Title: Customer satisfaction among university students towards budget hotels

Authors: Kok Oon Lim; Kai Yuan Chu; Kah Chun Law; Boon Keng Teo; Eng Jun Yong; Yoon Mei Chin; Pik-Yin Foo; Chun T'ing Loh

Addresses: Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia

Abstract: The budget hotel industry is facing increasing competition from homestay services provided through online platforms such as Airbnb. This paper aims to investigate the influence of customer's personality traits on customer satisfaction in the budget hotel industry in Malaysia. Using the five factor model, this study investigates the relationship between the five variables of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism to customer satisfaction, the dependent variable. Findings show that agreeableness has a positive and significant influence on customer satisfaction for budget hotels. Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism do not significantly influence customer satisfaction. From the results of the study, budget hotel operators may wish to adopt strategies which focus on the trait of agreeableness to maintain their profitability.

Keywords: budget hotels; homestay; five factor model; FFM; customer satisfaction; Airbnb; university students; online platform; customer loyalty; personality traits; consumers; Malaysia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMOM.2020.112378

International Journal of Modelling in Operations Management, 2020 Vol.8 No.2, pp.206 - 232

Received: 11 May 2020
Accepted: 13 Jul 2020
Published online: 13 Jan 2021 *

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