Hotel rating through guest feedback
- Authors: Hensens, Wouter
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Hospitality industry -- Customer services , Hotels , Hotels -- Evaluation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
- Identifier: vital:9264 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1631 , Hospitality industry -- Customer services , Hotels , Hotels -- Evaluation
- Description: Hotel rating refers to the process where the comfort and services of a hotel are assessed and classified, usually in five categories, using stars as symbols. Conventional hotel rating systems are generally operated by governments or independent parties. However, with the growth of social media and customer-review sites, guest review platforms became an important source of information. The main aim of this study is to establish whether guest feedback can determine hotel ratings more accurately than conventional methods and whether a social media platform such as TripAdvisor can provide the necessary data to do so. The customer-review website, TripAdvisor, has grown rapidly and made a strong impact on the tourism and hotel industry. This study identifies the nature of TripAdvisor, its reliability, how its ratings compare with conventional ratings, and what criteria are used in guest reviews on TripAdvisor when assessing the quality of a hotel. These findings were triangulated with findings from the conventional rating systems of the 11 destinations that were sampled for this study to identify the value of TripAdvisor. Two samples were taken from TripAdvisor of 110 and 33 hotels, respectively. From the latter, ten guest reviews were gathered and analysed per hotel, resulting in a total of 330 reviews that were analysed. The study’s findings indicate that TripAdvisor is the largest guest feedback platform for hotels and its data can be considered to be reliable. The TripAdvisor ratings were not connected to the conventional ratings of the sampled hotels. The criteria used in TripAdvisor reviews focused more on service delivery than on the objective tangible elements used in most hotel rating systems. The rich context found in most guest reviews makes the information presented on TripAdvisor valuable. There is no evidence that conventionalrating system controls are linked to the comments found in TripAdvisor reviews. The results facilitated the identification of the delight and frustration factors in services marketing for the hotel industry. A new theory to include guest feedback in hotel ratings is developed and proposed. The study further presents two future scenarios, the most likely one of which predicts the demise of conventional rating systems as a result of the success of guest feedback platforms such as TripAdvisor.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Student's van Hiele levels of geometric thought and conception in plane geometry: a collective case study of Nigeria and South Africa
- Authors: Atebe, Humphrey Uyouyo
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Geometry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Nigeria -- Case studies Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1777 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003662
- Description: This study is inspired by and utilises the van Hiele theory of geometric thought levels, currently acclaimed as one of the best frameworks for studying teaching and learning processes in geometry. The study aims both to explore and explicate the van Hiele levels of geometric thinking of a selected group of grade 10, 11 and 12 learners in Nigerian and South African schools. The study further aims to provide a rich and indepth description of the geometry instructional practices that possibly contributed to the levels of geometric conceptualisation exhibited by this cohort of high school learners. This collective case study, presented in two volumes, is oriented within an interpretive research paradigm and characterised by both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample for the study comprised a total of 144 mathematics learners and 6 mathematics teachers from Nigeria and South Africa. They were selected using both purposive and stratified sampling techniques. In using the van Hiele model to interrogate both learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation and teaching methods in geometry classrooms, the study employs a qualitative and qunatitative approach to the data-collection process, involving the use of questionnaires (in the form of various pen-and-paper tests, hands-on activity-based tests), interviews and classroom videos. Although the data analysis was done largely through descriptive statistics, the whole process inevitably incorporated elements of inferential statistics (e.g. ANOVA and Tukey HSD post-hoc test) in the quest for indepth analysis and deeper interpretation of the data. Learners were assigned to various van Hiele levels, mainly according to Usiskin’s (1982) forced van Hiele level determination scheme. The whole process of analysing the classroom videos involved a consultative panel of 4 observers and 3 critical readers, using the checklist of van Hiele phase descriptors to guide the analysis process. Concerning learners’ levels of geometric conceptualisation, the results from this study reveal that the most of the learners were not yet ready for the formal deductive study of school geometry, as only 2% and 3% of them were respectively at van Hiele levels 3 and 4, while 47%, 22% and 24% were at levels 0, 1 and 2, respectively. More learners from the Nigerian subsample (53%) were at van Hiele level 0 than learners from the South African subsample (41%) at this level. No learner from the Nigerian subsample was at van Hiele level 4, while 6% of the South African learners were at level 4. In general, learners from the Nigerian subsample had a poorer knowledge of school geometry than their peers from the South African subsample, as learners from the latter subsample obtained significantly higher mean scores in the van Hiele Geometry Test (VHGT) and each of the other tests used in this study. Results relating to gender differences in performance generally favour the male learners in this study. For each of the participating schools, learners’ van Hiele levels (as determined by their scores on the VHGT) strongly correlate with their performance in geometry content tests and mathematics generally. For each of the Nigerian and South African subsamples, for n ≤ 2, learners at van Hiele level n obtained higher means on nearly all the tests administered in this study than their peers at level n–1. This finding provides support for the hierarchical property of the van Hiele levels.
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- Date Issued: 2009
The production and marketing of South African Maize since 1910, with special reference to the years 1954 to 1966
- Authors: Brits, Rudolph Nieuwoudt
- Date: 1969
- Subjects: South Africa. Maize Board , Corn industry -- South Africa , Corn -- South Africa -- Marketing , Corn -- South Africa -- Marketing -- Government policy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1104 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013386
- Description: From Introduction: There is no evidence available that maize was known in the old world in ancient times. Seeds of barley and wheat have been found in ancient near eastern sites, but never has there been any trace of maize at all. Furthermore, maize as a plant is not mentioned in the Bible, and neither Greek nor Chinese literature makes any reference to maize. There is, therefore, nothing that suggests that maize was known in the Old world before about 1492. However, at that time, Christopher Columbus returned with a report about a new grain called "Maiz". At a later date explorers visiting America found that maize was being grown and consumed by the Red Indians in places as far apart as Canada and Chile. The consensus of opinion is, therefore, that maize originated in America and was only subsequently imported into Europe. However, in a very excellent paper, Dr. M.D.W. Jeffreys comes to the very convincing conclusion that "Maize, a non-self-propagating American plant, was introduced to east African littorals before the Portuguese rounded the Cape and was seen by the Chinese navigators at Melinde Circa 1414… Maize was brought to the Indian Ocean littorals by Arabs before 1400. Maize was brought into southern Africa by the Nguni by 1400 and later by the baVenda. Maize was introduced by the Dutch in 1658. There is no evidence that maize was introduced by the Portuguese. Irrespective of the exact date when maize was introduced into South Africa, it was only from the year 1840 that there was any real agricultural development in South Africa. At this date, all those who had participated in the Great Trek had more or less settled down, and substantial areas were planted with wheat, maize and oats.
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- Date Issued: 1969