Prioritizing hotel lobby design factors: perspectives of hotel operators in China

ABSTRACT The hotel lobby is where a guest forms his or her first impression of a hotel’s brand image and quality; hence, integrating appropriate design criteria into hotel lobby design is a value creation act. The novelty and aim of this study is to identified and categorized 15 hotel lobby design factors and ranked their importance and satisfaction levels from hotel operators’ perspective to achieve value innovation and sustainable operations management. For this purpose, it systematically developed a questionnaire based on the Kano method and conducted a questionnaire survey on 30 hotel operators in China. Yang’s importance-satisfaction model was applied in data analysis. The study found that economic advantage and value creation are must-be and one-dimensional aspects, and considerations such as modular design, appropriate construction management and cost control, ease of maintenance and repair, and atmospheric design methods are important economic advantage criteria. Strategies involving these considerations facilitate value innovation and sustainable operations and guarantee a comfortable and environmentally friendly stay to hotel guests. The findings not only clarify hotel operators’ insights regarding the use of attractive factors in hotel lobby design but also serve as a reference for international hotel operators to develop possible business models with lobby design strategies.


Introduction
China is rapidly becoming one of the world's major hotel markets. Hence, many international hotel brands have established themselves in major Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing (Mao and Yang 2016). Therefore, along with facing the competition raised by their local peers, domestic Chinese hotel brands are encountering challenges posed by international hotel brands.
Further, budget hotel chains with price advantages and standardized service are transforming themselves to enter the higher-end market (Huang, Liu, and Hsu 2014;Jiao 2014;Andreu, Claver, and Quer 2017;Ye, Wu, and Paek 2020). In this situation, hotel operators have started considering various branding and marketing strategies. Through branding and marketing, hotels can obtain recognition from consumers and favor from investors. Hence, hotel operators are investing significant time and resources in hotel planning and transformation. Lobby design is one particular area that is focused on by operators. As hotel lobby is where a guest forms his or her first impression of a hotel's brand image and quality; integrating appropriate design criteria into hotel lobby design is a value creation act and could enhance hotel's branding and marketing and stay in competitions.
A review of the recent literature reveals that the categorization and processing of complexity in hotel design styles have matured over the years (Ozkan, Yidirim, and Tuna 2017;Orth and Wirtz 2014;Lee, Lee, and Koh 2019). A hotel lobby that integrates multiple functions, such as those for reception, waiting, reading, and shopping, is the current trend; Figure 1 depicts such a lobby. It is to note that all of the images showed in this introduction section are the first author's design projects and his copyright of images.
Many heritage buildings have been successfully transformed into hotels. Protecting and reusing such existing buildings is a sustainable and attractive design method. In such hotels, guests can experience and learn the local history and culture during their stay. Further, such hotels help promote the local culture and enable the protection of historical buildings and their intangible value (Timothy and Gelbman 2015;Ong, Minca, and Felder 2015;Xie and Shi 2019). Figure 2 depicts an example of a heritage hotel. In this case, the facades and relevant proportions of buildings constructed in the Chinese architectural style are blended with new lobby designs.
To develop marketing features, hotel operators adopt brand stories and theming strategies. For instance, Figure 3 shows how an antique gramophone theme and theatrical effects were used in hotel lobby designs in Guangdong and Shanghai. Such strategies enable hotel managements to increase their popularity in the market within a short period (Wassler, Li, and Hung 2015;Ryu et al. 2019;Coleman and Robinson 2018).
Another trend is to hire professional consultants to promote the greening of and integrate art in hotel lobbies (Dixon and Aldous 2014;Shi and Wang 2013;Cheng et al. 2016;Lin 2016;Ahmad et al., 2018;Heesup and Sunghyup 2019). As shown in Figure 4, a green, artistically decorated hotel lobby reflects a modern, fresh, and easy living style. Further, technological advancements facilitate the use of social media as communication platforms between hotels and consumers. Often, a questionnaire is sent to consumers after their stay in a hotel. It not only aims to find out consumers' satisfaction with the stay or services but also helps collect and analyze consumers' preferences. The analyzed data serve as a reference to adjust the hotel's future operations (Duan et al. 2016;Dieck et al. 2017).
The traditional business model of budget hotels is changing, as well. Hotel operators no longer rely on guestroom income as a profit model. An innovative business model in which hotels engage in crosssector development partnerships to create sustainable    competitive advantage by constantly updating hotel lobbies to express a positive and stylish image is necessary and practical in most cases (Alegre and Berbegal-Mirabent 2016;Souto 2015). Apart from models, several applications offer innovative solutions that guarantee a comfortable stay to hotel guests, as well (Huang, Chang, Yu, and Chen 2019;Gibbs, Gretzel, and Saltzman 2016).
To lower future maintenance costs and simultaneously maintain customer satisfaction, hotel operators create some perfect maintenance plans by focusing on the long-term effects of capital expenditure on decoration (Turner and Hesford 2019;Chew, Conejos, and Azril 2019;Bortolini and Forcada 2019). These plans prevent ineffective resource use and inappropriate construction planning and management decisions that may adversely affect the living environment. As a result of the changes in these concepts and perceptions, basic atmospheric factors such as lighting, air quality, thermal comfort, odor, and music (Guillet, Kozak, and Kucukusta 2019;Suh et al. 2015;Jani and Han 2015) and, particularly green values based on environmental protection, have become some of the considerations in hotel lobby design (Hays and Ozretić-Došen 2014;Vargas, Lawrence, and Stevenson 2017;Lai 2016;D'Souza et al. 2021). These considerations facilitate an improvement in lobby amenities, which, in turn, delight guests from different cultural backgrounds (Dev et al. 2018;Torres, Fu, and Lehto 2014;Soifer, Choi, and Lee 2020).
Since the integration of attractive factors in hotel lobby design is a continuous trend, this study identifies the importance and satisfaction levels of such attractive design factors from hotel operators' perspective by conducting a questionnaire survey on operators in China. This study is the first attempt in the field that used Kano model and Refined Kano Model to study the views from the hotel operators on importance and satisfaction levels of hotel lobby design factors. The reason to use Kano model is explained in research methodology section as it could be used to evaluate customers' expectations regarding and satisfaction with a product or service. Previous studies have been used Kano model exclusively on single perspective (customers) for hotel's service and product satisfaction (Harton and Chuan 2011;Chang and Chen 2011;Chiang, Chen, and Hsu 2019; Gregory and Parsa 2013; Zobnina and Rozhkov 2018;Park, Lee, and Back 2021) or focus on design factors for the hotel interior design with Kano and refined Kano model (Huang, Chen, Tsaih 2019).
The research findings not only provide hotel operators' first-hand insight into these attractive design factors used in lobby design but also serve as a reference for international hotel operators to develop possible business models with lobby design strategies. Such strategies facilitate value innovation and sustainable operations and guarantee a comfortable and environmentally friendly stay to customers.

