An Examination of the Importance of Hotel Innovation on Guest Loyalty in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

Guest loyalty is important for hotel brand, image and differentiation but the understanding of the real motive for guest loyalty is conflated by hotel innovation and loyalty decisions. Although other service components may be important determinants of guest loyalty, the importance of hotel innovation is examined to improve understanding of dimensions of loyalty decisions that drives innovation in hotel services and strategies. Previous studies provided limited evidence on the relationship between innovation and loyalty despite increased guest appetite for innovative services and the adoption of innovation in hotels. This paper examined evidence of loyalty decisions to understand the importance of hotel innovation as a strategic option to meet and exceed increased guest appetite for innovation induced loyalty. To achieve this objective, a quantitative study design was undertaken, using a systematic random sampling to administer a semi-structure questionnaire to approximately 242 respondents staying in graded hotels. The data were analysed sing descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that innovations are important to guest loyalty decisions with technological and human-oriented innovations having greater importance amongst mediating variables. This paper concludes that innovation can be used as a strategy to improve service quality to support and promote brand image differentiation.