Hotel Choice Attributes in Pet-friendly Hotel : Text Mining and Conjoint Analysis Approach

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Traveling with pets has become increasingly popular, as pet owners view them as family members. Pet accommodation still falls far short of the demands of pet owners who wish to travel with pets, and research related to it is still lacking. Drawing on these limitations, this study aims to explore the choice attributes of pet-friendly hotels and to estimate their importance. The choice attributes were identified using a literature review, industry data, and user-generated content, while the significance of each attribute was determined using choice-based conjoint analysis. From the three materials in Study 1, a variety of factors were identified, which mainly related to hotel facilities, pet facilities, and pet policies. To conduct choice-based conjoint analysis, seven attributes were considered among the various factors, including (1) price, (2) hotel rating, (3) location, (4) equipment for pets, (5) access to a restaurant with a pet, (6) facility for pets, and (7) pet care service. Conjointly software was used to design and collect the data and R software's Clogit package was used to analyze the data. 311 responses were collected during the two-week survey that began on November 1, 2022. Consequently, the most critical factor in choosing a hotel for pet owners was the availability of pet facilities. Pet-friendly restaurants and prices were the second and third most important attributes, followed by location, hotel grades, equipment for pets, and pet care services. This study theoretically fills the gap in pet-friendly accommodations. The practical implications of this study advise hotel managers on which attributes to prioritize when designing pet-friendly hotels.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Contents １
• Table Contents ３
• Figure Contents ４
• 1 Introduction ６
• 2 Literature Review ９
• 2.1 The pet as a family member ９
• 2.2 Leisure with a pet ９
• 2.3 The pet-friendly hotel １１
• 2.4 Industry practices of pet-friendly hotels in the USA １２
• 2.5 Kid-friendly hotels １６
• 2.6 Choice attributes in hotels １７
• 3 Research Design: Two-Step Methods １８
• 4 Study 1: Identifying Attributes of Pet-Friendly Hotels １９
• 4.1 Blog and text mining １９
• 4.1.1 Data acquisition ２０
• 4.1.2 Text preprocessing ２２
• 4.1.3 Data analysis ２３
• 4.2 Industry practices for a pet-friendly hotel in Korea ２７
• 4.3 Findings ２９
• 5 Study 2: Utility of Attributes in a Pet-Friendly Hotel ３１
• 5.1 Choice-based conjoint analysis ３１
• 5.2 Identifying choice attributes in a pet-friendly hotel ３３
• 5.3 Specifying attribute levels ３４
• 5.4 Creating the experimental design ３５
• 5.5 Administering the survey ３６
• 5.6 Estimating the choice model ３７
• 5.7 Results ３７
• 5.7.1 Characteristics of respondents ３８
• 5.7.2 Choice-based conjoint analysis ４１
• 6 Discussion ４５
• 7 Conclusion, Implications, and Limitations ４６
• 8 References ５０
• 9 Appendix ５９