Participants
There are two groups of the participants involved in this study. For the interviews of the necessary hotel design factors, respondents included six hotel managers from China's first-tier cities, Beijing (1 person), Shanghai (2 people), Guangzhou (2 people), and Shenzhen (1 person); two professors from the architecture department who design experience in hotel and sustainable design; and two design professionals having a master's or higher degree and hotel design experience. The average age and year of working experience of first group participants is 52 and 25, respectively. For the questionnaires, the respondents were managers of economy hotels undergoing transformation or of new hotels located in four of China's first-tier cities. The average age and year of working experience of second group participants is 45 and 20, respectively. As shown in Table 1, the survey was conducted on eight respondents in each of the four cities. Since two respondents did not complete the questionnaire, the total valid sample count was 30. The response rate is 93.7%.

Data collection
The proposed design factors were first identified from the recent and relevant literature on hotel lobby design and business model innovation and later established through interviews and discussions with the focus group 1. Their background information has been discussed in "Participants" subsection. Interviews were conducted via phone for the first group of participants. During the interview, question such as what are the important hotel lobby design factors for your business to stay in competition is asked. Based on the opinions and instructions of these professionals from the field and academia, 15 effective design factors proposed by the relevant literature on successful lobby designs and business models were derived. These design factors are categorized into value creation and economic advantage aspects, as shown in Table 2.

