Publicação
A study of guests' experiences in the context of luxury heritage hotels in Portugal: Themes and dimensions in online reviews
| Resumo: | As global travelers increasingly seek experiences that merge luxury with heritage, Portugal's luxury hotels market may become a source of opportunities for this unique blend. The present study explores guests’ narratives shared on TripAdvisor, focusing on Portuguese high-end luxury hotels with distinctive historic, cultural, social, and natural heritage attributes, or luxury heritage hotels. Through content analysis of secondary data using Leximancer, this research identifies sixteen dominant themes, categorized into five overarching dimensions - Hotel, Journey, Room, Gastronomy, and Location - that capture the essence of guests' experiences. A conceptual model illustrates the relationship between the core attributes of luxury and heritage and the dominant themes and dimensions derived from guests' online reviews. Positive experiential themes (e.g., beautiful) are absent among dissatisfied guest reviews, suggesting that dissatisfaction impacts guests' ability to appreciate or recall positive aspects of their stay. Moreover, while the vast majority of guests express satisfaction in broad terms, feedback from the relatively few dissatisfied guests tends to be more specific, with a smaller number of dominant themes (14) and certain themes, (e.g., people, top, and fresh), being uniquely emphasized. This suggests that when guests experience dissatisfaction, their narratives tend to focus on specific issues related to interactions with personnel (people), unmet expectations concerning the hotel's claimed luxury status (top), and concerns about different aspects of guests’ experiences from comfort and value perception to hygiene, aesthetics, and the hotel's overall ambiance (fresh). The results also suggest that while dissatisfaction brings specific themes to the forefront, some overlap with those associated with satisfaction, depending on delivery (e.g., price). Ultimately, this study offers guidance for hotel management and other stakeholders by highlighting the strategic importance of leveraging hotels’ core heritage attributes to enhance guests' experiences within a high-end luxury context. |
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| Autores principais: | Silva, Fernando Manuel Marques Ferreira da |
| Assunto: | Guests experiences Luxury hotels Heritage Online reviews TripAdvisor Leximancer Portugal Experiências de hóspedes Hotéis de luxo Património Avaliações online Dados secundários -- Secondary data Análise de conteúdo -- Content analysis |
| Ano: | 2024 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | ISCTE |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório ISCTE |
| Resumo: | As global travelers increasingly seek experiences that merge luxury with heritage, Portugal's luxury hotels market may become a source of opportunities for this unique blend. The present study explores guests’ narratives shared on TripAdvisor, focusing on Portuguese high-end luxury hotels with distinctive historic, cultural, social, and natural heritage attributes, or luxury heritage hotels. Through content analysis of secondary data using Leximancer, this research identifies sixteen dominant themes, categorized into five overarching dimensions - Hotel, Journey, Room, Gastronomy, and Location - that capture the essence of guests' experiences. A conceptual model illustrates the relationship between the core attributes of luxury and heritage and the dominant themes and dimensions derived from guests' online reviews. Positive experiential themes (e.g., beautiful) are absent among dissatisfied guest reviews, suggesting that dissatisfaction impacts guests' ability to appreciate or recall positive aspects of their stay. Moreover, while the vast majority of guests express satisfaction in broad terms, feedback from the relatively few dissatisfied guests tends to be more specific, with a smaller number of dominant themes (14) and certain themes, (e.g., people, top, and fresh), being uniquely emphasized. This suggests that when guests experience dissatisfaction, their narratives tend to focus on specific issues related to interactions with personnel (people), unmet expectations concerning the hotel's claimed luxury status (top), and concerns about different aspects of guests’ experiences from comfort and value perception to hygiene, aesthetics, and the hotel's overall ambiance (fresh). The results also suggest that while dissatisfaction brings specific themes to the forefront, some overlap with those associated with satisfaction, depending on delivery (e.g., price). Ultimately, this study offers guidance for hotel management and other stakeholders by highlighting the strategic importance of leveraging hotels’ core heritage attributes to enhance guests' experiences within a high-end luxury context. |
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