消费者行为对爱尔兰经济型酒店的影响【外文翻译】

外文翻译

译文

标题：消费者行为对爱尔兰经济型酒店的影响

资料来源：亚历山德鲁伊万库扎大学经济科学系列年鉴

作者：Ioana Cristina Colbu; Adrian Liviu Scutariu

摘要

本文旨在评估消费者行为以及经济型酒店的消费者决策过程，以确定经济型酒店那些属性能提高消费者的重复购买。研究的目的和意义是评价决策过程；它包括问题识别、信息检索评价、选择、购买的选择和评价的结果五个阶段的决策模型，以及在何种情况下会影响他们的决策。研究表明，大部分经济型酒店顾客是商务或旅行者。对顾客而言最重要的属性为干净，以及价格和地理位置，这些都将影响消费者的购买决策。

关键词：经济型酒店；爱尔兰；消费行为；价格

1 引言

英国当代所说的经济型酒店源于中世纪拉丁文hlspitale，意为一家旅馆。他起源于老法语的旅舍，然而这个词起先没有指商业住宿，而是一个公共官邸直到演变到现代的法国宾馆。今天h?tel这个词不管有没有声调符号都传达了他在两种语言中的含义了。尽管不同的词语可能正在被使用，但很明显商业住宿这个名词术语以一些其他形式或同义词在很久以前就存在了。本文阐述了在爱尔兰酒店类型，重点提出了经济型酒店消费行为。

2 爱尔兰酒店的市场细分

酒店业通常以价格，服务和设施来进行市场细分。根据细分的维度要求，爱尔兰的酒店通常分为这样几种：奢侈，豪华，高档，中级全方位的服务，

中级有限服务，经济型和廉价酒店。然而这份报告的目的我们将把自己局限

在4个部分：豪华，高档，中档和经济/廉价的。

虽然价格、服务和设施，是一个酒店在市场中定位有效措施，但往往两

个属性之间有一定的重叠。显然，当你考虑到一些预算的住宿和一些中级和

高档酒店实行的重贴现所提供的设施的高水平。在表1中可以看到这样的例

子，在平时顾客留在高档的罗素比它留在一个中级的多伊尔酒店便宜。

表1说明了我们如何进行市场定位主要在于价格，但我们发现，服务和设施也在很大程度上也影响着酒店的定位。例如经济型酒店Travel Lodge没有额外的服务，在大多数情况下甚至没有提供早餐。中级和高档酒店之间的差异也是有限的。中级酒店可能会在某些情况下被认为是商务酒店。高档酒店往往是更多的倾向于配置具有较高的质量/信誉的休闲和餐饮设施。他们的区别在于经营权、位置、装饰。

表1：酒店市场细分的基础上价格-欧元

我们主要关注与经济型酒店市场，以确定该阶段典型的买方行为。我们设计了一个由15个问题组成的酒店消费者调查问卷以确定自己的喜好。本次调查问卷的副本是包含在附件中。该研究还向我们表示，经济型酒店的消费者中，有59％是企业用户，约31％是休闲/旅游消费者。其余由企业协议（6％），会议/会议（2％），和其他（2％）（德勤，2004）。

住宿是为旅客的基本需要，无论是休闲或商务旅行。住宿是一种基本的生理需要，但酒店房间的需求在很大程度上是一个更高的需要。经济型酒店的顾客是为那些只是想有一个干净有一张床和淋浴室，而无需支付额外的设施的人，他们甚至有可能不会使用的廉价替代品。

一部分的人在选择一家经济型酒店时通常会被价格比较敏感，但这不是唯一的因素。他们选择的感知风险，也将影响他们的购买行为，因为有关决定和选择不佳的潜在后果的不确定性。所有的财务风险（花钱），知觉（约房间的质量），或生理上的风险将增加他们参与购买。最后决定在爱尔兰177的高风险度的经济型酒店的消费者购买行为方面，主要是因为财政预算的酒店房间有效地成为客户家逗留期间，所以重要的是，它满足所有他们的要求和期望。

