Hospitality attributes in hotel restaurants and their relationships with social sustainability

Abstract

Human relationships and work routines have undergone fast transformations, as have consumer, leisure, and travel behaviors. With the speed at which changes occur, the need for a more sustainable vision has been observed so that there is a careful look at environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. In the tourism and hospitality sector, there is a growing concern among hotel chains in ESG aspects, with a special focus on social issues, which includes training for employees, diversity and inclusion, security practices, among others, and which is the focus of this search. In this context, the attributes that make up hospitality, both in relation to the guest and in relation to employees, stand out in different places, such as hotel restaurants, and can be considered a differentiator by favoring human interactions, in a relationship of cordiality and welcome. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify hospitality attributes and sustainability practices in hotel restaurants. To achieve this objective, two qualitative surveys were carried out, the first was carried out through semi-structured interviews, collected during the month of November 2021, with hotel guests located in Brazil, followed by a documentary analysis of the ESG manuals of two hotel chains. The results showed that hotels adopt social sustainability practices through care for customer privacy and security, employee training, employee care, and providing a safe work environment. Hospitality attributes such as personalization, warm welcome, comfort and special relationships are part of the characteristics that guests determine to be important in a hotel restaurant. In this research, it was possible to verify that the concern with social sustainability and hospitality attributes can be considered a competitive factor.