As for any other business, our collective challenge to realize sustainable development requires hotels to incorporate the principles of sustainability in their operations and to simultaneously create economic, social and environmental value. Although hotels are increasingly engaged with specific aspects of sustainability, many if not most hospitality professionals still seem to assume that guests are predominantly driven by hedonic and gain motives, view sustainable measures as a threat to their hospitality experience, and are therefore not willing to accept more progressive sustainability measures. This article explores whether this assumption is correct and whether guests are willing and able to focus on sustainability related (normative) values during their stay in a hotel, and thus accept an adjustment to the current host-guest relationship in hotels. By reviewing relevant literature and analysing the results of interviews with hotel guests, this article concludes that as far as the guest is concerned, the host-guest relationship within hotels need not be limited to a purely economic transaction but actually offers room for an open and informed discussion between host and guest on ways to transform this relationship to one that actually supports sustainable development of the hotel sector and wider society. This conclusion will hopefully inform a more mature approach by hotels to the integration of sustainability in their strategy and operations, and a more unreserved and collaborative dialogue with guests about current and future sustainability measures.
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Property sharing is one of the most prominent examples of the rapidly expanding sharing economy. Travelers around the world often opt to stay at a stranger's apartment instead of any other tourism accommodation. Trust is essential in this choice, because staying with, or taking in, strangers can entail great risks. To create trust between users, sharing platforms often promote a sense of community. However, the relation between sense of community and trust in the sharing economy is still largely unknown. To investigate this relation, both hosts and guests of two sharing platforms, namely Airbnb and SabbaticalHomes, were surveyed. The findings indicate that sense of community indeed enhances trust between users. Moreover, the evidence suggests that hosts have a stronger sense of community than guests. Also, a significantly higher sense of community was found on the platform where identification between users is higher. This study shows that affect for the community contributes to the understanding of trust in the sharing economy.
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The hospitality industry contributes significantly to global climate change through its high resource consumption and emissions due to travel. As public pressure for hotels to develop sustainability initiatives to mitigate their footprint grows, a lack of understanding of green behavior and consumption of hotel guests hinders the adoption of effective programs. Most tourism research thus far has focused on the ecotourism segment, rather than the general population of travelers, and while research in consumer behavior shows that locus of control (LOC) and guilt can influence guests’ environmental behavior, those factors have not been tested with consideration of the subjective norm to measure their interaction and effect on recycling behavior. This study first examines the importance of internal and external LOC on factors for selecting hotel accommodation and the extent of agreement about hotel practices and, second, examines the differences in recycling behavior among guests with internal versus external LOC under levels of positive versus negative subjective norms and feelings of low versus high guilt.
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