Study on Quality Evaluation of Taiwan's B&B Based on Content Analysis Method and Its Implications

4.1 Analysis of the overall situation of the sample

This survey collected a total of 610 reviews. The overall situation of the review samples is shown in Table 3. Among the 610 review samples, the price range around 1000-3000 yuan (60.5%), the guestroom numbers are 1-15 rooms (87.8%), and latest refurbished time is 2011-2015 (64.1%) have higher percentage.

Table 3. Sample analysis

4.2 High-frequency vocabulary analysis

Key words of the online review data were analyzed with SPSS 18.0 and all the words appeared over 20 times (as shown in Table 4) for the research on tourists’ perception of quality of Taiwan B&B. The result of high-frequency vocabulary analysis shows tourists paid most attention to transportation, room facility and hygiene, fitness time and style, service and price. Extracted vocabulary such as surroundings, convenient transportation, distance from tourist attractions/city center, etc. reflect tourist’s perception of accessibility of B&B; cleanness, completeness, area, sound insulation, performance, comfortableness, bathroom facilities, etc. reflect tourist’s perception of qualities of B&B facilities and hygiene; style and fitness time reflect tourist’s perception of decoration; breakfast service, flavor, tourism activity arrangement, free meal, pick-up service , etc. reflect tourist’s perception of service quality; price reflects tourist’s perception of cost performance.

Table 4. High-frequency vocabulary extracted from research samples

4.3 Descriptive analysis

Guests’ attention and satisfaction can be known from their scores and the mentioned frequency of indicators. The higher the mentioned frequency, the higher the attention of indicators; the higher the score, the higher the satisfaction of indicators.

4.3.1 Overall evaluation

The data shows that 48.6% of the reviews are concentrated on “general service evaluation”, 21.5% of the reviews are focus on “general ambience evaluation”, while “general hygienic evaluation” and “general facility evaluation” are just account for 11.3% and 6.2%, respectively (See Table 5).

The average score of the "general comprehensive evaluation" of Taiwan B&B is 4.23, and the average range of other factors’ general evaluation is 3.82-4.55 (See Table 5). Among that, "general service evaluation" (4.55) has the highest average score, the main keywords are "kind", "enthusiastic", "nice", "friendly", "humane", "intimate", "polite", "patient", etc. Followed by "general ambience evaluation" (4.29), the main keywords are "scenery", "feeling at home", "quiet", "isolate" ". The third is "general hygienic evaluation" (4.25), the main keywords are "clean", "tidy" and "odor". While "general facility evaluation" (3.82) is the lowest, and the main keywords are "complete" and "functional".

Table 5. Score of "General Evaluation" index

Note.: GCE: general comprehensive evaluation; GSE: general service evaluation; GAE: general ambience evaluation: GHE: general hygienic evaluation; GFE: general facility evaluation; Std. D: Standard Deviation.

In summary, compared with hygiene and facilities, tourists in Taiwan B&B pay more attention to service and ambience. Since the owners of B&B are kind and hospitable, and usually treat tourists as friends, tourists are more satisfied with Taiwan B&B service. Tourists prefer B&B having quiet environment and better surrounding landscape, which can bring a sense of home. Most B&B in Taiwan are relatively clean, but some of them have exotic smell. Generally, tourists do not pay much attention to the facilities in B&B, but if the facilities are not complete, it will cause dissatisfaction among the tourists.

4.3.2 Evaluation and analysis of business site

The research results (see Table 6) are showing that “geographical location” (70.15%) has been mentioned most frequently in the second-grade indicators of business site. In this indicator, tourists pay high attention to “convenient transportation” (26.12%), “distance from tourist attractions/ city center” (22.39%) and “surroundings” (18.66%); “Fitment” (24.63%) and “Security” (5.22%) in the second-grade indicators are less concerned, but it is worth noting that the “style” (16.42%) under the “Fitment” has a high degree of attention.

Table 6. Evaluation result of "Business Site" index

Note.: Ind. Lv.2: indicator level 2; Pct.: percentage; Ind. Lv.3: indicator level 3; Std. D: standard deviation.

In terms of satisfaction, the average score of each indicator is between 3.40 and 4.96. Among the eight third-grade indicators of "business site", “neighbors’ attitude” (4.96) is the highest, followed by “fitment time” (4.36) and “style” (4.32), “surroundings” (4.28), “distance from tourist attractions/city center” (4.23). Relatively speaking, the satisfaction of “parking lot” (3.97), “convenient transportation” (3.83), “security management” (3.40) are lower. The inconvenient transportations are caused by far away from city center, hard to find the address, the lack of own parking spaces, the door of guestroom doesn’t have double lock, service personnel enter the room at will, and insufficiently lighting in public space, etc.

To sum up, according to the evaluation index of "business site", B&B guests are very concerned about the decoration style, the quietness of the surrounding area, the distance from the airport/ station, core tourist attractions and shopping centres, the convenience of self-driving. In Taiwan, most B&B have kind neighbourhoods, unique decoration style, relatively quiet atmosphere, and great geographical locations. Therefore, B&B guests have a wonderful living experience from these aspects.

