Explorations of the Host's Relationship with the Commercial Home

Abstract

This paper investigates the host's relationship with their commercial home and its influences on product construction. Intangible dimensions of hospitality are explored through interviews and photographs. Commercial home hosts are interviewed using photographs taken of their property to investigate the relationship they have with their commercial home, deepening our understanding of the host—home relationship, leading to a more sophisticated and nuanced appreciation of how the commercial home ‘home’ product is constructed. The study is based on six commercial homes units. It is envisaged that in the future further issues will be identified from additional unit studies. A selection of themes is identified from preliminary analysis and areas for future research are suggested. The outcome of this research will include a deeper understanding of the commercial home product construction and the commercial home sector itself, which may lead to recommendations contributing towards the nature of quality assurance and grading systems, training and development strategies appropriate to the commercial home concept, and potential implications of marketing. This research is distinguished from what has gone before as prior studies have focused on readily accessible ‘objective’ issues, rather than below the surface issues accessing the inner self, the intangible dimensions of self, which nevertheless may determine aspects of the hospitality product.