Pre-purchase stage

In this stage, a potential Muslim hotel customer becomes aware of the service (brand), starts searching for information about the service, and develops expectations toward the service. At this point, the Muslim traveller expects to come across promotional material that is free of inappropriate content and a correct image of the hotel should be created. In a hadith, it was stated: “The best of you are those best in conduct. And, the Prophet was not one who was obscene, nor one who uttered obscenities” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi: 27/81). True information should also be given to potential customers without hiding facts or exaggeration. It is well documented in hospitality marketing literature that creating false expectations has adverse effects on customer satisfaction and loyalty (Pizam & Milman 1993). Customer reactions towards false advertising have been discussed where hotels have advertised as being completely halal although they were not (Duman 2011). One effect of negative disconfirmation in hotel services for Muslim customers can be the effects on loyalty where repeat business rates can stay at very low levels due to the consequences of false advertising on customer stays.

Evaluation of alternatives and choice stage

At this stage, a Muslim traveller would expect to evaluate alternative hotels that are suitable not only in financial terms but also in terms of halal properties. During choice and transactions, both the seller and the buyer are expected to be honest and not deceive each other. In a hadith, it was stated: “The Messenger of Allah passed by a man who was selling food. He put his hand in it and saw that there was something wrong with it. The Messenger of Allah said, ‘He is not one of us who cheats’” (Ibn Majah: 3/12/2224). Additionally, in Islam, the buyer has the right to return the product if he (she) is not happy with the product. In the hadith, it was stated that: “The seller and the buyer have the right to keep or return goods as long as they have not parted or till they part; and if both the parties spoke the truth and described the defects and qualities (of the goods), then they would be blessed in their transaction, and if they told lies or hid something, then the blessings of their transaction would be lost” (Sahih Al-Bukhari: 34/32/2079). In another hadith, it was stated: “‘When you buy something, say: ‘There should be no intention of cheating’ and for every product you buy, you have the choice for three nights. If you are pleased with it, keep it, and if you are displeased then return it” (Sunan Ibn Majah: 13/48/2355). Choice of hotel property is a significant decision for a Muslim consumer because of the sensitivity of the decision. Typically, Muslim consumers would look for hotels that have halal properties and an atmosphere suited to their belief system. Research shows the importance of affective (e.g. comfortable feeling and entertaining) and sensory (room quality and atmosphere) attributes of hotel choice in addition to cognitive ones (e.g. price, food quality) (Kim & Perdue 2013). It can be expected that Muslim consumers would evaluate all three aspects in their hotel choices and compare hotels on all aspects when they make their decisions.

Service consumption stage

Islamic rulings and traditions encourage service providers to welcome and greet the guests; provide a secure and safe environment; provide modest facilities and avoid extravagance; conduct honest and trustworthy transactions; promote reasonable prices; be generous in hospitality; work with qualified employees to provide courteous, accurate, and timely services; keep all areas clean; provide halal food and beverage with the guests and have acceptable (halal) means of entertainment for the guests. From an Islamic perspective, for a commercial or noncommercial purpose, a traveller coming to the host’s facility is a guest and s/he has rights on the hosts. In a hadith, it was stated: “and your guest has a right on you” (Sahih Al-Bukhari: 30/82/1975). Travellers and/or guests are given special status in Islam. In a hadith, it was stated: “Three supplications are accepted, there is no doubt in them (about them being accepted): The supplication of the oppressed, the supplication of the traveller, and the supplication of his father against his son” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi: 27/11). In another hadith, the Prophet said, “Traveling is a kind of torture, as it prevents one from sleeping and eating! So when one has finished his job, he should return quickly to his family” (Sahih al-Bukhari: 70/57/5429), therefore demanding Muslim hosts relieve fellow travellers.

The host should welcome and greet the guest appropriately. As stated in a hadith: “The Messenger of Allah said: Putting up a guest for one night is obligatory. If you find a guest at your door in the morning, then this (hospitality) is (like) a debt that you (the host) owe him. If he (the guest) wants, he may request it, and if he wants, he may leave it” (Sunan Ibn Majah: 33/21/3677). From this perspective, the host is also responsible for the guest’s safety. Related to this is a hadith that “It is the Sunnah for a man to go out with his guest to the door of the house” (Maudu: 4/29/3358) indicating that the host is responsible for seeing the guest off from the house.

With respect to greeting, the Quran states: “And when you are greeted with a greeting, greet [in return] with one better than it or [at least] return it [in a like manner]. Indeed, Allah is ever, over all things, an Accountant” (An-Nisa 86). In a hadith, “a man asked the Prophet, ‘What sort of deeds or (what qualities of) Islam are good?’ The Prophet replied, ‘To feed (the poor) and greet those whom you know and those whom you do not Know’” (Sahih Al-Bukhari: 2/5/12). The role of welcoming in hotel services is integral to hospitality service quality. In Islam, welcoming means more than a commercial welcome but rather a welcoming of a guest. Accordingly, Muslim customers would have high expectations from the hotels they choose in terms of being welcomed.

