The Influence of Wi-Fi Service on Hotel Customer Satisfaction
Geunhee Lee
School of Tourism & Hospitality Management
Temple University and Iis P. Tussyadiah
School of Tourism & Hospitality Management
Temple University
ABSTRACT
As people become increasingly mobile and constantly in need of Internet connection, the importance of wireless Internet is strongly emphasized in our daily lives. In travel context, the provision of Wi-Fi service for hotel customers is a critical factor to improve their satisfaction and therefore to encourage their return intention and positive recommendation. The objective of this study is to identify the important activities and aspects of Wi-Fi service in hotels to maximize customer satisfaction in accordance with the staying purpose of customers. First, the activities using hotel Wi-Fi service that are considered important by leisure and business travelers are examined. In addition, several aspects of hotel Wi-Fi service that are identified to have high correlations with overall Wi-Fi use satisfaction are selected (i.e., ease of connection, security, speed, and cost adequacy), and then correlation analyses are performed to examine the relationships between these factors and the overall hotel satisfaction, return intention, and recommendation intention. The result of this study indicates that (1) the need of Wi-Fi service in a hotel is higher for business travelers than leisure travelers, (2)leisure travelers and business travelers have different needs for Wi-Fi use activities, (3)both groups need Wi-Fi service mostly for business activities and e-mail communication, (4) customer satisfaction with the aspects of
Wi-Fi service is highly correlated with overall hotel use satisfaction, return intention, and positive recommendations, while satisfaction with cost adequacy is the only aspect that is negatively correlated with unfavorable eWOM diffusion behavior. Based on the results, several managerial implications for Wi-Fi service adoption and development are provided.
Keywords: Technology amenity, Wireless Internet service, Wi-Fi, Hotel customer satisfaction,
Return intention, Positive recommendation.
INTRODUCTION
Given today's competitive market condition, customers in hospitality industry who have been highly educated with overwhelming flood of information have become more selective with their choices (Janes & Wisnom, 2003; Jeong & Oh, 1998; Lee, Barker, & Kandampully, 2003).
It is difficult to completely meet guests' increasing demands in this competitive market, which makes providing and maintaining customer satisfaction one of the biggest challenges for managers in service industry (Su, 2004). To retain and increase their customer base, the perceived importance of facility and service attributes in hospitality industry related to guests’ satisfaction needs to be thoroughly understood (Jeong & Oh, 1998; Shanka & Taylor, 2004).
Jeong and Oh (1998) suggest that the importance of the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction has become extremely significant and expected to grow further. Shanka
and Taylor (2004) also argue that both physical facilities and provided service significantly contribute to the overall hotel satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction is essential for corporate survival (Pizam & Ellis, 1999) and has been firmly believed to lead to their return intention to the same hotel and favorable recommendation publicity to their friends and family (Gundersen, Heide, & Olsson, 1996).
Pizam and Ellis (1999) stress that customer satisfaction is recognized as of great importance to all commercial firms due to its impact on repeat purchase behavior and word-of-mouth recommendation. While some studies report that the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty may be non-linear (e.g., Bowen & Chen, 2001), most studies consent that they show strong positive correlations. For example, Kim, Han, and Lee (2001) assess that customer satisfaction can increase
