Factors Predicting Hotel Recommendations: A Comparison of Guest Feedback Before and After the Hotel Closures During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted the hospitality industry. The current study explored potential factors (i.e. cleanliness, location, room, service, and value) influencing guests' hotel recommendations before the shutdown of hotels due to COVID-19 and after the reopening of hotels. This study employed secondary data and random forest analysis to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that before COVID-19, the value factor had the most significant effect on a guest's willingness to recommend, followed by service, cleanliness, room, and location. A year after the shutdown period, the value factor still had the most significant effect, followed by service, room, and cleanliness, while location had an insignificant effect. Hotel managers can utilize the findings to create new strategies to attract guests and allocate resources to better address guests' evolving expectations.