The willingness to pay and the attributes preferences on hotel choice decisions

A fast-growing number of small and medium size hotels in Thailand leads to a fierce competition within hotel industry. Old strategies such as price cutting may be obsolete. Needs of niche customers must be identified in order to target the right market and to employ the limited resource with correspond strategies. Thus, this paper aims to examine the preferred attributes on hotel choice decisions for Thai baby boomer travelers. Conjoint analysis technique was applied to explore how qualified respondents perceive the relative importance of cleanliness, monetary value, sleep quality, location, facilities, and amenities quality in the selection of small and medium hotels under the operation of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs. Despite the complication in collecting the samples of the technique, an innovative board game is created correspondingly to simplify the process and to visually mimic the trade-off situation in a process of consumer's evaluation. The findings suggest that application of the most preference profile card: Clean bed, Free Breakfast, Adjustable temperature, Green Environment, Fast-heated water heater should be put in priority in regard to the willingness to pay. SME hotel entrepreneurs targeting baby boom traveler could adjust the attributes to the outcomes accordingly in order to be competitive.