224 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM purchase15. In addition, this is influenced by items such as culture, social class, personal influence and family, as well as other individual differences like motivation and involvement, knowledge, attitude, lifestyle, personality and demographics16. Numerous studies have linked satisfaction with product attributes, instead of the product themselves. According to Ratchford, product attributes may be measured either objectively (e.g., presence of facilities, number of rooms) or perceptually (e.g., cleanliness of the hotel, staff ’s helpfulness and efficiency). Hotel guest satisfaction among business travellers: what are the important factors?17 Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) are used to examine hotel customer satisfaction among business travellers. LISREL is a modelling program that can be employed to empirically assess theories that are usually formulated as theoretical models for observed and latent (unobservable) variables. If data are collected for the observed variables of the theoretical model, the LISREL program can be used to fit the model to the data. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that tangible and intangible dimensions of three departments (reception, housekeeping and food and beverage) could explain overall satisfaction, in which tangible aspects of the housekeeping and intangible aspects of reception were found to have the strongest effects on overall guest satisfaction18. Consumer protection is part of market regulation because undertakings are burdenedwith specific obligations concerning the way products aremanufactured and services rendered, and legal relations with consumers are strictly disciplined. At the same time, consumer welfare (or detriment) is the yardstick to measure the admissibility, from a competition point of view, of agreements, mergers or commercial practices. In online intermediary services, the entity that enters into contact with the service provider via the platform is generally a consumer. There are, however, several cases in which it is a professional (e.g. an undertaking making a flight or hotel reservation for its manager). What we are here trying to ascertain is not what are the rights and obligations that arise between the typical parties (hotel/ client; airline/passenger; restaurant/patron) but if the intermediary is in some way and to what extent bound by the very detailed consumer legislation. 15 See Westbrook, R. A. and Oliver, R. L. 1991. The dimensionality of consumption emotion patterns and consumer satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 18(1): 84–91. 16 See Engel, J. F., Blackwell, R. D. and Miniard, P. W. 1990. Consumer behaviour, London: The Dryden Press. 17 See Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 37(2): 72–81. 18 Idem ant.
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