Title	The antecedents of brand prestige in affordable luxury hotels
Authors	Au-Yeung, Sing Lee Michelle
Advisors	Lo, Sau Yee Ada
Degree	Bachelor
Issue Date	2016
Absctract	With prestige being an evaluative judgment of high status in people’s mind, consumers are willing to accept prestige brands’ higher prices for a unique set of benefits, and luxury hotels represent one of the sectors demonstrating this phenomenon. However, no previous studies on brand prestige have been conducted in luxury hotel sector. Thus, this research aims at identifying the antecedents of brand prestige in affordable luxury hotels, targeting the rapidly-growing middle-class customer segment. Objectives were attained by analysing affordable luxury customers’ experience and brand-prestige evaluations collected through 423 self-administered questionnaires. Results revealed that three dimensions of customer experience are significant antecedents of brand prestige, with physical environment being the most important, followed by guest-to-staff encounters and guest-to-guest encounters. Leisure travelers were also found to have higher assessments on brand prestige and most of its antecedents than business travelers. Findings enhance practitioners’ understanding of brand-prestige formation in affordable luxury hotels to formulate effective strategies that maximize its associated benefits, and the study’s theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the latter part of the paper.
Subjects	Branding (Marketing) Hotels -- Marketing Hotel management
Award	Best Undergraduate Honours Thesis Award (2015-2016)
Publisher	Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Rights	All rights reserved. Copyright © 2016 School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University