Capturing customer delight in hotels: key drivers and consequences

ABSTRACT

The current work seeks to unveil the essential drivers and consequences of customer delight in the hotel sector. A qualitative approach was employed by conducting an interview to gather data from guests staying in luxurious hotels in Agadir, Morocco, who originated from different countries. Employing thematic analysis, the findings indicated that there are two main drivers of customer delight which are interpersonal factors (i.e. friendliness, problem resolution, employee empathy, professionalism, needs fulfilment, and efficiency) and non-interpersonal factors (i.e. destination attributes and cleanliness). The results also indicated that customer delight leads to behavioural and affective loyalty. This research holds various contributions to both academic and professional. Limitations and avenues for further research are also outlined.

KEYWORDS:

• Customer delight
• drivers
• consequences
• qualitative study
• hotels

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noureddine Selmi

Noureddine Selmi is a Full Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (Doha, Qatar). He holds a Ph.D. in Marketing and Tourism from the University of Savoie (France). He has authored over 20 papers in high ranked journals in tourism. His research interests include tourism, marketing, hospitality and sustainability. Beyond his academic career, he has practical insights, drawing on his background as a former minister and consultant.

Mariem Kamoun

Mariem Kamoun is a tourism marketing researcher, consultant, and university teacher. She holds a doctoral degree in Marketing from University of Carthage. Kamoun’s latest work focuses on hospitality & customer delight in luxury hotels. Her other major research interest is peace through tourism. Recognized for her outstanding contributions to academia and research, she has been honoured with numerous awards, underscoring her significant impact in the field of tourism marketing.

Mohammad Soliman

Mohammad Soliman is the Head of Research and Consultation Department, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Salalah, Oman. He is also a Full Professor at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Fayoum University, Egypt. He has published multiple papers in high-rank journals indexed in WoS and Scopus. His research interests include tourism marketing, consumer behaviour, branding, AI-enabled education and marketing, tourism management, PLS-SEM, bibliometrics, and literature review studies.