Questionnaire
The questionnaire comprised three parts. Part I collected respondents' background information such as age and year of working experience. Part II was based on Kano's model method and collected the respondents' opinions on the necessity of including the proposed hotel design factors. Each element is designed with functional and dysfunctional conflict pair-wise items, as shown in Table 3. Finally, Part III considered the refined Kano model method to clarify respondents' perspectives on the importance and satisfaction level of proposed design factors based on their experience in conducting or supervising hotel operations after the hotels' construction or transformation. Table 4 depicts a sample of some of the importance and satisfaction questions included in Part III. The respondents' answers were evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = not important, 2 = of little importance, 3 = moderately important, 4 = important, and 5 = very important. To overcome possible limitations, the survey was conducted through mail, in-person interviews, and by telephone.

Kano's two-dimensional model
The two-dimensional model introduced by Noriaki Kano in 1984 is often used to evaluate customers' expectations regarding and satisfaction with a product or service (Kano 1984;Luor et al. 2015;Madzík and Kormanec 2018). Kano's twodimensional model considers whether a product satisfies customers' expectations, as shown in Figure 5. Kano's questionnaire uses a 5-point ordinal scale with values such as like, must-be, neutral, live with, and dislike to evaluate a customer's level of preference with a product. Each question is addressed in the positive and negative directions to minimize the potential error associated with onedirectional questions. To transform the 5-point ordinal scale to the level of preference on a product or service, the scale is initially transferred into specific values, such as like = 1 and dislike = 1/5. Subsequently, it is calculated in a matrix and correlated to five qualitative categories: attractive quality (A), one-dimensional quality (O), must-be quality (M), indifferent quality (I), and reverse quality (R). The final matrix result can be plotted within the four quadrants shown in Figure 5.
Step by step calculation and underlaying statistics principle and equations used in this study are not discussed detailly in this paper and were based on Berger et al. paper (Berger et al. 1993).  (2015)

Refined Kano model
The Kano model can effectively help develop services and improve product quality; however, it does not fulfill financial or technical requirements. In this situation, the refined Kano model can further differentiate a quality unlike the original Kano model (Yang 2005); hence, it is used to judge the effects of the importance level on quality attributes and make customer satisfactionoriented choices (Kristensen, Kanji, and Dahlgaard 1992). As shown in Figure 6, in the refined Kano's model, an attractive quality can be differentiated into a highly attractive and a less attractive quality in quadrant 2 and be correlated to positive satisfaction and unimportance fulfilments. Further, quadrant 2 has an indifferent quality that is associated with the potential and carefree   categories in the original Kano model. Although a business owner can use the highly attractive quality factor to attract potential customers and often recommend and include it as a strategic weapon to attract customers, he or she may not use it in case of a budget consideration. This is simply because the highly attractive and less attractive qualities lie within the positive satisfaction and negative importance quadrant, and the nonfulfillment of a highly attractive or less attractive quality will not affect customer satisfaction. Hence, it can be omitted according to a cost-cut decision.
Similarly, as shown in quadrant 1, the one-dimensional quality can be further differentiated into high valueadded and low value-added qualities. Since the high value-added quality significantly contributes to customer satisfaction and has a high importance level, most organizations provide this one-dimensional quality to their customers. On the other hand, in case of budget concerns, a business owner may omit a low value-added quality if its contribution to customer satisfaction and its importance level are low. Further, the must-be quality that falls within quadrant 4 shows that service quality is critical and necessary, due to which it must be fulfilled by organizations to prevent dissatisfaction and realize customers' expectations.