4.3.3 Evaluation and analysis of facilities

The data (see Table 7) shows that in the second-grade indicators of "Facilities", tourists have more concerns in "guestroom" (51.74%) and "electrical equipment" (21.51%), followed by "bed" (11.63%) and "bathroom" (9.88%), while the attention to “entertainment" (5.23%) is relatively low. Among the second-grade indicator of “room”, “cleanliness” (20.35%) and “area” (10.47%) are highly concerned. Among the second-grade indicator of “bed”, “comfortableness” (5.81%) is highest concerned. Among the second-grade indicator of “bathroom”, “facilities” (4.65%) have the highest attention. Among the second-grade indicator of “electrical equipment”, “completeness” (13.95%) is highest concerned. Among the second-grade indicator of “entertainment”, “junior rides” (2.91%) have the highest attention.

Table 7. Evaluation results of "facilities" indicators

Note.: Ind. Lv.2: indicator level 2; Pct.: percentage; Ind. Lv.3: indicator level 3; Std. D: standard deviation.

In terms of satisfaction, “theme” (4.96), “room type” (4.40), and “decoration” (4.12) of guestrooms are highly satisfied. The satisfaction of bed is replying on the “size” (4.94) and “comfortableness” (4.40). Tourists are satisfied with "bathroom amenities" (4.50) in bathroom. And they are satisfied with "completeness" (4.00) in electrical equipment. Regarding the indicators of entertainment, "junior rides" (4.97), “Swimming pool, SPA etc." (4.04) and "tea bar" (4.03) are all satisfactory.

However, in the reviews, guests are unsatisfied with the "sound insulation" in guestroom (2.21), the "space"(2.50) and "facilities" (2.75) in bathroom, and the "performance" of electrical equipment (2.27). Specifically, poor sound insulation in guestroom, relatively small bathroom, outdated bathroom equipment (such as broken toilet, unstable hot water, etc.), poor electrical equipment (such as unstable Wi-Fi signal and TV signal, etc.).

In summary, tourists in Taiwan B&B attach great importance to room size and sanitary conditions, but most guestrooms are not enough big and clean. Whether the completeness of electrical equipment is also highly concerned, mainly air-conditioning, Wi-Fi, TV, and elevators in some B&B, which brings a great convenience for tourists to carry luggage.

In addition, Taiwan’s B&B are very distinctive, which have a wide variety of room types, most of them have large and comfortable beds, good quality bathroom amenities.  Some B&B have amusement facilities specifically for children. These details are satisfied their guests.

4.3.4 Evaluation and analysis of service

Among the second-grade indicators of "service", compared with "personalized service" and "tourism service", B&B guests pay the most attention to "F&B service" (53.26%). Among the third-grade indicators, “breakfast service” (31.52%), “F&B flavour” (13.04%) in F&B service, and “tourism activities arrangements” (18.48%) in tourism services catch more attention (see Table 8).

Table 8. Evaluation results of "service" indicators

Note.: Ind. Lv.2: indicator level 2; Pct.: percentage; Ind. Lv.3: indicator level 3; Std. D: standard deviation.

Regarding guest satisfaction, B&B guests in Taiwan are quite satisfied with services. Except for "breakfast service" (3.86), the average scores of the remaining 12 indicators are all above 4.00. This shows that Taiwan B&B have great performance in guest services.

To sum up, the "breakfast service" in the “F&B service" is a basic service type of the B&B, thus tourists pay more attention to this factor. If the owners haven’t pay attention to details, it is easy to cause dissatisfaction among the guests. The personalized services (such as car rental, laundry, pick-up, printing, photography, etc.) and tourism services (tourism activities arrangement, valet booking, free maps and guide service, etc.) provided by B&B owners are bonus points. These services will offer tourists a great value experience; but if not, it won’t cause dissatisfaction.

4.3.5 Evaluation and analysis of marketing

In the second-grade indicator of "marketing" (see Table 9), guests paid more attention to "cost performance" (87.50%) than "propaganda matches reality" (12.50%). The cost performance in reviews is usually expressed in terms of "cost performance/ CP value". In Taiwan B&B, tourists are not only concerned about price, but also concerned about cost performance.

Table 9. Evaluation result of "marketing" indicator

Note.: Ind. Lv.2: indicator level 2; Pct.: percentage; Std. D: standard deviation.

4.4 Correlation analysis

This study uses SPSS 18.0 to analyze the relationship between three indicators of "cost performance", "number of rooms" and "latest refurbishment time" and the general quality of Taiwan B&B through conducting a bivariate correlation analysis (see Table 10). When the significance level is 0.05 (marked as * in the table) or 0.01 (marked as ** in the table), the null hypothesis of the correlation coefficient test should be rejected, and it is considered that there is a linear relationship between the two indicators. The analysis results show that “cost performance” is positively correlated with “F&B services” and “personalized services”. “Numbers of room” is negatively correlated with “security”. “Latest refurbishment time” is negatively correlated with “fitment” and “guestroom”.

To draw a conclusion, (1) the higher the guestroom price of a Taiwan B&B, the better the F&B services quality (such as breakfast service, F&B flavors, free meal, etc.) and personalized services (such as car rental, laundry, pick-up, printing, photography, etc.). (2) the more the guestroom numbers, the worse the security experience of B&B tourists in Taiwan; (3) the closer the B&B refurbishment time is, tourists are more satisfied with the decoration and guestroom (such as room size, cleanliness, theme, sound insulation, etc.).

Table 10. Two-variable analysis results of sample general situation and quality evaluation