Effects of accommodation facilities' attributes on room rates in a wildlife tourism destination area, Kenya.

Park tourist facility managers need to understand guests' preferences for elements of the accommodation experience to provide an ideal mix of attributes. Hedonic pricing models were used earlier to estimate the implicit effect of facilities' characteristics on room rates. But these models do not account for possible spatial variations in the relationships. This study assessed the global and spatial influence of facilities' attributes on room rates in Amboseli, Tsavo East, and Tsavo West National Parks, the three contiguous most visited parks in Kenya, an important wildlife tourism destination, using data from on–line and geographical information systems. Results of the global model indicate that the availability of buffet breakfast, bathrobes, plunge pools, and ecolodge designs positively influences room rates, while the distance to aesthetic appreciation hotpots inversely correlates to rates. The spatial model uncovering non–stationarity in estimating the effects of facilities' attributes on room rates, predicts that the causal effects are better in particular places. It also revealed that particular facility attributes influenced room rates more strongly than others. The results of the global model can help park managers design destination marketing programmes while the facilities may use the spatial model to derive indices for product design and marketing decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]