当然，经济型酒店房间购买的参与程度因个人而异，但尤其是社会地位。社会地位较低的人往往更多地参与，在财政预算案的酒店预订一个房间时，因为价格比一个豪华房明显降低。地位较高的人倾向于使用其他类型的酒店，奢侈品或高档酒店一样，因为他们相信，这反映或巩固其地位或位置。

3 酒店的消费模式的选择

预订酒店房间可能是最复杂的消费者行为，我们已研究的目的就是影响他们购买。通常有不同的属性，如价格，质量和设施的替代品数量都会影响消费者，他们最终目标是获得一个舒适的夜间睡眠和享受的设施并为他们进行的支付，这是合理的，因此，要考虑在决策模型的决定所有五个阶段：解决这个问题，寻找信息，评价的替代品，购买选择和评价的结果。

问题的认识通常是相当简单。旅行社通常都会在旅客开始他们的旅程前会安排他们的住宿。其他人，也许是较难直接预测的旅行可能需要等到住宿。搜索信息将采取不同形式，包括内部和外部来源。

内部来源包括自己过去的经验，例如，如果他们之前住过的酒店，或者如果他们对一个特定的连锁酒店/品牌的忠诚度。经济型酒店的用户更可能受由生理，安全，社会动机的影响，而高档或豪华酒店自我实现的动机可能更能影响用户。个人特征，如年龄，家庭生命周期，职业地位，经济形势，甚至用法也是因素。

外部来源包括环境的影响和市场营销刺激。市场的刺激包括积累的行业和吸收品牌知识/态度/人通过媒体了解到的。一旦他们开始搜索信息这将潜意识地影响客户。在这个阶段，消费者对多媒体信息变得更感兴趣，例如住宿的广告。环境影响可能包括旅行社，信息中介的网站或目录，或者从朋友，家人，或一个公认的意见领袖。旅客不提前预订，甚至可能进行信息搜索，当他们到达目的地直接搜索，询问当地居民或旅游局，或咨询当地的报纸或网上目录。商务旅客可能很少或没有需要搜索信息，因为他们的业务已经有首选住宿的伙伴关系。

替代品的评价是购买行为的重要组成部分，它是要了解客户是如何评价和最终选择购买商品和服务营销至关重要。在意想不到的情境因素的情况下，Ioana Cristina Colbu ; Adrian Liviu Scutarur认为有可能基于其替代品的评价，决定他们的购买决策。

为了更深入地了解人们如何选择经济型酒店，我们以一个简单的调查形式进行一些初级的市场调研。我们的抽样计划是基于非概率方便抽样的一百名受访者，这是经济型酒店的客户。这项研究表明，选择经济型酒店时，选择的主要组成部分是价格，酒店的位置和房间的清洁度也是重要因素。

我们用菲斯的多属性模型（所罗门，1992，177-182）客户确定几个属性，在这种情况下，价格，位置，清洁，和其他可能根据个人喜好。他们对每个属性赋予权重，在这种情况下是最严重的加权的价格。随后，客户比较每个经济型酒店的相对加权分数（调整的重要性），他们之间进行选择，最终得出

一个分数最高度的整体。

该模型在考虑到这些属性同时也有明显的不足，他们可能仍然倾向于经济型酒店是一些不太重要的属性下的，只要它高度更重要的属性分数的客户。据（所罗门，1992，177-182）多属性模型可能低于准确的各种情况，包括那些涉及冲动的行为，在形势的突然变化，求新求行为在作怪，或简单的重复购买情况下。作者认为，直接或个人的经验所形成的态度往往比形成了这样的广告开发的间接的强。例如，如果客户以前一直保持在一个特定的经济型酒店，并享受他们的住宿，这可能是一个较便宜的经济型酒店的隔壁，他们在电视上看到的更强大的动力。

