EXPLORING THE IMPLICIT IMPACT OF SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATIONS ON SERVICE QUALITY EXPECTATIONS: A NETNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF UPSCALE HOTELS IN HO CHI MINH CITY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62985/j.huit_ojs.vol26.no3E.620Keywords:
Sustainability certifications, signaling theory, service quality expectations, netnography, upscale hotels, Ho Chi Minh City.Abstract
While sustainability badges are becoming a standard feature on digital travel platforms, their influence on guest expectations and post-stay evaluations in emerging urban contexts remains under-explored. Grounded in Signaling Theory, this study adopts a netnographic approach to investigate the implicit impact of these certifications on service quality perceptions at four sustainability-labeled upscale hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. A systematic content analysis was conducted on 1,294 ratings and 547 user-generated reviews from Booking.com. The analysis identifies seven key experiential dimensions: staff, room, food and beverage, location, additional services, price-value perception, and overall experience. Findings indicate that while guests rarely explicitly reference sustainability labels, these badges function as latent signals that preconfigure high-performance expectations across core service attributes. Specifically, the study conceptualizes the 'Green Expectation Amplification Effect', where sustainability certifications implicitly elevate standards for staff ethics, room quality, and perceived value. These results offer critical insights for hotel managers on aligning green signaling with service delivery to mitigate potential expectation-performance gaps in the competitive upscale segment.
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