Numerous managerial implications can be drawn from our study. First and foremost, our study assists hotel managers in understanding what service innovations might have the greatest impact on potential guests' choices. This understanding will enhance the design and development of hotel service. In addition, it will focus manager's efforts around the innovations which are most important to guests. Through the provision of customer choice patterns, managers will be more adept at improving their operational planning and decision-making. Ultimately, the end result will be a better-devised operational strategy formulation that is sensitive to the preferences of customers. Furthermore, the results presented in this paper can be used to develop a decision-support model which can assist in conducting "what-if 'type of analyses. The managers can evaluate the relative values and willingness to pay for each proposed service innovations prior to making huge investment of money and effort (Verma et al, 1999).
While our study provides a detailed outlook of the tradeoffs made by hotel travelers and the design and development of a hotel's service concept, there are limitations in our conclusions. For example, as in most studies, our data represents only one snapshot in time. This limits our ability to draw conclusions on the long-term impact of service innovations. In order to address this issue, a longitudinal study would be required to track and compare the impact of guests' choices over time. Also, our data are limited to the hotel industry and one geographic market, the US, which presents issues concerning the generalizability of the results. Studying hotels in a variety of countries, for example, would undoubtedly yield different service preference results. Thus, cross-cultural, horizontal and vertical industry sector studies would enhance the generalizability of the results. Despite the inherent limitations of our study, we have presented a solid first examination of the impact service innovation has on customer's choices and the operational issues which arise from implementing such service innovations.
In summary this paper offers both academic and managerial contributions through the examination of innovative service tradeoffs made by hotel guests. Our goal was to contribute to the service management literature by presenting an innovative-specific industry sector perspective when it comes to adding new services into the core service concept. We also presented a managerial tool for hotel managers to utilize when deciding which service innovations to implement. Finally the results can be used in formulating an operational strategy which aligns with hotel guests' values and preferences. By understanding the service innovation tradeoffs made by customers, a service concept can be designed more effectively yielding into a firm's much more profitable and sustainable operational strategy.