HOTEL SELECTION ON PHI PHI ISLAND: BUSINESS AND TOURISTS’ PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

The objective of this research aims to find the factors that influence consumer toward making a hotel reservation in Phi Phi Island, in comparison with what the hotels believe would influence consumer to make their decision. The scope of this research is to identify and understand what factors would be the most influential and the least influential by focusing on the five main factors: locations, reviews, accommodations and facilities, service quality and price. The research method used will be a qualitative and quantitative method by doing online questionnaire and interview surveys to collect the data. The sample size is around 200 respondents which is split into the consumers side and the hotels industry perspectives. The major findings from this research is that consumers based their decision on making a hotel reservation in Phi Phi Island on locations and choose reviews to be the least influencing. On the other hand, there are no clear conclusions drawn in the hotels’ point of view because there are no controlled variables in the findings of the hotel industry’s opinion. Therefore, an improvement for future studies should be made as the hotels should be in the same market aiming at the same target audience, otherwise, the influential factors would varies depending on the type of consumers, level of consumers’ income and the market each hotel is aiming it. Nonetheless, another major finding from this research is that both consumers and hotels now shift their focus onto online marketing and online purchasing behavior. Both sides use social media, internet, technology, and the online world as a tool in purchasing and marketing. Even though changes should be made in future research to get more accurate results, but it is hoped that information from this research is useful and beneficial for the hotels, tourism, and hospitality industry to use it as a guideline in order to improve their strategies and tactics, helping them gain a competitive advantage.