Customers' Price Fairness Perceptions On Hotel Services: Insights Into Romanian Market

Price fairness perceptions for hotel services is a topic of interest, considering the particularities of price setting process in this area and the variety of factors that influence hotel prices. The present study aims to investigate some aspects of price fairness perceptions for hotel prices in Romania, using a national survey on hotel services customers. The main objectives of the study are oriented on investigating: the behaviour and feelings associated with unfair prices, the attitude to hotel prices, the perceived motives that determine hotel price increases, the information behaviour on price changes. The main results show that price is important for customers in choosing hotel services, the main factors associated with price increases being related to the desire of seller to increase profit and to the cost increases. The customers' reactions when they are confronted with unfair prices refers especially on changing the rebuying behaviour, while the most important way to acquire information on price increases is to analyse the competitors' prices. The decisional implications of this research refer to the management of pricing process and to the communications associated with price changes.