Critical Success Factors and Customer Expectation in Budget Hotel Segment — A Case Study of China

This study investigates the nature of critical success factors (CSFs) in China's budget hotel operations and development from the perspectives of various stakeholders, including customers, industry professionals, government authorities, and hotel investors. Understanding the differences in CSFs becomes extremely important to the success of the budget hotel segment in China. Results indicated that while all five dimensions of CSFs (i.e., physical product, service quality, price, promotion, and location) were deemed important by the industry professional, government authority, and hotel investor, the sequence of importance differed substantially among these groups. By contrast, customers were primarily concerned with service quality issues, indicating service quality was still the core customer expectation in China's budget hotel market.