Scale heterogeneity in hotel guests’ satisfaction relative to room rates

Purpose - This paper aims to examine hotel guests’ satisfaction relative to room rates paying attention to the heterogeneity in the scale of satisfaction scores. Design/methodology/approach - This paper studies guests’ post-purchase hotel evaluation using survey data from a sample of 14,879 tourists visiting a Northern Spanish region. This study estimates a Heteroskedastic Ordered Probit model in which both “cognitive” and “emotional” components of satisfaction are modelled. The model allows us to control for heterogeneity in the scale of the latent satisfaction scores. Findings - This paper finds that satisfaction relative to rates (value for money) decreases with expenditure per person and day. Interestingly, this negative relationship mainly holds for those who do not prioritize prices at the time of choosing the hotel. Positive first impressions are positively associated with higher satisfaction. In addition, this study finds that the emotional component of satisfaction increases with hotel quality and hiring a full board, being also greater among women and elderly people. Originality/value - Instead of using an overall measure of satisfaction, this paper uses one that gathers how the tourist assesses satisfaction in relation to cost (value for money).