A study of enhancing customer experience and differentiation in hostel business through service design

Name: Phatcharada Tramod

keyword: Hostel business

; Solo travel

; Customer experience

; Service design

; Experience design

Abstract: Solo travel trend in Thailand is increasing rapidly, and hostel becomes an essential choice of inexpensive accommodation. Literature reviews showed that hostel should make differentiation to develop new and useful service to accomplish competitive advantages. This research aims to improve a customer experience that could support hostel business in Thailand through the use of a service design approach. Objectives of this research are as follows: 1) To explore a solo traveler’s behavior when travelling 2) To find problems and pain points while staying at hostel. 3) To create a new service blueprint for enhancing customer experience at the hostel in Thailand. Service design toolkits is adopted for creating service opportunities, including creating ‘Personas’ of solo traveler, customer’s background and expectations are defined to understand how service design satisfies the specific group of customers. ‘Customer Journey Map’ clarifies how customers interact with service touchpoints from the guest perspective for investigating customer’s pain points throughout staying at the hostel. Additionally, ‘Service Blueprint’ is utilized as a tool to visualize the service process and identify new service opportunities. This study used qualitative research for data collection, including semi-structured interview with hostel owners and solo travelers or customers, site visit and case study research. Four hostels in Khaosan Road are chosen as case studies based on Top hostel ranking from online places (Agoda.com and Booking.com). The sample groups are 4 hostel owners or managers and 7 customers at selected hostels who are international solo travelers aged between 23-38 years old. For data analysis, interpretation of raw data was used by selecting the pain points from the sample and apply to the service blueprint to solve the problems. Key findings from the research showed that Millennial solo travel prefers having memorable experience such as local experience. A majority of their pain points is noise and disturbance behavior from other travelers. And, there are some safety concern about their belongings and hostel securities. These findings could be opportunities to create new solutions that enhance a solo travel experience at Thai hostels. The outcome can be used as a design guideline for hostel operators in developing new hostel business opportunities in Thailand

Thammasat University. Thammasat University Library

Address: BANGKOK

Email: preserv@tu.ac.th

Name: Akpan Thienthaworn

Role: advisor

Name: Busayawan Lam

Role: co-advisor

Created: 2019

Modified: 2022-09-27

Issued: 2022-09-27

วิทยานิพนธ์/Thesis

application/pdf

DOI: 10.14457/TU.the.2019.1162

eng

DegreeName: Master of Science

Level: Master's Degree

Descipline: Design, Business and Technology Management

Grantor: Thammasat University

©copyrights Thammasat University

ลำดับที่.	ชื่อแฟ้มข้อมูล	ขนาดแฟ้มข้อมูล	จำนวนเข้าถึง	วัน-เวลาเข้าถึงล่าสุด
1	8913phatcharada.pdf	3.18 MB

ใช้เวลา

0.039917 วินาที