我们调查的休闲/旅游目的使用的经济型酒店，与家人或朋友前往的平均持续时间约一个星期的大部分的人。这是我们前面提到的一个与英国的经济型酒店由德勤会计师事务所，但差异的人少数，我们调查在2004年进行的调查的矛盾。也给予便利抽样的类型，我们使用它是不太可能，我们会遇到很多人使用经济型酒店业务。

购买选择，大部分是通过口耳相传最显著的影响。朋友和家人以往的经验或特别预算酒店与经济型酒店是目前最常见的意见领袖。

它也是明显的，过去的经验是一个强有力的因素，影响消费者对经济型酒店的态度。即使有时被认为是经济型酒店有一个或多个领域的质量程度低的客户可能仍然是满意的整体。他们甚至表现出一定程度的品牌走向问题的预算酒店的忠诚度。我们只能通过启发式的主要解释，“你付”，“酒店拥有较少的管理费用和工作人员，并传递给我的储蓄”等，这可能也可以认为，这是一个很自我防守态度和客户保护自己的“痛”有一个坏的购买决策摆在首位。

如果钱是非常重要的，在选择酒店的最显性的影响是价格。根据这个客户会选择一个酒店，是便宜的预算旅馆。下一个功能将排名和消费者将决定哪些关于在爱尔兰经济型酒店的消费者购买行为方面的其他特征是重要的，如位置，与旅游景点的距离，别人的意见等，这是已知的决策规则和那些排名酒店根据价格非常普遍。

当然，其他规则都可以使用，例如入围了他喜欢的酒店排名属性，如位置，查看和附加服务的基础上。最终的决定，然后采取相应的主要特点——价格。

购买产品后的评价是最后阶段的消费者行为的过程和在哪个点的消费者认为他们的购买决策的优点。这是消费者最具影响力，表达他们的住宿意见，营销影响消费者希望避免任何认知失调。

服务质量是客户的期望与顾客感受之间的对比。显然期望并不总是那么

高，有些客户不抱太大的期望时，价格低。然而，我们已经确定，由于高竞争，酒店和经济型酒店特别是试图以较低的价格提供更好的客房。设施不断减少，在过去的几年中（德勤，2004），大多数运营商提供更少设施的质量和数量。由于大多数运营商似乎是达到或超过客户的期望，他们已经收到良好的服务质量，让客户感知这些努力的结果。

根据我们自己的研究，在选择经济型的酒店房间时，客户依赖于互联网搜索（47.82％），但也对先验知识（26.08％）和口碑转介（17.39％）。这表明，尽管人们常常依靠在互联网上搜索，已有的知识和意见领袖的口碑也很重要。

如果购买的是和消费者的需求得到满足，甚至超越，消费者很可能会制定一个积极的态度对品牌。在这种情况下，消费者会用他们自己的钱了的快乐。在这个阶段，他们可能会被认为是意见领袖，他们的熟人，给予积极的建议，有关预算的酒店。总之，如果客户是满意的房间，他们支付他们要以积极的方式影响其他人的购买行为。相反，如果客户的需求得不到满足，他们会形成一种消极的态度，并影响其他人的购买行为产生了负面影响。

总之，这是非常重要的客户有“好”的信息，以便作出适当的决定，并形成可靠，可满足期望。如果信息不正确或可靠的客户会不满意，所以他们不会有未来可能出现的客户，他们将只是一个为其他潜在的客户负面的意见领袖。

4 影响与结论

英国经济型酒店由德勤会计师事务所和我们自己的研究进行的调查相结合的基础上，我们的结论是，经济型酒店，可分为两大类，商业用户和休闲/旅游用户。营销传播应指向这两个分部。应致力于资源的程度不一定要按照相同的比例作为商务休闲/旅游用户。这将取决于在何种程度上我们可以达到每个段和在何种程度上，他们有可能以应对提交给他们的消息，这将是一个很大的课题。

