The Influence of Luxury Hotel Customer Experience on Brand Love and Customer Citizenship Behavior: A Case Study of Chinese Tourists

Abstract

With the improvement of material living standards, more Chinese tourists are willing to purchase quality goods and services (e.g., food, accommodation, clothes), regardless of the price to seek social status as well as meet their own needs. This phenomenon often happens in luxurious consumptions in the context of the hospitality industry (e.g., luxury hotels, Micheline-starred restaurants). Luxury hotels differ from ordinary hotels with their excellent services by creating a personalized and luxury experience that exceeds customers’ expectations. And customers may experience a high level of positive experience, which may evoke positive evaluations or emotions and make them engaged. Thus, this thesis has investigated the relationship among customer experiential value (e.g., aesthetic value, playfulness, return on investment, and service excellence), customer post-purchase consequences/evaluations (brand satisfaction, brand commitment, and brand love), and their citizenship behaviors. The data were collected utilizing an online questionnaire and used smart-PLS software to do PLS-SEM analysis. The findings revealed that two types of experiential value (return on investment, and service excellence) had a positive effect on brand satisfaction. Meanwhile, brand satisfaction was proved to have a positive impact on brand commitment and brand love, while brand commitment also had a positive effect on brand love. Moreover, brand commitment and brand love had a direct and positive impact on customer citizenship behaviors. These results make up the gap of the relationship between brand love and customer citizenship behavior in the hospitality industry and provide some useful theoretical and managerial implications forencouraging luxury customers to engage with luxury hotels and be life-long loyal customers.