AN EVALUATION OF THE BRANDS OF HOTELS IN JAPAN

The hospitality industry is a highly competitive industry that provides a unique combination of personal service and product to guests. Once built, a property's inventory is largely fixed: there are a given number of rooms that can be sold each night. Excess capacity represents a loss of business, while undersold rooms represent a loss of revenue (the property could have charged more for the rooms that were rented for the night). Shortages cannot be covered by selling additional rooms in the future.

In order to maximize profits, hoteliers have developed specific products to meet the needs of particular niche markets. Some markets are served by all-suite hotels that cater to business travelers; other properties use a discount approach to bring in one-night travelers. Some properties appeal to families, while others seek to attract singles or couples. Some hotels serve airport areas, while others are located near convention centers and market to groups almost exclusively.

Motels are usually one or two stories and offer limited food service. These facilities are designed for family travelers and not for extended stays. Hotels are multistory buildings that include a coffee shop, lounge, room service, convenience shops, and banquet facilities. Resorts generally offer a vacation atmosphere with extensive recreational facilities for special interests, such as golf or tennis.

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re encouraged to ensure that brand consistency is strong in order to maintain both brand image and brand loyalty. Brand image is what will bring consumers to a particular brand; brand loyalty is what will bring consumers back to the brand. When the brand image is supported by the actual service that the consumers receive, it increases the level of brand loyalty that the company can expect. Consumers purchase the service because they expect certain returns based on the brand image, and their actual experience leads to additional purchases in the future. When there is incongruity between brand image and actual service, brand loyalty is difficult--if not impossible--to cultivate since none of the self-images of the consumer are in line with the actual service (Ataman & _lengin, 2003). Some research suggests that building brand image can be an important differentiating factor that outweighs the actual service or product benefits. del Rio, Vßzquez and Iglesias, for example, note that consumers of athletic shoes in the Spanish market were more aware of differences in the brands than of differences between the actual products. In other words, consumers in this study based purchase decisions on the brand image and the differences b
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Approximate Word count = 7749
Approximate Pages = 31 (250 words per page)