People tend to support social initiatives when they feel a psychological connection to the beneficiaries. This tendency often leads hospitality firms to prioritize social initiatives that appeal to customers over those that address the most urgent needs. While previous research has explored situations where people have pre-existing connections to beneficiaries, few studies have examined whether intentionally creating perceived closeness can achieve similar effects. This study explores whether linguistic framing using personal pronouns ("they" vs. "we") can increase perceived closeness toward beneficiaries and, in turn, boost customers' willingness to engage in social initiatives. Across two experiments, Study 1 found that using inclusive pronouns ("we") enhanced perceived closeness to beneficiaries, which subsequently increased engagement intentions. Furthermore, Study 2 demonstrated that this pronoun framing effect was moderated by an individual's power distance beliefs, the extent to which they perceive hierarchy when services are framed as exclusive. The pronoun framing effect was significant only among those with low power distance beliefs. These findings advance our theoretical understanding of how psychological distance can be strategically reduced through language used in campaign messages. They also offer practical guidance for hospitality managers seeking to design communication strategies that foster more meaningful and sustained customer engagement in social initiatives.

Purpose Greenwashing accusations are rising in hospitality, yet organizations often rely on misleading crisis communication. Drawing on Situational Crisis Communication Theory, the purpose of this study is to examine how misleading greenwashing crisis communication influences consumer brand avoidance. This study further examines the impact of perceived response sincerity and brand trust as sequential mediators and perceived crisis severity as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach Two scenario-based online experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Analysis of variance and PROCESS macro were used to assess direct, indirect and moderated mediation effects. Findings The results of this study indicate that misleading crisis communication significantly increases consumer brand avoidance, with omission being more damaging than paltering in shaping negative consumer responses. Perceived crisis severity functions as a moderator in the indirect pathway linking misleading communication to brand avoidance, with the difference in impact between omission and paltering emerging only when lower levels of crisis severity are perceived. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study underscore the value of integrating misleading tactics and sincerity-based pathways into Situational Crisis Communication Theory in greenwashing crises. Practical implications Hospitality firms should avoid omission, communicate transparently and gauge perceived severity early, as sincerity and trust restoration are crucial for reducing brand avoidance. Originality/value This research contributes to the greenwashing and crisis management research by focusing on crisis response strategies rather than prevention. This study contributes to the hospitality field by providing empirical evidence on how misleading communication impacts consumer behavior. The findings also offer practical insights for businesses to effectively manage greenwashing crises.

The intentional mix of low- and high-status signals is an emerging form of contemporary status signaling. However, few studies have examined the status mixing strategy, especially its role in creating uniqueness value in the luxury service context. Grounded in the trickle-round theory and the theory of uniqueness, this research proposes that mixing low- and high-status elements can enhance uniqueness perceptions. Specifically, Study 1 shows that mixing low- and high-status elements is perceived as more unique than using only high-status elements in the general restaurant setting. Study 2 further illustrates that, in the luxury context, the effect of status mixing varies by product type (goods vs. services), with perceived interchangeability accounting for this difference. While status mixing is considered more interchangeable, thus less unique for luxury goods, this effect does not occur for luxury services. Our study expands the literature on alternative status signals by showing that perceived interchangeability shapes evaluations of status mixing differently across luxury goods and luxury services.

Purpose This study aims to investigate how memory shaped by selective exposure to politically controversial topics, specifically genetically modified organisms (GMO) food sourcing, affects consumers’ attitudes toward hospitality, particularly foodservice brands and their electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) intentions. Design/methodology/approach Study 1 evaluated participants’ existing attitudes toward GM foods and examined their confirmation bias through selective exposure. After completing the exposure tasks, the participant’s memory retention was measured. Study 2 investigated how the type of food sourcing message (man-made vs. all-natural) interacts with participants’ memory (pro-GMO vs. anti-GMO), affecting participants’ brand attitude and e-WOM. Findings In Study 1, participants with pro-GMO (vs. anti-GMO) attitudes showed better recall of pro-GMO (vs. anti-GMO) information, building upon confirmation bias. In Study 2, participants with a strong anti-GMO memory exhibited significantly more favorable brand attitudes and greater e-WOM intentions when exposed to messages emphasizing “all-natural” sourcing. Participants with stronger pro-GMO memory showed no significant response, regardless of the type of food sourcing. Research limitations/implications This study provides a theoretical basis for explaining brand message acceptance by incorporating selective exposure and memory into cognitive processing models. It also provides practical guidance for framing politically contentious messages so that communication can be adjusted for different segments of consumers. Originality/value This study indicates that consumers’ selective exposure and confirmation bias play an important role in shaping their reactions to politically sensitive brand messages in hospitality. Drawing on political psychology, this study reveals how biased memory and preexisting attitudes interact with GMO sourcing messages to shape brand attitudes and e-WOM intentions, offering implications for hospitality businesses managing their reputation in politically sensitive contexts.

