Hotels' self-positioned image versus customers' perceived image: a case study of a boutique luxury hotel in Hong Kong

Purpose - This study aims to take boutique luxury hotels as its research subject to enrich the view on the self-positioned image of luxury hotels and simultaneously compare this image with the one perceived by customers. It also investigates whether a gap exists between the two images. Design/methodology/approach - The best-rated boutique luxury hotel in Hong Kong is selected as the case hotel. Through the interpretation and discussion of high-frequency wordlists and semantic co-occurrence network charts, major topics in the hotel's self-presented image and customers' perceived image are identified accordingly. Findings - Five dimensions (event making, exquisite food, excellent amenities and services, special function venue and promotion) used by hotels to form their boutique luxury image are recognised. Between hotels' self-positioned image and customers' perceived images, minor similarities such as the recognition of excellent amenities and services were confirmed but considerable differences were identified, indicating the ineffective marketing by the boutique luxury hotel despite its success in terms of ranking. Managerial suggestions on how to address the image discrepancy were proposed. Originality/value - This study contributes insights into hotel image discrepancy among social media platforms in luxury hotel segments by adding the category of boutique luxury hotels. It also identifies the implications for enhancing the development of a hotel image to meet customers' needs and expectations.