Influencing Factors of Customer Satisfaction with Japanese Hostels

Abstract

[eng] The success of a business is determined in part by customer satisfaction. While the literature has studied well customer satisfaction with the core business of hotels, little is known about the factors that affect the satisfaction of hostels’ guests. I use the data on 327 Japanese hostels to determine the influencing factors of hostel customers’ satisfaction. The hostels are distributed across five cities: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka and Hiroshima, and are also divided into three categories: “superb”, “fabulous” and “others”. For each category, I use T-tests, ANOVA and linear regression analysis to analyze the degree of correlation between overall satisfaction and six attributes: atmosphere, cleanliness, security, facilities, staff and value for money. I contribute to the literature in two ways. Firstly, my results show that despite the slight differences between cities and ratings, generally, facilities is the most important determinant of satisfaction. For the hostels in Tokyo and Osaka which receive relatively low overall scores, cleanliness is an issue that needs to be improved. Secondly, the paper provides suggestions for hostel managers on how to effectively improve customer satisfaction, which has an important practical significance.