Personalizing banner ads or embedding ads with specific data signals or triggers, such as – personal characteristics, past behaviours, etc. is believed to improve customer response or Click Through Rate (CTR) since, embedding ads with viewers/recipients’ personal data or characteristics make ads more appealing and relevant to users (Lambrecht & Tucker, 2013). However, evidence also exists in literature that personalization can be ineffective as the usage of customers’ personal data can trigger off privacy concerns causing them to ignore such ads (van Doorn & Hoekstra, 2013). Investigations exploring suitability and effectiveness of ad personalization report that factors such as advertised product, data used for personalizing may influence the effectiveness of personalized ads (De Keyzer, Dens, & De Pelsmacker, 2015; Goldfarb & Tucker, 2011; van Doorn & Hoekstra, 2013). In this research we examine the impact of personalization triggers (PTs) on click through rate (CTR) of online banner ads across cultures. CTR data for 1345 unique ad copies (personalized) of an international hotel group screened in Japan and Middle East countries was used for this study. Data analyses revealed significant impact of PTs on CTRs. Analyses further revealed that – 1) usage of past purchase data impacts the CTR negatively, implying that customers respond negatively to ads showing hotel properties that they have previously visited/stayed in; 2) usage of search history data has a significant positive impact on CTR, suggesting that customers respond favourably towards ads showing hotel properties in destinations revealed from their search history. Interestingly, culture specific data such as local language elicit different responses in different cultures. While in Japan, language personalised ads i.e., ads in Japanese language fared poorly (negative impact on CTR) as compared to ads in English language (positive impact on CTR); in the Middle East it was the ads in English language that fared poorly (negative impact on CTR) compared to ads in Arabic. These results strongly suggest that the knowledge of PTs influence CTR and combining them with the right creative elements would help advertisers in improving customer engagement with ads, have a positive impact on CTR and even improve customer conversion. This would imply better returns for the resources spent on digital advertising. Findings from the study are true and reflective of the PTs (membership, brand affinity, destination, language) used in the ad campaign under study and limited to the cultures investigated. Future studies exploring other PTs in online hotel ads would help marketers in making a more informed decision while selecting data signals or PTs for personalizing digital banner ads for hotel brands.

This study used the methods of decision tree analysis, association rule analysis, and Kano’s model to explore the behavior patterns of mainland China tourists staying at the international tourist hotels in Taiwan. To this end, the data of their demographics, travel variables, overall satisfaction with the lodging experience, different service quality perceptions, and loyalty intentions were included. The decision tree analysis showed that a tourist’s overall satisfaction with the lodging experience, satisfaction with the quality of core intangible services, and certain demographic characteristics are three important determinants of tourist loyalty towards the hotels. In terms of the effect of demographics, the customers’ monthly income and length of stay at the hotel are two main determinants in this study. In addition, if the customer perceptions of different parts of hotel service quality are taken into account, among the five hotel service quality domains, core intangible services from the receptionist, housekeeping personnel, and food & beverage personnel are found to be important influences on hotel customer loyalty intention. In other words, high quality intangible services are important for luxury hotels to demonstrate their unique ability to help customers experience the service quality that creates loyalty intentions. With regard to the association rule analysis, the results showed that core intangible service aspects from the receptionist, housekeeping personnel, and food & beverage personnel are strongly associated with customer loyalty intentions, as are the tangible aspects of the reception and hotel room facilities. The former indicated that reception in the hotel lobby could be considered one of the most important servicescapes because of its impact in forming many of the first impressions of hotel guests, while the latter is treated as core offerings in hotels that would be encountered by most hotel customers. If the tourists are mainly from package tours, the intangible services and tangible facilities of these areas are the important areas to create customer satisfaction. However, if the tourists are mainly independent tourists because they have more time and free choice to stay at the hotel longer than the package tour tourists, the intangible services and tangible facilities of the entertainment or business centers would be even more important to these tourists than to the package tour tourists. With regard to Kano’s model analysis, the results showed that, based on mainland China tourists’ perceptions, most of the service elements fit into the category of one-dimensional quality attributes. This means that these service elements are positively and linearly related to customer satisfaction, and the greater fulfillment of the attribute results in a greater degree of satisfaction. This also means that hotels should make more effort to innovate their intangible services and tangible facilities to create business advantages in the market.

The purpose of this study were to measure brand personalities of deluxe hotels in Seoul, and to identify the difference of brand personality between local and international hotels. The questionnaires developed for this study were distributed to 460 employees in kitchen and F&B departments of 11 deluxe hotels in Seoul. A total of 398 questionnaires were used for anaylsis(86.5%) and the statistical analyses were completed using SPSS Win(12.0) for descriptive analysis, reliability analysis and t-test, and AMOS(5.0) for confirmatory factor analysis. The results of this study showed that deluxe hotels have brand personalities relatively strong at 'affection', 'sophistication', 'competence' dimensions, and there was a significant difference by hotel nationality. The brand personality scores of international brand hotels perceived by employees were high at the 'excitement'(p<0.001), 'sophistication'(p<0.001), and 'competence'(p<0.01) dimensions, whereas local hotels were considered more obedient(p<0.01). Overall, it could be a key factor for successful brand management that establish a distinctive brand personality, and a localized brand personality measure will lead to more desirable decision making.

The purposes of this study were to measure the job satisfaction levels of F&B(Food & Beverage) personnel in hotel by using JDI(Job Descriptive Index), to investigate relationships between demographic variables or job type and job satisfaction, to determine the relative importance of the five facets and to identify the effects of job satisfaction on turnover intention by hotel. Questionnaire was developed and distributed to 660 employees who are currently working in food & beverage department of hotel A (Domestic independent deluxe hotel) and hotel B(international chain deluxe hotel). A total of 498 questionnaires were usable; resulting in 75.5% response rate. The survey was conducted between March 16 to 27, 2000. As a result of analysis on job satisfaction, total JDI score was 136.57 out of full mark 210. Personnel of Hotel A was more satisfied significantly with work itself (p<.01), supervision (p<.001), co-worker (p<.01), total JDI (p<.001) than those of hotel B. Total JDI and work itself score were higher on employees of front of the house than those of back of the house in both of hotels. Payroll was the most important facet on job satisfaction. Finally, work itself (p<.001) and payroll (p<.05) had a significant effect on turnover intention in hotel A and work itself (p<.001), supervision (p<.05) and promotion (p<.05) did in hotel B. The findings indicated the necessity of human resource management apt to the vision of enterprise and the organizational culture.