EXPECTATIONS OF DOMESTIC WOMEN BUSINESS TRAVELERS FROM HOTEL ACCOMMODATION: A PERSPECTIVE OF HOTEL MANAGERS

The objective of this paper is to ascertain the perception of hotel managers concerning the expectations of domestic women business travelers (DWBT) through qualitative analysis. This research was performed using synchronous focus group discussions (FGDs) virtually on Microsoft Teams. Participants belonged to the management of 5-star hotels in Delhi and Gurugram (cities in the National Capital Region, India). Transcripts were analyzed thematically using NVivo (Release 1.0) software. The authors have proposed seven core themes associated with female symbols of expectations looked forward to by DWBT from their hotel stay. These are guest room as the expectation of servicescape and design, hotel services as the expectation of comfort, amenities as the expectation of quality and value, hotel security as the expectation of assurance and trust, augmented specials being the expectation of personalization, selection triggers being the expectation of convenience and suitability, and customized meal requirements being the expectation of health and wellbeing. Hospitality marketers may apply strategic planning and decision-making to devise focused communication strategies to accomplish the expectations of this segment. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first to break new ground to assess findings using synchronous FGDs for understanding the expectations of DWBT from the management perspective.