A new research report from Cornell University reveals that brand switching sometimes occurs among a hotel's most-satisfied guests, while some of the least-satisfied guests keep coming back. The findings contradict commonly held marketing wisdom that satisfied customers always return – and have implications beyond the lodging industry.

The report, by Judy Siguaw, a professor of marketing at Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, and Iselin Skogland, a recent graduate of the Hotel School, analyzed behavior among these four guest segments: satisfied switchers, dissatisfied switchers, satisfied stayers and dissatisfied stayers. Two groups, the satisfied switchers and the dissatisfied stayers, did not conform to expectations.

Most confounding were satisfied switchers, who reported being satisfied but later switched to alternative hotels, rather than routinely choosing the hotel where they had a satisfactory experience. Thus, although marketers have long held that guest satisfaction is instrumental in ensuring repeat business, the study showed it does not drive repeat purchases for all consumers. Also intriguing, dissatisfied stayers were unwilling or unable to exert the effort to identify and use alternative hotels, even though they were unhappy with elements of the hotel where they stayed.

The report, "Understanding Switchers and Stayers in the Lodging Industry," was compiled from responses to a mailed survey of 1,700 former guests at two three-star properties in a major Midwestern city. The response rate was 24.1 percent. The survey gauged satisfaction with a range of variables, including price. It also looked at customer behavior in terms of brand loyalty, demographic variables, income and purpose of travel (business or leisure) and found that business travelers were the least satisfied, least loyal and least involved as well as the most likely to be dissatisfied switchers.

"Hotel managers can use this information to better define those groups with which they want to develop strategic investments and derive the greatest long-term value," said Siguaw. "Hotel companies might find value in refining their customer-retention programs to aim at customer groups most likely to respond to those programs." The report may be accessed at the Center for Hospitality Research Web site, http://www.chr.cornell.edu under Center Reports.

About the Center for Hospitality Research

A unit of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, The Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) sponsors groundbreaking research designed to improve practices in the hospitality industry. Under the lead of CHR's 34 corporate supporters, experienced scholars work closely with business executives to discover new insights into strategic, managerial and operational issues. To learn more about CHR and its projects, visit its Web site, http://www.chr.cornell.edu/.