几乎一半我们自己的研究的受访者表示，他们依靠在互联网上搜索经济型酒店时。这些不容忽视：信息中介，旅游和住宿目录，以及诸如谷歌（49.2％或搜索），雅虎（23.8％的搜索），MSN（9.6％的搜索），AOL（6.3％的搜索）有针对性的搜索引擎尼尔森网络评价（2006）都应该被视为候选可行的媒体。

我们的研究还表明，一些受访者定期读取下列出版物：爱尔兰独立，爱尔兰时报，金融时报，星期日商业邮报。这些是合适的打印介质，通过它来沟通，商务和休闲旅客。

客户结构的一个较小的组成部分，是企业的协议，占6％，英国的经济型酒店业务（2004年德勤）。我们认为，针对企业账户，特别是在有大量基于现场销售人员的行业直接销售队伍的方法可能是适当的的。例如，制药公司和保险公司，这些合同将需要大量的经验企业的销售队伍要谈判的价格/卷使用，这可能是外包的。

我们已经确定，通过我们的研究中，最重要的经济型酒店的客户的属性是价格，清洁，便捷的位置。住宿条件保证的基础上，我们呼吁这些属性。我们特别推荐一个变量的房费，依赖于星期之间€26和€75，这是大部分的受访者寻求支付的价格水平。酒店也应努力促进高水平的清洁，并选择有潜在客户的有形效益和传播的战略位置。

参考文献

[1]德勤，英国2004年经济型酒店调查，德勤会计师事务所，伦敦，英国，2004年．

[2]迈克尔R ·所罗门，消费者行为学，第三版，普伦蒂斯霍尔公司，新泽西州，美国，1992年．

外文文献原文

Title：Aspects regarding the consumer buyer behaviour for budget hotels in

Ireland

Material：Scientific Annals of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi: Economic Sciences Series

Author：Ioana Cristina Colbu; Adrian Liviu Scutaru

Abstract

This paper aims to asses the behaviour of budget hotel consumers as well as to determine what characteristics and facilities are most important in making this high involvement purchase. The purpose of the conducted study is to evaluate the decision making process and its implications; all five stages in the decision making model (problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase choice, and evaluation of outcome) are equally important in finding out what consumer want and how they behave in this situation. The research revealed that majority of budget hotel customers are business travellers. The attributes to be most important to customers of budget hotels are price, cleanliness, and convenience of location that are to be focused by the hotels in their future decisions.

Key words:budget hotel, Ireland, consumer behaviour, price, leisure, business 1.Introduction

The English contemporary term hotel has its roots in Medieval Latin as the word hospitale meaning an inn. It was incorporated in to Old French as hostel referring to a lodging before it evolved in to modern French as the word h?tel. This word, however, did not initially refer to a commercial accommodation, but rather a public official residence.Today the word h?tel, with or without a circumflex, conveys its contemporary meaning in either language. Although different words may have been used, it is clear that commercial accommodations in some form or another existed long before the now synonymous term hotel was coined.

This paper shows the hotel types in Ireland and focuses on the budget hotels consumer behaviour.

2. Hotel marketplace segmentation in Ireland

The hotel industry is normally segmented using a combination of price, service, and facilities. Depending on the granularity of segmentation required, Irish hotels

are normally grouped thus: Luxury, Upper-upscale, Upscale, Midscale full service, Midscale limited service, Economy, and Budget. However, for the purposes of this report we shall confine ourselves to just four segments: Luxury, Upscale, Midscale, and Economy/Budget.

Although price, service, and facilities are an effective measure of a hotels position in the market there is often a degree of overlap between segments. This is apparent when you consider the high level of facilities provided by some budget accommodations and the heavy discounting practiced by some Midscale and Upscale hotels. An example of this can be seen in Table no. 1 where it is cheaper for a single adult to stay in the Upscale Slieve Russell Midweek than it is to stay in a Midscale Jurys Doyle Hotel.

