Personality, satisfaction, image, ambience, and loyalty: Testing their relationships in the hotel industry

This article appraises a theoretical model that relates personality, satisfaction, loyalty, ambience, and image in a hotel setting. The results of the structural equation modeling indicated that extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism among the Big Five Personality Factors significantly affect satisfaction. Satisfaction had a significant impact on hotel image and guests' loyalty. Compared to satisfaction, hotel image had a lesser impact on loyalty as well as being a mediator for the impact of satisfaction on loyalty. The moderating role of hotel ambience in the proposed theoretical framework was also identified. The results offer hoteliers potential strategies/tactics for loyalty enhancement. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.