Partner Selection Criteria of Independent Hotel Operators in Thailand

Abstract

This research project aims to explore partner selection criteria of independent hotel operators in Thailand, which expects the benefits for hotel operators and hotel owners to use as a guideline for creating mutual satisfied hotel management contract and long term successful business relationship. The participants are seven independent hotel operators in Thailand. Qualitative method was used by using semi-structured in-depth interview as a data collection approach and the data were thematically analyzed.

Findings show that objective factors of hotel operator in selecting its partners mostly have similarity with the previous studies which consist of profile of owner, the business forecast and the level of management fee, location and specification of the property, and market coverage. Findings also reveal new objective factors which are owner’s hotel business knowledge, owner’s investment purpose, stage of the property, and period of management contract. Attitudes and perceptions of owner toward business vision of the hotel management company is the subjective factor as same as previous studies while impression during business discussion and relationship are found as a new subjective factor.