How employee-guest interactions and welcome hospitality create brand attitudes for first-time hotel customers

Purpose Inspired by the concept of the moment of truth, this study aims to examine how service interactions between hotel front-desk staff and a first-time check-in guest affect the guest’s brand satisfaction and brand attitudes, considering the moderating effect of welcome hospitality. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a between-subjects 2 (check-in service with high-service interaction vs low-service interaction) × 2 (with welcome hospitality vs without welcome hospitality) experimental method to investigate the mechanism of building brand attitudes towards a hotel during the check-in process. Findings The results of Study 1 showed that participants in the high-service interaction group reported higher brand satisfaction and brand attitudes than the low-service interaction group. It also confirmed that brand satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between service interactions and brand attributes. The results of Study 2 demonstrated the moderating effect of welcome hospitality. When service interaction is low, welcome hospitality can effectively improve brand satisfaction, but when service interaction is high, the improvement in brand satisfaction is smaller. Originality/value This research contributes to the literature on service interactions by potentially first experimentally examining the impact of first-time employee-customer interactions within a hotel setting. Recommendations were provided to hotel operators on how hotel staff can improve their service interactions.