Scholarly Activity Week III

Qualitative Research and the Hospitality Industry

July 25, 2016

Qualitative Research and the Hotel Hospitality Industry

Qualitative research is one of the techniques used by hospitality industries

to help them in making inform decisions. A major section in the hospitality
industry are hotels. Hotels most often utilize qualitative research to provide a
simple and also a generally economical approach to pick up a top to bottom comprehension of
how and why customers think, feel and act the way they do about their hotel. One of the essential
techniques utilized as a part of achieving these objectives is the utilization of focus groups.
More often than not, these focus groups involve modest assemblies of individuals - ordinarily not
more than 12 individuals. Focus groups are utilized by hotels to investigate the travelers'
sentiments on their present offerings or test their new products. They as a rule give a setting to
increase important experiences into traveler' decisions that influence all that really matters for
them from a short overnight to WIFI connections ("Overview: Qualitative Marketing
Research & How it Benefits Your Hotel, by Johnna Freud," n.d.). Focus groups
on many occasions are largely beneficial when used in combination with
other research tools as a piece of a larger research effort. Karen Sandberg, in
a Harvard Management Communication Letter, writes use focus groups not
to draw conclusions, but to understand the conclusions drawn ("HNN," n.d.).
In order for a focus group to be useful for a hotel or any industry it looks for the direction
of experienced market research experts and guarantee each part of your group is carefully
assembled. A qualified focus group should be clear on the main objective of your research.
Being clear on the objectives at the beginning of an assignment will lead to guided discussion
development, moderator selection and participant recruiting. Employing an experienced
moderator is a must. Be sure capable partakers are carefully selected based on clear decisive
factors. Even first class moderators and the most attentively composed talk aides are useless if

the wrong respondents are in the room. To insure a better variety of opinions or stronger
harmony multiple sessions are advised. Quantitative data does not come from your focus group.
In spite of the fact that focus groups function admirably to investigate inside and out
assessments, states of mind, convictions, and so on, they are untrustworthy for deciding the
careful rate of individuals in the general populace who hold a specific sentiment ("HNN,"
n.d.).
Qualitative examination has likewise been of awesome use for hotels in demanding a
higher profit for properties' publicizing speculations. Hilton Worldwide, where I am employed is
is no different from any other hotel in the industry that has continued to keep
away from allocating a specific sum of money for a new advertising
campaign because it can spend the total amount on the campaign, but with
probable fallacies about the intended audience. As such, there are no
guarantees that it will have the preferred outcome. By investing in focus
groups, hotels can ensure that the campaign delivers an effective and
persuasive message to the intended target market, those advertising dollars
have the potential to work harder and smarter than if research was not
included ("Overview: Qualitative Marketing Research and How it Benefits Your Hotel, by
Johnna Freud," n.d.). Case in point, financial models are utilized to demonstrate that a specific
business sector may be perfect for another property. That business sector can give great
assessment or budgetary motivating forces. Be that as it may, earlier focusing on the new site,
Hilton as a noteworthy hotel network examining extension dependably need to know the amount
of activity it can possibly make. Quantitative exploration has stayed as its prescribed procedure
to decide what number of individuals may have an enthusiasm for their hotel in a specific area.

Be that as it may, before scrutinizing quantitative examination, Hilton has dependably been very
much encouraged to do subjective research first. Regardless of the way that the quantitative
overview have been giving information on what number of individuals are intrigued or not, it
doesn't give the bits of knowledge into why they have such sentiments (Rao, 2009).
Qualitative research can be useful, or even essential, to hospitality industry
professionals. After a choice is made to do a focus group, the subject matter and purpose of a
focus group needs to exhibit distinctive circumstances of an individual business; however, the
benefits to be derived from the correct use of focus groups are real and applicable to hospitality
industry in general. Hotels dependably gives enough data on the inquiries it wishes to be replied.
From its given data, the advisor instructs the hotel on the best approachs concerning
accomplishing the study's destinations, regulate venue determination and selection. From this
information. Focus groups aid in hotels thorough dialog with customers, can be instrumental in
revealing insight on the components influencing customers use, or shortage of use, and
perceived value of loyalty programs. Individual incentives and benefits can be tested and
evaluated from the information gathered. In the area of online marketing, as more resources are
dedicated to online marketing, evaluation of customer feedback online grows increasingly
important, focus groups can be influential. Focus groups are by nature fantastically adaptable,
permitting specialists to seek after and dig further into startling data when it rises. Hence, the
next time a hotel wonder how consumers' feel on loyalty reward programs,
how they make decisions on whether to reserve accommodations directly
from property versus through a third-party Internet vendor or travel agent or
even how hospitality school students view the universe of potential
employers, qualitative research is the best way to go. The reason is that

answers might be surprising ("Overview: Qualitative Marketing Research &

How it Benefits Your Hotel, by Johnna Freud," n.d.).
Newly working with Hilton Worldwide as an Assistant Restaurant
Manager, I have worked with our marketing department at my Hilton location
and have inquired how they use qualitative market research, it is clear that
this type of research has evolved over time, from in person surveys to
written surveys to phone surveys to online surveys. The technology and
more specifically the internet for Hilton holds promise for the qualitative
market research future. Along with the advancement in the internet, Hilton
Worldwide implemented a new position in 2014, Analyst of Customer
Insights at our Hilton headquarters located in VA. This person is responsible
for extracting, analyzing, and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data
from primary, secondary and syndicated data files and preparing
presentations of results with insights. They will also be responsible for
consumer research questionnaire and discussion guide design, online
questionnaire programming, and ad hoc project management, including
qualitative research project design, management, and implementation. With
this position in place it is now possible to reach essentially any demographic
to get the proper feedback to improve upon our customer service ("Hilton
Worldwide Careers - It's Your World," n.d.). I am very excited about learning
more qualitative research and how Hilton implements it. As a new restaurant
manager the information that can be gathered from the qualitative research
relating to focus groups will be useful. I will be able to what entres are liked

the most or the least and various other topics that will assist me making
profitable decisions for the restaurant. From my view, from what I am
learning so far Hilton is doing a great job in customer satisfaction. The future
of the qualitative market research in service industries is a very useful tool
and it looks as if Hilton is taking full advantage of the information that they
are gaining from it.

References
Hilton Worldwide Careers - It's Your World. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://jobs.hiltonworldwide.com/
HNN. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/10008/An-introduction-tofocus-groups
Overview: Qualitative Marketing Research & How it Benefits Your Hotel, by
Johnna Freud. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/180/overview-qualitativemarketing-research-and-how-it-benefits-your-hotel
Rao, V. R. (2009): Handbook of pricing research in marketing. Cheltenham,
UK: Edward Elgar.