Bed and Breakfast (B&B) social servicescape and customer satisfaction: Positive emotion mediation and sex moderation

Abstract

We investigated the influence of bed and breakfast (B&B) social servicescape on customer satisfaction, as well as the mediating effect of customer positive emotion and the moderating role of sex. Participants were a convenience sample of 305 B&B customers from the Yangshuo, Guangxi Province, and Phoenix Ancient Town, Hunan province, China (female = 45.5%; mean age = 30.9 years, SD = 8.7 years). Following a simple mediation analysis, the findings revealed that customers’ positive emotion significantly mediated the relationship between B&B social servicescape and customer satisfaction. Additionally, the impact of social servicescape on customers’ positive emotion was moderated by sex, with female customers expressing higher regard for affect laden servicescape qualities. These findings suggest a need for B&B providers to build sex-sensitive provisions into their servicescape for positive experiences.