Linking Psycho-Environmental Comfort Factors to Tourist Satisfaction Levels: Application of a Psychology Theory to Tourism Research

Tourist satisfaction is an interdisciplinary research subject that may benefit from appropriate utilization of the rich theories and methods of psychology. Unprecedentedly in tourism research, this study investigated how tourists’ perception of hotel-based environmental comfort factors affected their satisfaction levels grounding on Vischer’s theory of comfort originated in organizational-environmental psychology. Analysis of a data set of 115 negative satisfaction ratings and coupled narrative tourist reviews published on Tripadvisor revealed that among several environmental comfort factors, the most important ones related to lower satisfaction levels were hygiene, social incivility, design and atmosphere, air and thermal quality, and crowd in sequence. Secondary and tertiary factors were also analyzed and put forth with implications. Results were discussed in terms of practical effects, and suggestions for improvement were offered.