Role of Hotel Servicescape in Satisfaction and Revisit Intention of Consumers: Familiarity as a Moderator

Abstract

Globally the hospitality industry is seen immensely growing because of opening up of tourism in countries worldwide. One such growth of hospitality industry is specifically being witnessed in a middle eastern country namely Saudi Arabia. The expansion of leisure and religious tourism for diversifying the oil-based economy under the kingdom’s vision 2030 is rapidly fueling growth of hotels in Saudi Arabia. However, very little is known about what aspects of these hotels lead to consumer satisfaction and revisit intentions. Moreover, modern internet hotel booking technologies by providing 360-degree images, videos of hotels and hotel rooms are helping consumers to get well familiar with the hotels aforehand their visits. Very little is also known about the effects of this aforehand familiarity of consumers on the relationship of satisfaction with revisit intention. In marketing terminology, the place where the interaction between consumers and hotel service provider takes place is called hotel servicescape. The hotel servicescape has two important aspects namely physical and social. This study examines how these two aspects of hotel servicescape leads to consumer satisfaction and revisit intentions. The study also examines the moderating role of familiarity on the relationship of satisfaction with revisit intention. The study sample comprised of 390 frequent stayers in hotels of Saudi Arabia. The study sample was collected using snowball sampling method. All of the hypothesized relationships of the study were examined rigorously and simultaneously using structural equation modeling technique. The results of the study revealed that both physical and social aspects of hotel’s servicescape shared significant positive relationships with satisfaction. Significant positive relationship was also reported between satisfaction and revisit intention. Familiarity significantly moderated the relationship between satisfaction and revisit intention in this study. The study provided new findings on the role played by familiarity in strengthening the relationship between satisfaction and revisit intention. Some marketing implications, limitations and future research directions are also discussed in the study.