Table no. 1 illustrates how we have segmented the market based principally on price but we have found that service and facilities do to a large extent correspond to the price being paid. For example Travel Lodge offers no additional service at all; breakfast is not even available in most cases. There are limited differences between Midscale and Upscale. Midscale hotels may in some instances be considered business hotels. Upscale tends to be more Leisure breaks oriented with higher quality/prestige leisure and restaurant facilities. Luxury hotels differentiate themselves on exclusivity, location, décor.

Table no. 1: Segmentation of Hotel Marketplace based on Price -Euro-

We are principally concerned with the Budget Hotel segment and will proceed to determine typical buyer behaviour for this segment. To assist we have constructed a simple fifteen question research instrument and surveyed a number of hotel consumers to determine their preferences. A copy of this survey questionnaire is included in the Annex. The research has also indicated to us that 59% of budget hotel consumers are business users and about 31% are leisure/tourist consumers. The remainder comprises corporate agreements (6%), conference/meetings (2%), and other (2%)[Deloitte, 2004].

Accommodation is a fundamental need for travellers whether they travel for leisure or for business. The need for a shelter is a basic physiological need, but the

need for a hotel room is largely a consequence of a higher need, ego. Budget Hotels are a cheap alternative for those who just want to have a clean room with a bed and a shower, without having to pay for extra facilities that they may not even use.

People who choose to stay in a Budget Hotel will normally be price sensitive, but this is not the only factor that indicates that they are highly involved with the purchase. The perceived risk of their choice will also influence their purchase behaviour because of uncertainty about the decision and the potential consequences of choosing poorly. The financial risk (spending the money), the perception (about the room’s quality), or the physiological risks will all increase their involvement in the purchase. The final decision has Aspects regarding the consumer buyer behaviour for budget hotels in Ireland 177 a high degree of risk, principally because the Budget Hotel room effectively becomes the customers’ home for the period of their stay, so it is important that it fulfil all of their demands and expectations.

Of course, the level of involvement with a Budget Hotel Room purchase varies by individual, but especially by social status. Those with lower social status tend to be more involved when booking a room in a Budget Hotel, even if the price is significantly lower than that of a luxury room. Those with higher status tend to use other kinds of hotels, like luxury or upscale hotels as they believe that this reflects or reinforces their status or position.

3. Consumer choice model for hotels

Booking a hotel room is not likely to be the most involved purchase people make in their lives but it is at least somewhat important to them for the reasons we have already discussed. There are typically a number of alternatives available with varying attributes such as price, quality, and facilities which all impact the consumers end goal of getting a comfortable night sleep and enjoying the facilities for which they have chosen to pay. It is reasonable, therefore, to consider all five stages in the decision making model: problem recognition, search for information, evaluation of alternatives, purchase choice and evaluation of outcome.

Problem recognition is normally quite straight forward. Organised travelers embarking on a predefined journey may decide to arrange their accommodation prior to travel. Others, perhaps on a less predictable trip may wait until the need for accommodation is more immediate.

Search for information will take various forms and will include internal and external sources.

Internal sources include their own past experiences for example if they stayed

in a hotel before or if they have a loyalty toward a particular hotel chain/brand. Users of budget hotels are more likely to be influenced by physiological, safety, and social motives that users of upscale or luxury hotels that may be influenced by ego, and self-actualisation motives. Personal characteristics such as age, family lifecycle, career status, economic situation, and even usage occasion will also be factors.

External sources include environmental influences and marketing stimuli. Marketing stimuli will comprise the accumulated industry and brand knowledge/attitudes absorbed/learned by the person through the media. This will, however consciously or subconsciously, influence the customer once they begin to search for information. At this stage, the consumer also becomes more interested in media communications and may, for example, even respond to an advertisement for accommodation. Environmental influences may include a travel agent, an infomediary website or directory, or perhaps word of mouth from friends, family, colleges, or a recognised opinion leader. Travellers not booking in advance may even conduct their information search when they arrive at their destination; perhaps searching physically, asking local people or a tourist office, or by consulting a local paper or online directory. Business travellers may have little or no need to search for information if their business already has partnerships with preferred accommodations.

