Crisis Management Practices and Performance of Star rated Hotels in Mombasa County, Kenya

Abstract

Crises such as terrorism, epidemics of diseases, political unrest, and natural calamities pose a significant economic threat to the hotel sector in Kenya, initiated by travel advisories that cut down visitor numbers, resulting in massive effects on the performance of hotels, such as a drop in hotel occupancy, cancellation of hotel bookings, loss of jobs, and closure of hotels. This emphasises the need to assess the impact of crisis management practices on hotel performance. Against this backdrop, the main objective of this study was to examine the effects of crisis management practices on hotel performance in star-rated hotels in Mombasa County. The specific objectives were to explore the effects of human resource crisis management practices, marketing crisis management practices, and maintenance crisis management practices on hotel performance and establish the government's role in crisis management in the hotel industry in Mombasa County. The study adopted chaos theory and a pragmatic research paradigm, utilising an embedded research design that prioritised quantitative data with qualitative data used to enhance the findings. Purposive sampling was used to select 18 star-rated hotels. The target population was 580 junior management staff and 18 senior management staff. The sample size was 207 junior hotel management staff selected using stratified and simple random sampling methods and 18 senior managers selected using the census method. Data collection involved questionnaires for managers, assistant managers, and supervisors and interview schedules for the senior management staff. Quantitative data were analysed using structural equation modelling, and qualitative data were coded and analysed thematically. The final structural model revealed that these three crisis management practices accounted for 84% of the variance in hotel performance. Marketing crisis management practices (β =0.309, p=0.008) and maintenance crisis management practices (β=0.542, p=0.000) had a positive and significant effect on hotel performance, whereas human resource crisis management practices had a positive but non-significant effect on hotel performance (β=0.069, p=0.619). The qualitative analysis results indicated that government assistance during crisis events was insufficient for hotel resilience, and many crisis management practices had only been partially implemented. In conclusion, marketing and maintenance crisis management practices substantially impact hotel performance, whereas human resource crisis management practices insignificantly impact hotel performance. The study recommends an awareness and training policy for all hotel management staff, emphasising the implementation of effective crisis management practices, such as marketing and maintenance, which were found to contribute positively to hotel performance. The new SEM framework developed on the effects of crisis management practices on hotel performance offers valuable insight into crisis management, which will be useful for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in the tourism and hospitality industr