Effects of COVID-19 on the most important hotel attributes for German leisure travellers: an empirical investigation

ABSTRACT This study empirically assesses the importance of common hotel attributes for German leisure travellers in general, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived importance in particular. We used desk research to extract the most common hotel attributes from the literature, interviews with experts for verification, a survey of potential hotel guests using an online-questionnaire with rating scales. The data thus collected was analyzed using nonparametric tests to identify the essential hotel attributes and indicate differences in perceived importance between several subgroups. Our analysis shows that cleanliness of the room/bath and price/performance ratio were considered to be the most important attributes for German leisure travellers in the pre-pandemic phase. Significant differences were observed for several attributes depending on gender, age, income, experience, and peer-to-peer accommodations, indicating a high degree of target-group heterogeneity. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to rearrange the importance of some attributes and the travel behaviour.