IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/saea17/252819.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Choice Experiment of Traveler Willingness to Pay for Proactive Protection against Bed Bugs in Hotels

Author

Listed:
  • Penn, Jerrod
  • Hu, Wuyang

Abstract

In recent years, the global rate of bed bug infestations has increased dramatically as well as the corresponding costs. One subtle cost that is important to the hospitality industry is travelers’ anxiety and risk of getting bed bugs. In this analysis, we use a Choice Experiment to investigate travelers’ WTP for proactive protection against bed bugs when booking a hotel. For travelers’ reaction to proactive protection against bed bugs, nearly 60% of travelers have a favorable opinion, while less than 10% rejected such efforts. Travelers have positive and significant Willingness to Pay for all four protective services considered, with the greatest value placed on the use of mattress encasements and the least value associated with weekly inspections from hotel staff. While hotels may be hesitant to openly advertise protective services, our results demonstrate that many travelers may be receptive.

Suggested Citation

  • Penn, Jerrod & Hu, Wuyang, 2017. "A Choice Experiment of Traveler Willingness to Pay for Proactive Protection against Bed Bugs in Hotels," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252819, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:saea17:252819
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.252819
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/252819/files/SAEA%202017%20Proactive%20Protection.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.252819?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James K. Hammitt & Kevin Haninger, 2007. "Willingness to Pay for Food Safety: Sensitivity to Duration and Severity of Illness," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1170-1175.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kevin Boyle & Sapna Kaul & Ali Hashemi & Xiaoshu Li, 2015. "Applicability of benefit transfers for evaluation of homeland security counterterrorism measures," Chapters, in: Carol Mansfield & V. K. Smith (ed.), Benefit–Cost Analyses for Security Policies, chapter 10, pages 225-253, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Henrik Andersson & James Hammitt & Gunnar Lindberg & Kristian Sundström, 2013. "Willingness to Pay and Sensitivity to Time Framing: A Theoretical Analysis and an Application on Car Safety," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 56(3), pages 437-456, November.
    3. Britwum, Kofi & Yiannaka, Amalia, 2019. "Consumer willingness to pay for food safety interventions: The role of message framing and issue involvement," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Kevin Haninger & James K. Hammitt, 2011. "Diminishing Willingness to Pay per Quality‐Adjusted Life Year: Valuing Acute Foodborne Illness," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(9), pages 1363-1380, September.
    5. Dorte Gyrd-Hansen, 2013. "Using the Stated Preference Technique for Eliciting Valuations: The Role of the Payment Vehicle," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 31(10), pages 853-861, October.
    6. Dorte Gyrd‐Hansen & Mette Lundsby Jensen & Trine Kjaer, 2014. "Framing The Willingness‐To‐Pay Question: Impact On Response Patterns And Mean Willingness To Pay," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(5), pages 550-563, May.
    7. Robinson, Lisa A. & Raich, William J. & Hammitt, James K. & O’Keeffe, Lucy, 2019. "Valuing Children’s Fatality Risk Reductions," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 156-177, July.
    8. Hammitt, James K. & Herrera-Araujo, Daniel, 2018. "Peeling back the onion: Using latent class analysis to uncover heterogeneous responses to stated preference surveys," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 165-189.
    9. Pinto-Prades, Jose Luis & Loomes, Graham & Brey, Raul, 2009. "Trying to estimate a monetary value for the QALY," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 553-562, May.
    10. Kumar, A. & Saroj, S. & Thapa, G. & Joshi, P.K. & Roy, D., 2018. "Compliance with safety practices among dairy farmers in Bihar, India: Do smallholders benefit?," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277176, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Henrik Andersson & James K. Hammitt & Kristian Sundström, 2015. "Willingness to Pay and QALYs: What Can We Learn about Valuing Foodborne Risk?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(3), pages 727-752, September.
    12. John McKie & Bradley Shrimpton & Jeff Richardson & Rosalind Hurworth, 2011. "The monetary value of a life year: evidence from a qualitative study of treatment costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(8), pages 945-957, August.
    13. Hammitt, James K. & Haninger, Kevin, 2017. "Valuing nonfatal health risk as a function of illness severity and duration: Benefit transfer using QALYs," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 17-38.
    14. V. Kerry Smith & Carol Mansfield & Aaron Strong, 2008. "Public or Private Production of Food Safety: What Do U.S. Consumers Want?," NBER Working Papers 14287, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Hammitt, James & Haninger, Kevin, 2011. "Valuing Morbidity Risk: Willingness to Pay per Quality-Adjusted Life Year," LERNA Working Papers 11.09.343, LERNA, University of Toulouse.
    16. Tracy Lieu & G. Ray & Ismael Ortega-Sanchez & Ken Kleinman & Donna Rusinak, 2009. "Willingness to Pay for a QALY Based on Community Member and Patient Preferences for Temporary Health States Associated with Herpes Zoster," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 27(12), pages 1005-1016, December.
    17. Alvarez, Sergio & Solís, Daniel & Hwang, Joonghyun, 2019. "Modeling shellfish harvest policies for food safety: Wild oyster harvest restrictions to prevent foodborne Vibrio vulnificus," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 219-230.
    18. Lisa A. Robinson & James K. Hammitt, 2011. "Behavioral Economics and Regulatory Analysis," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(9), pages 1408-1422, September.
    19. James Hammitt & Kevin Haninger, 2010. "Valuing fatal risks to children and adults: Effects of disease, latency, and risk aversion," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 57-83, February.
    20. Teisl, Mario F. & Roe, Brian E., 2010. "Consumer willingness-to-pay to reduce the probability of retail foodborne pathogen contamination," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 521-530, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:saea17:252819. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/saeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.