Innovation and Sustainable Growth Measurement in Hotel Industry: a hierarchical Decision Making Model

Managerial Directions and Practical Implications

The results show that first hotel managers should focus on first overall service quality, second hotel brand management and third sales techniques. As a result, the managers should focus on increasing overall service quality of the hotel, creating a strong brand name and brand awareness with the help of well-organized and structured sales techniques. In order to be successful, the hotel company should improve its sales techniques. These techniques should allow more professional sales-calls, international marketing tools, improved communication and follow-up skills to see whether the companies continue to choose the hotel, or just they move in some period of time. The reasons should be discussed and find-out. The information system in the hotel should be well-structured with an accessible, informative and manageable web-site. The reservations from the internet should not be a problem and even the promotions and campaigns should be found out easily at these web pages. Beside functionality, user-friendly and easy- manageable hotel web pages are preferred to increase customer portfolio. Indeed, IT has to be a strategic weapon to obtain competitive advantages in hotel industry.

The importance of qualified workers and effective customization tools follow up these first three most important criteria for a sustainable growth in hotel industry. The innovative hotel owners and brands have to develop effective retention programs and good compensation packages to retain employees. If future benefits of new hotel company weight higher than sunk costs of ending up the relationship with the current one, the customer will switch off and a sustainable growth for that hotel brand or chain could not be even possible. Creating an artificial commitment should not be a strategy for the hotel managers without paying attention the specific needs of the hotel guests, or just providing only small gifts to them. By this way, not only the customer sticks to the company in the short-term, but also
they cut-off the flow of prospective customers with negative word-of-mouth. Instead the aim should be to keep customer on hand creating a long-term loyalty specifically to the referred hotel brand name. The customization here comes to the stage; a privilege has to be provided for the hotel guests, attractive promotional campaigns, and periodic discounts in hotel prices and for especially VIP (very important persons) guests. The sales techniques could be customized according to different individual/organizational customers in order to take a precaution for not capturing customers to other alternative hotels that might be more attractive for them. Thus, it is necessary for hotel companies

information among hotel staff - hotel managers - customers-prospective customers. Customization may also include automated information to the customer about recent updates related to novelties in hotel management, renovation, and franchising, future promotional campaigns and so forth.

Based on our research, the weakest parts in hotel industry are less importance given to developing new business models, ecological sensitivity, and government incentives. Hotels in Turkey do not pay too much attention to R&D projects due to their high financial cost. Indeed, new business models like new franchising, mergers/acquisitions or different outsourcing opportunities could not have been developed. Moreover, the relationship with the government has to be kept tight in order to get investment incentives and help on ecological platform. However, the results show that hotel managers do not give enough importance to those criteria.

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