The influence of personal factors on consumer buying decision-making towards leisure hotel services

Abstract

Some hospitality businesses face challenges related to meeting customer expectations, amidst the continuous and rapid growth of the industry, resulting in intensified competition. This competition often leads to struggles in meeting customer demands. Despite significant investments in service delivery aimed at exceeding customer expectations, reports of non-success and high rates of customer complaints persist in some hospitality businesses. Thus, this paper aims to investigate personal factors influencing consumer decision-making toward leisure hotel services. The paper adopts a systematic literature review approach to achieve its objective. Data were gathered from secondary sources, employing an exploratory qualitative study approach with published peer-reviewed articles indexed in Scopus, Science Direct, and Google Scholar databases. Initially, 50 relevant research papers were identified, and inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to refine the selection. Ultimately, 16 papers published between 2018 and 2023 met the inclusion criteria. The findings from these 16 articles unveiled eight key personal factors influencing consumer decision-making: ego and psychological perceptions, income level, age, lifecycle, gender, self-concept, and social lifestyle. Hence, it can be concluded that consumer choice regarding leisure hotel services hinges upon satisfying these personal factors. This paper aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge and literature while providing insights to help hospitality businesses navigate the highly competitive industry. Future research directions could delve into exploring the influence of political, physical, and geographical factors on consumer decision-making, as well as examining the selection criteria employed by companies when choosing hotels for business purposes.