Evaluation of alternatives is an important part of buyer behaviour; it is of crucial importance to marketers to understand how customers evaluate and ultimately choose to purchase goods and services. In the absence of unexpected situational factors the customer 178 Ioana Cristina COLBU, Adrian Liviu SCUTARIU is at least more likely to make their purchase decision based on their evaluation of alternatives.

To gain a greater insight in to how people use budget hotels we conducted some primary market research in the form of a simple survey. Our sampling plan was based on non-probability convenience sampling of one hundred respondents, which were budget hotels customers from Donegal (Ireland). This research indicated that the dominant component of choice when selecting a budget hotel is price. The location of the hotel and the cleanliness of the room are also important factors.

If we attempt to apply Fishbein’s multi attribute model [Solomon, 1992, 177-182] the customer identifies several attributes, in this case price, location, cleanliness, and possibly others according to individual preferences. They proceed to apply an importance or weighting to each attribute, in this situation price being the

most heavily weighted. Subsequently the customer compares the relative weighted (importance adjusted) scores for each budget hotel that they are choosing between to ultimately arrive at the one which scores most highly overall.

This model takes in to account those attributes which are most important to the customer in such a way that they may still prefer a budget hotel that is inferior on some less important attributes so long as it scores highly on the more important attributes. According to [Solomon, 1992, 177-182] the multi attribute model may be less than accurate under various circumstances including those involving impulsive acts, sudden changes in situation, where novelty seeking behaviour is at play, or in simple repeat purchase situations. The same author warns that attitudes formed by direct or personal experience are often stronger than those formed indirectly such as those developed in response to advertising. For instance, if a customer has stayed in a particular budget hotel previously and enjoyed their stay this may be a more powerful motivator than the cheaper budget hotel next door that they saw on television.

Most of the people we surveyed used budget hotels for leisure/tourism purposes and travelled with family or friends for an average duration of about one week. This is a contradiction with the UK budget hotel survey conducted by Deloitte & Touche in 2004 that we referenced earlier but we put this discrepancy down to the small number of people that we surveyed. Also given the type of convenience sampling that we used it was unlikely that we would encounter many people using budget hotels for business.

The purchase choice, for our sample population, is made jointly for the most part and is most significantly influenced by word of mouth. Friends and family who have previous experience with budget hotels or a given budget hotel in particular are by far the most common opinion leaders.

It was also noticeable that past experience is a strong factor influencing consumers’attitudes toward budget hotels. Even if sometimes budget hotels are considered to have a low degree of quality in one or more areas the customer may still be satisfied overall. They even exhibit a certain degree of brand loyalty toward the budget hotel in question. We can only explain this through the principal of heuristics; “you get what you pay for”, “the hotel has less overheads and staff and passes the saving on to me”, etc. It could also be argued that this is a very ego defensive attitude and that the customers are simply protecting themselves from the ‘pain’ of having made a bad purchase decision in the first place.

If the money is very important, the most dominant influence in choosing a hotel is price. According to this customers will choose a hotel that is cheaper; a Budget Hotel. The next feature will be ranked and the consumer will decide what other characteristics of the Aspects regarding the consumer buyer behaviour for budget hotels in Ireland 179 budget hotels are important like location, proximity with other interesting places, views etc. This is known as the conjunctive decision rule and is very common for those who rank hotels according to price.

Of course, other rules can be used, like the lexicographic rule where the customer has for example short listed the hotels he likes based on ranked attributes like location, view and additional services. The final decision is then taken according to the key feature; price.