Kano's evaluation table
Kano's evaluation table, which is shown in Table 5, was used to analyze the questions in Part II using the following five categories suggested by Kano (Kano 1984): attractive quality, must-be quality, onedimensional quality, indifferent quality, and reverse quality. For each proposed design factor, the answers of functional and dysfunctional forms were entered in the evaluation table. For instance, if the answer is "must-be" in functional form and "dislike" in dysfunctional form for a proposed and specific hotel lobby design factor, the table yields "M." If response yield from 20 out of 30 participants for a specific design factor is M, and 10 out of 30 participants has A, then M, the must-be quality factor will be included in the hotel lobby design. This data analysis method is also known as Kano's quality function deployment (QFD). Figure 7 shows the refined categorization of the importance-satisfaction (I-S) model proposed by Yang in 2005(Yang 2005). The X-axis represents the importance level and the Y-axis the satisfaction level of a design factor. The average of all 30 participants' importance and satisfaction evaluation scores for each proposed design factor will be plotted in Figure 7. The analysis results were divided into excellent, to be improved, surplus, and carefree areas. When a proposed design factor falls within the excellent area, it denotes the element's high importance and satisfaction levels. The high importance and satisfaction levels of this proposed design factor indicates that hotel operators understand that it must be maintained to ensure the high standard of hotel lobby design. For proposed design factors that fall in the to be improved area, hotel operators consider these factors' quality attributes important. Since the performance of these factors generally exceeds expectations, they should be improved as soon as possible. For proposed design factors that fall within the surplus area, hotel operators consider the quality of these factors in this area less important but satisfactory. In case a cost cut is required, they can omit this design factor without significantly affecting satisfaction.  Finally, when a proposed design factor falls within the carefree area, it has low importance and satisfaction level. Hence, hotel operators can omit this element without causing much impact on overall quality performance.

Hotel lobby design factors and attributes
Based on Kano's categorization of quality attributes and relevant quality function deployment, this study analyzed 15 proposed hotel lobby design factors used in hotels in China. The study's results, which are depicted in Table 6, indicate that art concepts (33.3%), business model innovation (36.7%), and mobile applications (33.3%) are attractive quality factors.

Importance and satisfaction levels of hotel design factors
The average of all 30 participants' importance and satisfaction evaluation scores for each proposed design factor are shown first in Table 7. Respondents' average scores for the importance and satisfaction levels of 15 proposed design factors are 4.328 and 3.469, respectively. Based on the overall average and Kano's quality attribute categorization, all the 15 evaluation design factors were further categorized using the refined Kano model. In the refined Kano model, the must-be quality is further categorized as "critical" and "necessary" according to its scored values for importance and satisfaction levels to the average score of the 15 proposed design factors. For example, in the Kano model, construction project management and complexity in design styles are categorized as must-be quality factors, and their importance levels are 4.767 and 4.723, respectively. Further, both the factors' scores are higher than the average score of 4.328 for the 15 proposed design factors. The satisfaction levels of the two design factors are 3.380 and 3.887, which are higher and lower than the average score of 3.469, respectively. Hence, construction project management is considered a necessary design factor, and complexity in design styles is a critical design factor. Similarly, one-dimensional quality is further differentiated as high value-added and low value-added qualities. Attractive quality is divided into highly attractive and less attractive qualities, whereas the indifferent quality includes potential and carefree attributes.

Importance and satisfaction plot for hotel lobby design factors
As depicted in Figure 8, a two-dimensional matrix with four quadrants was produced with the respondents' average score for the importance and satisfaction levels of 15 proposed design factors. In the first quadrant, the following are in the excellent category: 1. complexity in design styles, 5. art concepts, and 13. atmospheric factors. In the second quadrant, the improved category includes 7. business model innovation, 10. construction project management, 11. construction cost control, and

