Physical Factors that Enhance Customer Interaction in Communal Spaces of Hostels in Kyoto, Japan.

Abstract

To date, the hostel market in Chiang Mai has been highly competitive, but mostly the price-competing strategy has caused hostel prices to lower and the business to decline. Meanwhile, the hostel market in Kyoto bases its selling points on the quality (Nogami, 2019). The researcher thus wanted to know a quality-enhancing approach of Kyoto’s hostels through this research, which was aimed at studying the physical characteristics that promote customers’ interaction in the communal area of hostels in Kyoto. The data was collected by means of a physical survey and behavioral observations of customers in five prominent hostels in Kyoto, Japan, that had been named as the best hostels by the HOSCARs awards (Hostelworld, 2019). A comparative analysis was conducted to identify the physical factors related to customers’ interaction during their stay.The study results reveal the following three aspects of physical factors related to guests’ interaction: 1) Factors enhancing usage - having a higher proportion of shared bathrooms over private bathrooms; being small-sized hostels with a maximum of 75 beds; having a communal area of approximately 1.16 square meters per one guest; offering activities allowing non-staying guests to conveniently and continually use the communal space through the main entrance towards other areas; and the communal space can be seen and accessed with ease. 2) Factors enhancing overall social activities - The interior floor is not covered with wood; there is a function that promotes interaction between the guest and the staff including reception staff, café and bar staff; and provision of adequate seats for the guests. 3) Factors enhancing social activities at the seating area - guest-attracting designs such as the use of warm-tone colored seats, wooden tables and chairs; seats that contribute to conversation, such as easy access from the main circulation area, orientation towards the area where people pass, having an appropriate height that allows conversation between sitting and standing guests; designing seats that are suitable for conversations, such as low-level lighting, movable seats with no backrest, built with a hard material, and is small-sized. The results of this study would be useful for hostel owners and designers who aim to increase the level of customers’ interactions in hostels’ communal spaces, which would increase the quality of hostel guests’ experiences leading to increased satisfaction and high competitiveness without price reduction.