The influence of perceived value, satisfaction and commitment on electronic word-of-mouth of Chinese hotel guests in Malaysia

The remarkable growth of China outbound tourism is a sign of increased opportunities to worldwide hotel industry, including Malaysia. Nonetheless, hoteliers are constantly challenged with business sustainability. Notably, sustaining a hotel business should begin with understanding the customers’ behavioural responses.
Therefore, hotel managers need to be receptive towards their guests’ post visit behaviour. A common guests’ post visit behaviour is to share their experience with others through word-of-mouth. In line with the current information technology development, the practice of experience sharing has evolved from traditional
word-of-mouth (WOM) to electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM), and this includes Chinese hotel guests in Malaysia. Hence, this research aims to investigate Chinese hotel guests experience by assessing the relationship between perceived value, satisfaction,
commitment and e-WOM responses. Quantitative method was employed in this research. Questionnaires were distributed at the airports in Penang, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur as well as on selected social-media platforms. A sum of 464 use-able
questionnaires were obtained and regression analyses were carried out to address the research questions and the hypotheses. The results showed that perceived value influenced the satisfaction and commitment of the customers. Satisfaction is shown to be a significant influencer of commitment. These variables in-turn significantly influenced e-WOM responses. Additionally, this research affirmed the mediation role of satisfaction and commitment. Satisfaction had a mediating effect on the
relationship between perceived value and commitment. Commitment was affirmative in mediating the relationship between perceived value and e-WOM responses as well as between satisfaction and e-WOM responses. In terms of contributions, this
research enriches the literature by providing the theoretical explanations for the relationship and mediating influence among the variables. It also offers a plausible research framework to study hotel guest experience. Practically, the results benefit the hotel industry by providing clear insights on the hotel guests’ experience
evaluation. This would assist hotel managers in terms of their marketing, human resources and strategic business decisions. Ultimately, this research shall entice the academia and the hoteliers to work collectively to enhance hotel guests’ experience and to ensure business sustainability in the hospitality industry.