Must-be design factors
According to the Kano model and QFD, to maintain customers' basic expectations and satisfaction, hotel lobby design should include must-be design factors such as construction project management, complexity in design, construction cost control, maintenance and repair, atmospheric factors, and modular design. By applying the Kano refined model, a must-be design factor can be further differentiated into necessary and critical design factors. In this study, the necessary design factors are construction project management, construction cost control, maintenance and repair, and modular design. Further, the critical design factors are complexity in design styles and atmospheric factors.
The I-S model clarifies that these critical design factors are implemented excellently. For the four necessary design factors, only modular design is identified as having a carefree attribute. The remaining three, construction management, cost control, and maintenance factors, are to be improved. During the interview, professionals mentioned that construction management and cost control are not efficiently addressed during hotel construction or transformation in China. Further, they were not satisfied with the maintenance efforts that followed actual operations. This highlights the need to develop and apply an integrated construction management system during the design, planning, and construction stages of hotel construction or transformation to ensure the  effective management of project departments, project types, procurement routes, project nature, and contracting methods. Moreover, a sound mechanism with appropriate internal audit and outsourcing maintenance is required to further maintenance and repair efforts after operations. It helps produce statistics on common failure modes and failure occurrences and establish a well-designed maintenance plan to ensure costeffective maintenance and even realize maintenance cost cuts without affecting customer satisfaction.
Further, modular design is considered a carefree but necessary design factor. It can shorten the design and construction lead-time of a project to reduce cost, enhance construction efficiency, and facilitate flexibility in spatial planning. The carefree area can include progress management and construction cost control beyond expectation, as well. Meanwhile, determining the effectiveness of resource use and considering environmental impacts are probably two other carefree design factors.

One-dimensional design factors
According to Kano, factors that are categorized as onedimensional factors increase customers' satisfaction level once they are unexpectedly fulfilled. This study identifies one-dimensional design factors such as cultural heritage connection, interior landscapes, and theming and brand story and recommends their inclusion in hotel lobby design. From the I-S model, the cultural heritage connection and theming and brand story design factors that are identified with high valueadded attributes have been over implemented. In China, renovation efforts have enabled the adaptation of historical and cultural heritage design factors in hotels. Such heritage hotels are particularly suited to the needs of globalization. Hence, the cultural heritage connection design factor is easily achievable and expected by the customer in this era of globalization.
In addition, the theming and brand story element is the marketing strategy implemented by many hotels to increasingly strong competitions. Further, wellplotted brand stories significantly improve brand image and gain much word-of-mouth publicity in China's hospitality market. Therefore, hotel operators in China consider theming and brand story a high value-added quality. Accordingly, they spare no effort to incorporate this quality in hotel lobby design.
However, the incorporation of the design factors cultural heritage connection and theming and brand story by most hotels in accordance with the market trend diminishes the differentiation effect of these factors. In other words, the more the investments made, the lower the significance of the created value. Therefore, hotel operators should adopt innovative methods to transform heritage buildings into hotels and provide a theme and brand story.
The study identified the interior landscape design factor as a low-value added and carefree attribute element. Hence, it can be part of a frequently used design method. If a hotel lobby is designed to have high maintenance plantings, it may require extensive maintenance efforts. The hotel operator's satisfaction level will eventually fall below average, as well. Hence, the careful selection of appropriate interior greenings is an alternative method to increase the satisfaction levels of both hotel operators and customers.

Attractive design factors
The study identified art concepts, business model innovation, and mobile applications as attractive quality factors. However, according to the refined Kano model analysis, only art concepts is a highly attractive quality that falls in the excellent area. Mobile applications fall in the surplus area, whereas business model innovation is in the to be improved area.
To hotel operators in China, mobile applications are an attractive design factor; however, due to the prevalence of modern technology and software, mobile applications are commonly implemented in modern hotels and, hence, their value in impressing customers is insignificant. Hence, any reduction in investments in mobile applications to enable cost cuts does not affect the satisfaction of hotel operators and customers.
On the other hand, business model innovation, which is an attractive quality and falls in the surplus and to be improved areas, is a sales point for most hotel operators. The reason why business model innovation falls in the surplus and to be improved areas is that the actual operational performance does not meet the initial expectation. As seen in China's market, increasing numbers of hotels are opening their lobbies to conduct cross-sector operations, such as those for art galleries, retail stores, health foods, and specialty restaurants. They provide consumers with comprehensive experiences and services. More importantly, apart from servicing hotel guests, these new business items serve the interests of local residents, as well. Although they expand the scope of business, changes in hardware and amenities alone cannot be considered successful business model innovation. Successful business model innovation involves the complete use of internal and external resources to achieve the business's competitive advantage (Souto 2015). Therefore, hotel operators should have clear perceptions of the actual contents of business model innovation to utilize them in design and realize a win-win situation to increase the hotels' revenue and customer satisfaction.

