information about that hotels.
Discussion And Conclusions
Results reveal that guests to Jakarta star hotels use
sources of information, with word of mouth information rating as the most
important external information source and courtesy image information
source. This finding is consistent with
other studies that have also reported the importance consumers place on word of
mouth external information. Gunn (1988)
suggests that part of the reason for this is the perceived credibility of
information passed on by friends, neighbours , acquaintances, and family. Regardless of potential biases in the
information, it is usually unquestionably believed because the informal is
viewedas credible. This finding points to the necessity of maintaining high
levels of satisfaction among guests to the Jakarta star hotels.
The interesting thing about this
set of analyses is that importance of mass media is not what expected. Mass media is more important to those who had
lower levels of education and income to those who had lower levels of education
and income than more highly social class and educated individuals. Additionally, while others have suggested
that people of higher social class search more for product and service
information (Runyon & Stewart, 1987; Robertson et al , 1984; Newman, 1977),
Runyon and Stewart also suggest that individuals of lower social class watch
more TV than their higher social class counterparts. As well individuals of
lower social classes are more receptive to advertising.
Finding of this study indicate
that motives play a significant role in the utilization of product
information. In particular, the findings
suggest that people who are strongly motivated, regardless of their motivation,
rate all information sources higher.
This is consistent with Crompton (1979) and Engle et al. (1973) who
found that the vacation motive of novelty and variety led to more intensive
information searches. It appears that
the more highly motivated or purposeful the individual, the more important it
is to gather external information about hotels. It may be that a strong
perception of a need will activate information search behavior.
Marketing Implications
Hoyer & Maclnnis (1997)
explain that word of mouth (WOM) is important to marketers because it can have
a dramatic positive effect on consumers’ product perceptions and an offering’s
marketplace performance. To preventing and responding to negative
WOM Given the pervasive impact of negative WOM, marketers need to be
particularly concerned about preventing negative WOM and then rectifying it
once it occurs. Preventing negative WOM
can best accomplished by providing quality products and ensuring quality
service. Rectifying negative WOM can be
accomplished when firms try to deal with consumers’ unsatisfactory consumption
outcomes before more negative WOM occurs.
Engineering favorable WOM: Marketers may also try to engineer favorable
WOM by creating quality products and services. Targeting opinion leaders, and using
networking opportunities at trade shows, conferences and public events.
Dealing with rumors: When rumors
surface, the issue becomes how best to deal with them. Several strategies may be used. One strategy is to do nothing. Often this is a preferred strategy because
consumers may actually learn about the rumor by hearing marketers’ attempts to
correct it. A second strategy is to do
something locally, putting the rumor to rest on a case by case basis. A third option is to do something, but do it
discreetly. A fourth option is to do
something big using all the media resources at one’s disposal. Media vehicles such as advertising might be
used to directly confront and refute the whether it is negative, it is
sometimes useful to track identified. One such way of tracking WOM is through
network analysis. In this analysis, consumers can be asked from whom they heard
the information. This person, in turn,
can be asked how he or she heard the information. By literate through this procedure, critical
information sources may be identified.
In Addition to providing information on relational from (who is
connected to whom), marketers may also query consumers as to relational content
(what specific information they heard from the source). This analysis might track the distortion of
information and key sources directly.
For example if individuals are communicating positive WOM and acting as
referrals, they can be thanked or more explicitly rewarded for their efforts.
Referral incentive programs that reward both the referrer and referee can be
similar de designed.
Follow up, the other results of
this study is the courtesy information as the part of customer satisfaction
indicate most importance internal information source. Kotler, Bowen and Mackris, (1996) suggest: A
service quality program involves a cooperative effort between marketing and
operations. To develop quality service,
a firm must follow certain principles.
These 10 principles of quality service offer a framework for a quality
service program: Leadership. The CEO of the organization must have a clear
vision and convince employees to believe in it and follow it; Integrated
marketing through the organization. The
marketing concept states that marketing should be integrate through out the
organization: Understand the customer.
Companies with quality products know what the market wants; teamwork,
employees must realize how their job affect the rest of the team; Apply
operational fundamentals. The
organization has to be well planned and managed, leverage the freedom
factor. Employees must have the freedom
to shape the delivery of the service to fit the needs of their guests: Use
appropriate technology. Technology
should be used to monitor the environment, help operational systems. Develop
customer databases, and provide methods source management. Employees must be capable of delivering the
services promised to the customer, set standards, measures performance, and
establish incentives. The most important
way to improve service quality is to set service standards and goals and then
teach them to employees and management, employees who deliver good service
should be rewarded.
For Further Research
It should be noted, however, that
the causal nature of this relationship is unclear. It is possible that information sources have
contributed to the development of motivation to overnight the hotel. For
example, someone who has been influenced to overnight the Jakarta star hotel through recommendation of
a close friend may become highly motivated to overnight the hotel. Future
research may wish to address this issue of causality further.
Overall, result of this study
agree with prior consumer behavior research in that search behavior differs
among individuals. Additionally, the
high level of importance placed on interpersonal sources of information is
consistent with past research.
Differences between the findings of this study and other studies may be
due in part to the specific tourism business or a destination being
investigated. While past tourism information
search studies have focused on vacations in general, or a vacation to a broad
geographic region, this study focused on one particular tourism and hospitality
business (Jakarta
star hotels). It is possible that
similar findings may emerge from future information search research for
specific tourism business.
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