Key preferences of tourists during COVID-19 pandemic in luxury hotels: Evidence from qualitative data

There is a decline in revenue and occupancy rates in the hotels during the pandemic. For the sustainable and long-term recovery of the hotel industry, the guests need to be analyzed for their stay preferences. This study attempts to find the preferred attributes of the travelers visiting the Indian luxury hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research investigated the post-visit experiences from the online reviews published by tourists on TripAdvisor.com. Thematic salience valence analysis and lexical salience valence analysis was used to identify the vital attributes of the hotel industry. The study revealed staff, location, food, hygiene, and rooms as the preferred hotel attributes, in which the coastal locations were highly considered for location based marketing of luxury hotels, and non-compliance of COVID-19 standards and complaints for upgradations in the rooms were the non-recommenders for the luxury hotels. The dashboard-based salience valence zone analysis was used to provide suggestions to the hotel authorities by revealing the significant and critical hotel attributes simultaneously for prompt handling of the issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.