How do the five-star hotels comprehend within the industry with the upcoming availability of alternative accommodation in Malta?

Abstract

This is a study on the Maltese hotel industry. This study places its scope on how the five-star hotels are keeping up with the arising availability of alternative accommodation in Malta. Numerous interviews have been conducted with the management of the nine five-star hotels currently operating in the prime region of Malta. Furthermore, the phenomenon of commoditization within the industry is analysed and goes in hand in hand with the industry internationally. Nonetheless, hotels are still increasing their customer base even though percentagewise they remain stable in the inbound tourism rates. However, arising markets such as Airbnb have been gaining market share over the last three years. As of now, this is not a threat to the five-star hotels. However, it may be in the future if the market segment in which the private accommodation operates raises to more expensive price category similar to the five-star hotels with comparable quality standards. On the other hand, with the arrival of boutique hotels which offer a unique customer experience due to their ability to adopt to the local environment and provide high quality standards for similar rates. As of now, the boutique hotels do not have their own category within the Malta Tourism Authority and may therefore a false representation of preferred accommodation by tourists as they have been categorized as ‘other collective accommodation’ which includes guest houses and hostels. This is a major limitation as it is hard to tell how many boutique hotels there are in practise.