The most crucial problem that organizations confront when the level of competition in the market rises is how to cultivate customer loyalty and increase customer lifetime value. However, because of the complexities of the competitive market, it is becoming increasingly challenging to establish and maintain consumer loyalty. Customer loyalty is anticipated to rise because of hotel characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the degree to which hotel characteristics have a positive and substantial impact on customer loyalty. As a result, this study used a cross-sectional survey of fourteen (14) star-rated hotels in Kenya’s North Rift Region to assess the association between hotel characteristics and customer loyalty. A cross-sectional research survey design was utilized to randomly choose 384 visitors among the hotel guests who stayed there between January and June 2019 using the Multi-Stage Sampling Method. The respondents were given a questionnaire, which was used to gather the data. The Cronbach’s alpha value, which has a coefficient of 0.7, was used to assess the reliability of the survey items. Expert evaluations were used to assess the validity of the questionnaire’s items. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to present the findings. The hypothesis regarding the association between hotel characteristics and customer loyalty was tested using simple and multiple linear regression analysis. According to the study, there is a substantial correlation between hotel attributes and client loyalty, with β coefficient values of 1.079, respectively, at p < 0.05. The model’s overall significance was R = 0.830, R2 = 0.689, and P = 0.005. As a result, the study concludes that there is a strong positive correlation between hotel attributes and client loyalty. The research advises hotel owners to make their establishments accessible, get favourable star ratings, and keep expanding their business to be able to match client expectations in order to attract their patronage.
Keywords: Customer loyalty, Hotel Characteristics, Hotel Location, Star-rating