Post purchase evaluation is the final stage of the buyer behaviour process and the point at which consumers consider the merits of their purchase decision. This is the point at which the consumer has the most influence by voicing their opinion of the accommodation and it is the last opportunity that the marketer has to influence the consumer hopefully avoiding any cognitive dissonance.

Service Quality is accepted as the contrast between customers’ expectations versus their perceptions. Clearly expectations are not always that high, some customers don’t expect too much when the price is low. However, we have determined that due to high competition, hotels and budget hotels especially are trying to provide better rooms at lower prices. This is shown by the continuous reduction of rates over the last few years [Deloitte, 2004] and the quality and quantity of facilities provided by most operators. As a result of these efforts most operators appear to be meeting or exceeding their customers’ expecta tions so that customers perceive that they have received at least an adequate if not good quality of service.

According to our own research, when looking for a budget hotel room the customer relies on Internet searches (47.82%), but also on prior knowledge (26.08%) and word of mouth referral (17.39%). This demonstrates that although people often rely on Internet searches, existing knowledge and word of mouth from opinion leaders is also vital.

If the purchase is made and the consumer’s needs are met or even exceeded the consumer will likely develop a positive attitude towards the brand. In this case, the consumer will be happy with what they got for their money. At this stage they may be considered an opinion leader by their acquaintances, a positive one who is going

to give positive recommendations about the budget hotel. In short, if a customer is happy with the room they paid for they are going to influence other people’s buying behaviour in a positive way. Conversely, if the customer’s needs are not met, they are going to form a negative attitude and influence other people’s buying behaviour in a negative way.

In conclusion it is very important for a customer to have ‘good’ information in order to make an appropriate decision and to form reliable expectations that can be satisfied. If the information is not true or reliable the customer will be unsatisfied, so they won’t be a future possible customer, they will just be a negative opinion leader for other potential customers.

4. Implications and conclusions

Based on a combination of the UK budget hotel survey conducted by Deloitte &Touche and our own research we have concluded that budget hotels can be segmented into two broad categories, business users and leisure/tourism users. Marketing communications should be directed toward both of these segments. The degree to which resources should be committed should not necessarily follow in the same ratio as business to leisure/tourism users. This will depend on the degree to which we could reach each segment and the degree to which they are likely to respond to the message presented to them. This is probably a matter of trial and error and/or the subject of a great deal of additional research.

Almost half of the respondents of our own research indicated that they rely on the Internet when searching for budget hotels. This cannot be ignored; infomediaries, travel and accommodation directories, and targeted search engines such as Google (49.2% or searches), Yahoo (23.8% of searches), MSN (9.6% of searches), AOL (6.3% of searches) [Nielsen Net Ratings, 2006] should all be considered as viable media candidates.

Our research also indicated that the following publications are read on a regular basis by some respondents: The Irish Independent, The Irish Times, The Financial Times, The Sunday Business Post. These are suitable print media through which to communicate to both business and leisure travellers.

A lesser component of the customer mix is corporate agreements accounting for 6% of UK budget hotel business [Deloitte, 2004]. We feel that a direct sales force approach targeting corporate accounts especially in the industries that have heavily based field sales force may be appropriate. For example Pharmaceutical and Insurance companies. These contracts would need to be negotiated heavily on

price/volume usage by an experience corporate sales force. This could possibly be outsourced.

The attributes that we have identified, through our research, to be most important to customers of budget hotels are price, cleanliness, and convenience of location. Accommodation units should certainly base our appeal on these attributes. In particular we recommend a variable room rate, dependent on day of week, of between €26 and €75; this is the level of pricing that most of our respondents seek to pay. Hotels should also endeavour to promote a high level of cleanliness and choose strategic locations that have tangible and communicable benefits to potential customers.

References

Deloitte, UK budget hotel survey 2004, Deloitte & Touche LLP, London, UK, 2004 Solomon, Michael R., Consumer Behaviour, Third Edition, Prentice Hall Inc, New Jersey, USA, 1992