Purpose This study aims to investigate older adults' adoption of avatar-guided virtual tourism by extending the senior technology acceptance model (STAM) with emotional and social constructs. While traditional models emphasize functional perceptions, such as usefulness and ease of use, this study focuses on emotional connection as a key determinant of both attitude and actual usage behavior. By integrating emotional and social dimensions into STAM, the research clarifies how emotional engagement drives technology adoption among older adults in virtual tourism contexts.Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted with 480 older adults (aged 65-81) who interacted with an avatar-led virtual tourism prototype. Structural equation modeling examined direct, mediating and moderating effects of key constructs, including emotional connection, gerontechnology self-efficacy and social isolation.Findings Emotional connection significantly predicted both attitude and actual usage, with stronger effects for socially isolated participants. Ease of use and gerontechnology self-efficacy also enhanced perceived usefulness and attitudes. Perceived usefulness had a more moderate impact, suggesting emotional and experiential factors may outweigh functional ones. Sense of companionship and hedonic motivation further strengthened the emotional connection.Practical implications Tourism technology designers should integrate emotionally engaging avatars and intuitive interfaces. Marketers should emphasize emotional fulfillment in outreach. Health-care and policy sectors can use avatar-based tourism to combat loneliness and promote well-being in older adults.Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is among the first to integrate emotional and social constructs into STAM for virtual tourism, offering theoretical advancement and practical design insights for aging-friendly immersive technology.

Despite the growing number of greenwashing crises in the hospitality industry, there is a notable scarcity of research exploring the effectiveness of existing crisis communication strategies against such crises. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the impact of two commonly used misleading communication strategies - omission (omitting facts) and paltering (diverting attention with irrelevant facts) - in managing greenwashing crises. Through a moral judgment lens, this study reveals that misleading by omission leads to reduced consumer word-of-mouth than paltering, which is serially mediated by perceived ethicality and brand trust. Furthermore, this study uncovers the moderating role of information sources. It finds that the serial mediation effect exists when an environmental NGO is the greenwashing source but is non-significant when the source is a brand competitor. These findings offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of crisis management strategies and their ethical implications in managing hospitality greenwashing crises.

This study uncovers how two economic policies—incentive alignment and risk-aversion mitigation—affect the creation of new restaurant startups based on agency theory. Through the analyses of all restaurant projects on Kickstarter.com from 2014 to 2019 in the United States, this study found that state-level free market policies (for incentive alignment) and social safety-net spending (for risk-aversion mitigation) significantly enhance state-level restaurant startup activities. Findings also show that the two policies simultaneously bolster startup activities. This study contributes to the literature by examining the dynamics of both economic policies, reflecting two main goals of the agency theory, as prior literature seldom combines the two, despite capitalism being a mixed-market system encompassing both free market policies and social safety-net programs.

ESG evaluates a company's performance beyond financial indicators to assess its commitment to sustainable management. However, adopting ESG practices directly and indirectly impacts customers, making it vital for companies to intentionally engage them in achieving ESG goals. At the same time, ESG activities are oriented towards future outcomes, requiring a readiness to tolerate present discomforts for long-term benefits. Hence, customers' commitment is necessary even amidst uncertain immediate results. Despite these challenges, there have been limited efforts to explore strategies to actively motivate customers to support and choose ESG initiatives. To fill this literature gap, this research investigated whether reconfiguring messages using construal-level theory could make future-oriented decisions feel psychologically closer to customers, thereby increasing their willingness to make desirable choices for the future. This research demonstrates that message concreteness affects customer engagement in ESG goals through perceived temporal proximity and that this effect is stronger if the message is perceived to be more personally relevant to customers. Based on these findings, this study provides insight into strategic communication design to foster customer engagement with ESG goals.

The growth of Airbnb has given rise to changes in tourist behavior and tourism-related industries. However, research on domestic tourism demand (DTD) for Airbnb supply has been limited. Thus, this study uses the autoregressive distributed lag model and Granger causality analysis based on the tourism demand theory to investigate the relationship between Airbnb supply and DTD. Expenditure on tourism-related products, number of visitors, and search volume of tourism destinations are applied to measure the DTD. The results indicate that expenditure has a positive relationship with Airbnb supply in the short term, while the number of visitors and search volume have positive relationships with Airbnb supply in the long term. The findings show differences depending on the types of Airbnb listings and property hosts. Results of the Granger causality analysis indicate Airbnb supply Granger-causes DTD. Theoretical and practical implications regarding tourism demand are discussed based on the findings.

This study investigates the impact of virtual travel guided by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) enabled avatars on the well-being, travel confidence, and intention of older adults, using the experience economy framework and self-determination theory (SDT). The findings indicate that virtual travel experiences enhance the well-being of older adults by satisfying their intrinsic needs, leading to increased travel confidence and intention. This study extends the gerontechnology and virtual tourism literature by integrating SDT with the experience economy framework. The practical implications guide tourism practitioners, technology developers, policymakers, and healthcare providers in leveraging GenAI to satisfy the needs of aging populations.

