KOREASCHOLAR

The hotel industry has been reaching their existing and prospecting customers via emails throughout a customer’s journey, from pre-arrival information/promotions to post-stay emails for the reviews (Huang, 2016). In different from other email marketing campaigns containing pure promotional materials for acquiring customers, post-stay e-mails can be used to send personalized messages and build an emotional connection with customers by thanking and rewarding their stays. As an increasing number of customers open and read emails via mobile devices on the move (Jordan, 2015), effectively designed post-stay emails with persuasive messages can be a powerful communicating method keeping customers in the lines of dialog with the brands. However, there is lack of studies on how the post-stay email marketing campaign works to retain customers. This study aimed to identify post-stay email features that affect customers’ intention to revisit the same hotel brand depending on their levels of involvement in choosing hotels for leisure purpose. Grounded on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), this study identified what causes “motivation” to process a post-stay email and which email features can be more effectively positioned to persuade consumers with different elaboration levels. This study developed hypotheses regarding the effects of email features on attitude and intention to revisit the hotel brands. A total of 189 responses was determined to be usable in this study. Using Path Analysis, this study tested multivariate regression model with direct effect of email features on attitude and indirect effects of email features on intention to revisit the hotel brand. In addition, this study tested a moderating effect of leisure involvement on the hypothesized paths. The results showed that consumers with a low level of leisure involvement tended to be influenced by financial and interactivity features on their attitude towards the hotel brand while personalization features yielded favorable attitude towards the hotel brand for consumers with a high level of leisure involvement. Attitude towards the hotel brand was a significant predictor of behavioral intention to revisit the hotel brand that sends post-stay emails in this study. Industry professionals and researchers can utilize this study to better design their e-mails as customer retention strategies. The email features analyzed in this study can be strategically included in the post-stay e-mail according to their target market. The initiative can assist in reinforcing or persuading their guests to revisit the hotel brand and build stronger customer relationships.

• Krishna Garza(University of North Texas, USA)
• Kiseol Yang(University of North Texas, USA)
• Jihye Min(University of North Texas, USA)