Services and Amenities Offered by City Hotels within Family Tourism as One of the Factors Guaranteeing Satisfactory Leisure Time.

ABSTRACT

Travelling families are interested in urban tourism due to its cognitive and entertainment aspects. Some expectations of parents travelling with children are the same independent of the accommodation location. The purpose of this article is to examine at what level city hotels offer services and amenities within family tourism, how they meet parents' expectations and whether they adapt offers to children of different ages. Two measurement tools were used for this study. The first one was the authors' questionnaire addressed to hotel managers. A total of 88 hotels located in Krakow were selected for the study. The survey contained questions on the offers of hotels related to various services and amenities for families with children, which were assigned to one of three groups (24 items) general child-friendly hotel services and amenities, in-room amenities and restaurant amenities. In the second phase of the study, parents of children aged 0-10 years were asked to assess the degree to which the amenities offered by hotels were important for them during the selection of a hotel. In total, 90 surveys were taken into consideration. The tool was designed to examine the needs of parents who have children of different ages, in regard to selected hotel services and amenities (24 items). As in the case of the surveys for hoteliers, the same three groups were created. The research demonstrates that children's age is the key factor that should lead to the differentiation of the accommodation offer. However, hoteliers largely perceive children as a homogeneous group. In all studied age categories (6) and amenities groups (3), parents' expectations were higher than the services and amenities offered. No significant differences regarding the category of the hotel or hotel chain membership have been found. The results of the study may provide valuable guidance to hoteliers who wish to attract families with children to urban tourism and adapt their offer to them, thus realising the principle of inclusiveness. They may be also a significant contribution to the literature on the subject, as most published work concerns holiday hotels rather than city hotels.