Technology has become essential in the hospitality industry to meet changing customer expectations, improve operations, and enhance service. However, the use of technology can sometimes weaken a hotel's brand identity, especially in hotels where customers expect a heritage experience. Grounded in fluency theory, this research proposes that the introduction of technology disrupts the immersive experience in heritage hotels, diminishing customers' sense of escapism and authenticity, which ultimately reduces booking intentions. Study 1 of this research used a between-subject quasi-experimental design to demonstrate that the presence of technology indeed reduces the perceived fit with heritage brands. This confirms that technology negatively affects escapism and authenticity, reducing booking intention. Study 2 explored ways to mitigate these negative effects, showing that communicating the "why" (high-construal level) technology is implemented rather than the "how" (lowconstrual level) to use the technology improves the perceived authenticity of the heritage hotel experience and increases booking intention. As a result, this research expands on fluency theory by illustrating the importance of fit between technology and brand identity to maintain customer immersion and protect brand value. Managerially, it proposes a communication strategy focused on high-construal levels to effectively implement technology for heritage brand hotels.

When booking a hotel, customers typically select a room size and then add extra services like breakfast or spa access, generating ancillary revenue. While widely studied in airlines, ancillary revenue is less explored in hotels despite its growing importance. Hotels often use upselling, where customers start with a basic room and add services. However, marketing research suggests that offering all services upfront and allowing customers to remove options (downward framing) leads to higher ancillary purchases. This study examines how framing impacts customers' decisions to buy additional services, and explores the role of anticipated regret in these choices. Using a multiple-method approach, including experiments and choice modeling, the research offers insights into the most effective framing strategies to maximize ancillary revenue in hotels.

Purpose Despite the growth of hotel guests’ mobile application use, limited studies identify hotel mobile application attributes and their roles in mobile application satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Therefore, drawing onto the information system success model and the two-factor theory, this study aims to establish a comprehensive framework of hotel mobile application attributes categorized into system, information and service attributes and investigate their roles in mobile application satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive framework of hotel mobile application attributes has been developed, drawing on the information system success model and using text analytics. A total of 88,309 mobile application reviews were collected for analysis. Furthermore, an impact asymmetry analysis was conducted to examine the extent of influence of mobile application attributes on satisfaction and dissatisfaction, thereby elucidating the contribution of mobile application attributes to both outcomes and expanding upon the two-factor theory. Findings Research findings present a holistic mobile application attributes framework and their roles in mobile application satisfaction and dissatisfaction by integrating theories and methodologies. Regarding the information quality, relevance emerged as the key factor for enhancing customer satisfaction, serving as a satisfier. In the realm of system quality, features stood out as the principal attribute leading to dissatisfaction. For the aspects of service quality, reliability was identified as the critical factor for achieving satisfaction. Overall, the findings confirm that mobile application attributes have unique roles in developing mobile application (dis)satisfaction. Research limitations/implications The study extends an understanding of hotel mobile application attributes’ roles, providing rigorous and practical guidance for improving customers’ mobile application experience in the hotel industry. The study sheds light on the importance of considering mobile applications from various perspectives. However, the current study is limited to using text analytics as its methodological approach. Therefore, future research can benefit from including interviews to achieve a deeper comprehension of the underlying factors contributing to the outcomes of this research. Originality/value The novel theoretical and methodological approach enhances the application of existing theories and uses of impact asymmetry analysis. Such an approach uncovers hidden patterns of the roles of mobile applications in customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The study also sheds light on the importance of considering mobile applications from various perspectives, such as information, system and service quality.

The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to examine the extent to which the degree of professionalization affects Airbnb hosts' listing performance, and (2) to investigate the extent to which geographical distance and geographical diversification affect the relationship between professionalization and listing performance of Airbnb hosts. Based on the postulations of the resource-based view and the extant literature on peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation, Airbnb listings across seven major Korean cities was analyzed from 2014 to 2024 using panel random-effects model. The findings suggest that the degree of professionalization positively affects listing performance of Airbnb hosts. However, the results further show that geographical distance and geographical diversification negatively influence this effect as costs of operating multi-unit Airbnb listings intensifies with increased geographical distance and diversification. These findings contribute to the extant P2P accommodation research, resource-based view, and hospitality and tourism literature. Theoretical and practical implications are extensively discussed throughout the manuscript.

EDITORIAL article Front. Psychol., 09 October 2019Sec. Organizational Psychology Volume 10 - 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02290

When booking a hotel, customers typically select a room size and then add extra services like breakfast or spa access, generating ancillary revenue. While widely studied in airlines, ancillary revenue is less explored in hotels despite its growing importance. Hotels often use upselling, where customers start with a basic room and add services. However, marketing research suggests that offering all services upfront and allowing customers to remove options (downward framing) leads to higher ancillary purchases. This study examines how framing impacts customers’ decisions to buy additional services and explores the role of anticipated regret in these choices. Using a mixed-method approach, including experiments and choice modeling, the research offers insights into the most effective framing strategies to maximize ancillary revenue in hotels.