Customer relationship management in small scale accomodation establishments: Case of Alaçati

In today?s fierce competitive environment, businesses are obliged to involve in customer relationship management (CRM), in order to establish, develop, manage, maintain and control relationships with customers. Customer relationship management, provides important advantages for companies such as to develop and implement successful customer strategies, to enhance value creation, to constitute customer loyalty and to increase profitability. Accommodation establishments as a part of the lodging industry also benefit from advantages provided by the effective use of customer relationship management. Yet, it is possible to observe differences in the execution of the CRM strategies in different establishment types. One of the reasons for differences in applications is associated with the varying scales of businesses, ranging from small- and medium-scale to large establishments.In this research, the use of customer relationship management is investigated through the analysis of 15 small-scale accommodation establishments in Alaçatı, Çeşme. The findings of the in-depth interviews conducted with the managers of such hotels are analysed with a qualitative research software program, NVivo 8, and are compared with the results of an extensive literature research.The findings show that small scale accomodation establishments are very conscious about the importance of customer relationship management and its benefits for both customers and businesses. Managers, focus on organizational dimensions of the subject more than the technological dimensions. Small scale accomodation establishments? success in customer retention and creating customer loyalty indicate their perfection of CRM.Key words: Customer relationship management, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, small-scale accomodation establishments.