The essence of the hotel room in the hotel business – the hotel managers’ perspective

The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of how hotel management perceives the role of the hotel room from the customers’ perspective and what role the room plays as regards the hotel management business. Previous research has focused on the hotel’s location, the attributes of the hotel and the room, revenue management, pricing, hotel guest experiences, and customer satisfaction. In this study, 19 managers operating in Finland were interviewed: ten hotel managers from 4-5-star hotels and nine from 2-3-star hotels. An inductive approach to the data analysis was adapted and the research findings indicated that the hotel managers were deeply concerned about the customer expectations of their hotel stay. The role of the hotel room as the core element of hotel accommodation was acknowledged by the interviewees. Even though accommodation in the room is regarded as the major product of a hotel, the hotel overnight stay may be different for the customer depending on the hotel’s facilities, their services and the customers targeted. In the case of business customers, accommodation with a good bed and the necessary services is all that is seen to be required. While for leisure customers, the overnight stay is perceived to be similar to a home experience during a holiday. However, the findings of this study reveal that there is a contradiction between the management’s perception of the role of the room and the everyday practices of the hotel management in terms of marketing the amenities the hotel offers. Although hotel managers follow room- based accounting metrics to measure the performance of the hotel they also simultaneously attempt to grasp the intangible feelings of the guests. In order to sell experiences, hotel managers first need to sell the room.