HOTEL SERVICE INNOVATION AND CUSTOMER ATTRACTION IN RWANDA: A CASE OF KIGALI SERENA HOTEL

Abstract

Within the dynamic landscape of the global hotel industry, service innovation has emerged as a crucial driver for customer attraction and retention. However, despite the growing body of literature emphasizing the significance of service innovation in the context of customer engagement and loyalty, limited attention has been directed toward understanding the unique challenges and barriers faced by hotels in specific regions. This requires a constant consistency of understanding the effects of service innovation on customer attraction especially in the hotel industry. To achieve this, this study aimed to examine hotel service innovation and customer attraction in Rwanda where it was guided by four specific objectives namely; - to assess the role of technological innovation on customer attraction in Rwanda with a case study of Serena Hotel, to evaluate the effect of social media innovation on customer attraction in Rwanda with a case of Serena hotel, to determine the effect of personalization innovation on customer attraction in Rwanda with the case of Serena hotel, to examine the relationship between service innovation and customer attraction in Rwanda with a case of Serena hotel industry. The descriptive research design with a mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative data was employed to collect data by use of the questionnaire and interview with 123 workers of Kigali Serena Hotel, customers, and stakeholders, in which only 98 people were considered as the participants of the study by employing the sampling technique of simple random and census.

The collected results were analyzed using the statistical Package for Social sciences, SPSS for statistical analysis which helped to determine the conclusions. Based on the study's results, the study findings revealed that technological factors have a great significance to customer attraction which leads to being retained by the hotel due to its innovative services offered. It showed an average rating of hotel service innovation to customer attraction as 4.13 across other variables such technological innovation, social media innovation and personalization innovation. This showed that, if there is an increase in service innovation, it results to increase also in customer attraction as determined by the average mean value of 4.12 meaning that customers appreciate the use of innovative services mostly technology based at Serena Hotel. The recommendation is referred to Kigali Serena hotel and based on the findings of this study, it would assist hotel managers in building strong experienced and trained personnel with innovative ideas of addressing problems or questions raised by customers and ensuring exceptional customer service innovation that can attract and retain more customer at the hotel with managerial proper preparation and planning hence marking the growth of the hotel industry. Moreover, the results helped the government in revising and implementing policies that promote service quality as a prominent factor for growth in the hospitality industry. In conclusion therefore, the findings have put clarity on the factors influencing hotel service innovation to customer attraction in the hotel based on the significance of the findings and analysis covered in this study as per Serena hotel Kigali, Rwanda.