Indifferent design factors
The study identified social media propagation, green values, and actual use of amenities as indifferent and carefree design factors. Social media propagation and actual use of amenities are often included in hotel lobby design, due to which hotel operators did not consider these factors important or score them sufficiently high. However, this study surprisingly found that hotel operators in China did not score highly for the importance and satisfaction levels of green values. Further, it is possible that hotel operators in China disregard the importance of green values in lobby construction or transformation due to cost concerns. However, people' environmental awareness is growing stronger each day, and water and energy conservation and solid waste reduction are gaining universal value. Today, some European and U.S. hotels support green values by offering farm-to-table foods, flexible lighting, and paper use reduction. Hence, hotel operators in China should focus more on global green values. Such considerations not only enrich guests' hotel experience but also enable the utilization of the green value concept and services as the key success design factors in realizing green hotel management and creating economic prosperity and eco-friendliness.

Conclusions
By conducting a literature review and interviews with hotel design and operation professionals, this study identified 15 hotel lobby design factors within the value creation and economic advantage aspects proposed and utilized in the questionnaire. The study examined the perspectives of 30 hotel operators in China regarding the preference, importance, and satisfaction levels for creating value in and ensuring the success of hotel operations. This is the first attempt in the architectural design field to learn perspectives from the operators rather than customers for the importance and satisfaction of design factors for the hotel lobby. To clarify preference, Kano's categorization of quality attributes and the relevant QFD were applied. The results revealed that economic advantage and value creation are the must-be and onedimensional aspects. Among the 15 proposed hotel lobby design factors, 6 are must-be factors. The remaining nine proposed factors are evenly scored and divided into three attributes: attractive, onedimensional, and indifference. To determine the importance and satisfaction levels of these design factors, Yang's refined Kano model and the importance and satisfaction model were applied. The results of the refined Kano model further differentiated the original four Kano's preference attributes into eight attributes. The result of the importance and satisfaction model not only yielded a list of the 15 proposed hotel lobby design factors ranked according to importance but also revealed the perspectives of 30 hotel operators in China regarding their experience with the hotel lobby design factors.
Among the 15 design factors, business model innovation from the attractive category and green values from the indifferent category are often related to creating value for and bringing success to hotel operations after hotel construction or transformation globally. Although hotel operators in China were not aware of the importance of business model innovation and green values as internationally acclaimed hotel lobby design and operation factors, these design and operation factors are the fundamentals of enterprise modernization. Hence, the study recommends that hotel operators in China utilize these design factors wisely to retain their competitive edge in the global hospitality industry.
As this paper was focused mainly on learning and ranked the 15 proposed design factors for hotel lobby, the discussion on managerial implication aspects was omitted and should be included in the nearly future study for a holistic hotel lobby design.

Funding
This work was supported by a grant from the Taiwan Building Technology Center from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan (grant number: 110P011, 2021).

Notes on contributors
Hwai-Te Huang, is a chief designer and partner of Taipei Basic Design Center in Taiwan. He has been engaged in architecture and interior design for more than 20 years. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate from the Department of Architecture, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. He is also a member of iF Industrie Forum Design, and Asia Designer Communication Platform. With his practical working experience as well as the academic research work, he is hoping to assist hotel managements and design professionals to utilize the suitable design strategies for the sustainable and innovative hotel design and marketing.
Lucky Tsaih, Ph.D., LEED AP BD+C; is an associate professor in the Department of Architecture, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology to teach the environmental technology, sustainable design and BIM course sequence at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research is in the area of architectural acoustics, building with well-being concern, long term care facility IEQ assessment and design as well as sustainable design strategies and decision making. While working as a faculty member, Dr. Tsaih also works as an acoustical and green building consultant for projects where they allow her to transformed acoustic and sustainable design concepts into the reality of constructed architecture. She is a member of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Technical Committee on Architectural Acoustics of ASA, Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE), American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the Society of Building Science Educators (SBSE).