4. Methods
In the study, the experimental method was used. By its nature, this is a so-called field experiment, because it is performed under conditions where the work of hotel receptionists and social workers is normally performed (Shaughnessy et al., 2011). These are also the usual conditions for hotel guests, as well as clients of social workers who participated in the experiment. We used a two-group post-test only randomized experimental design. The receptionist group consisted of hotel receptionists in Portorož, which is the most important Slovenian tourist destination on the Slovenian coast of the Adriatic Sea.
For the second group, social workers who work in social care in Slovenia were chosen. Social workers as part of their education are trained to notice the physical appearance of their clients, to be aware of it, but to establish control over their reactions.
As experimenters, students from a Master's course in tourism were invited to be a part of the study. They participated in a seminar on the subject of research methodology in tourism. Students were told the goal and purpose of the project and shown the detailed methodology for research. The research instrument was explained to them in detail. The application of the instrument was practiced through simulation research situations. Each pair of students was trained to take on both the role of receptionists, as well as hotel guests.
The procedure of the experiment was as follows: two students acted as experimenters. They sat in the lobby of a hotel and watched guests who approached the reception desk. After a random guest had left, one student approached the receptionist. The receptionist was asked to assess the physical appearance of the guest. The other student approached the hotel guest. Guests were asked to assess how pleased he or she was with the service that he or she had been provided by the receptionist. Receptionists were informed beforehand of the experiment and invited to voluntarily participate in it. They were motivated by the thought that they could take a part in the improvement of hotel staff education.
It was explained to the guests that research was taking place in the hotel and they were also invited to be participants in the experiment. The guests, on the whole, agreed to participate; not one guest refused.
The procedure with the social workers was the same. Two students were placed outside a room in which a social worker spoke with a client. It was clearly stated that a student could not attend the interview between the social worker and the client. When the client came out, one of the students went into the room and asked the social worker to assess the physical appearance of the client using our instrument. Another student approached the client and asked him/her to assess how pleased he or she was with the way the social workers did their job.
Social workers were asked to volunteer for the experiment, as well as the clients. The students introduced themselves to the clients and informed them that they were running this scientific experiment. The students asked them to participate in the experiment and to answer questions from the instrument. Only a few of the social workers’ clients refused to participate in the experiment.