With respect to physical facilities (building, furnishings, decor), Islam teaches a balance between being nice and beautiful (husn) and modesty. Islam discourages vanity and show-off. In Sura An-Nisa it is stated: “And [also] those who spend of their wealth to be seen by the people and believe not in Allah nor in the Last Day. And he to whom Satan is a companion – then evil is he as a companion” (An-Nisa 38).

All transactions according to Islam have to be honest and trustworthy. Reasonable prices should be promoted because undeserved profits are forbidden in Islam. It was stated in the hadith that “the Prophet forbade artificially inflating prices” (Sunan an-Nasa’i: 44/57/4505). It was stated in another hadith praising the trustworthy merchant that: “The trustworthy, honest Muslim merchant will be with the martyrs on the Day of Resurrection” (Ibn Majah: 3/12/2139). Also, Muslim traders are expected to be generous in their trade dealings. The Prophet said in a hadith: “The believer is simple and generous, but the profligate is deceitful and ignoble” (Sunan Abi Dawud: 43/18/4790). Similarly, it was suggested by the hadith to “entertain guests generously” (Sahih Al-Bukhari: 63/131/3905).

An important element of service transaction process is the provision of services to customers with care. Providing hospitality to the guest is a praised deed in Islam. In a hadith, it was stated: “He who believes in Allah and the Last Day should do good to his neighbour and he who believes in Allah and the Last Day should show hospitality to the guest and he who believes in Allah and the Last Day should either speak good or better remain silent” (Sahih Muslim: 1/83/48). Another hadith on the importance of providing hospitality to the guest stated: “If anyone is a guest of people who provide no hospitality for him, he is entitled to take from them the equivalent of the hospitality due to him” (Abi Dawud: 28/69/3804).

Islam teaches hosts to be courteous to guests. In a hadith, the Prophet stated: “There are three (characteristics) for which whomever has them, Allah will expose His side, and admit him to Paradise: Being courteous to the guest, kind to parents, and doing good for slaves” (Da’if: 4/11/2494). Also, a part of being courteous is calling a guest by their preferred name. In the hadith, it was stated about this issue that: “The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to like to call a man by the name that he liked best and by his favourite kunya” (Al-Adab Al-Mufrad: 34/9/819). In resolving complaints, hosts are expected to be reasonable and look for acceptable solutions by compromise. In a hadith, it was stated that: “Transactions may only be done by mutual consent” (Ibn Majah: 3/12/2185).

Service providers should also provide services in a prompt and timely manner. It was suggested in a hadith that good deeds should be hastened: “Be prompt in doing good deeds” (Sahih Muslim: 1/220/118). In general, all employees should be competent and appropriate people for their positions. This is a key human resource principle in Islam established by the famous verse in the Quran: “Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due and when you judge between people to judge with justice. Excellent is that which Allah instructs you. Indeed, Allah is ever Hearing and Seeing” (An-Nisa 58).

The host is also expected to portray a neat and clean appearance. The Prophet was known to wear modest clothes, and be neat and clean all the time. He used fragrance and promoted its use to his followers. In a hadith, the Prophet said: “When one of you is given some fragrance then do not refuse it, for indeed it comes from Paradise” (Da’if: 5/41/2791). Services and products provided by the service providers should be clean and acceptable for consumption according to Islamic standards. Cleanliness is urged and ruled for prayer in many versus in Quran and in hadith. In Al-Baqara 125, it is stated: “Purify My House for those who perform Tawaf and those who are staying [there] for worship and those who bow and prostrate [in prayer]”. In one hadith, it was stated that:

In [the mosque] are men who love to clean and to purify themselves. And Allah loves those who make themselves clean and pure. … the Messenger of Allah said: “O Ansar! Allah has praised you for your cleanliness”. “What is the nature of your cleanliness?” They said: “We perform ablution for prayer and we take bath to cleanse ourselves of impurity due to sexual activity, and we clean ourselves with water (after urinating)”. He said: “This is what it is. So adhere to it.”

(Hasan: 1/1/355)

As mentioned in the hadith, there are clear rules of cleanliness for acceptable prayers in Islam. In another hadith about cleanliness, it was stated that: “Indeed Allah is Tayyib (good) and he loves Tayyib (what is good), and He is Nazif (clean) and He loves cleanliness, He is Karim (kind) and He loves kindness, He is Jawad (generous) and He loves generosity” (Da’if: 5/41/2799).

All that is consumed by Muslims have to be clean and halal. This is stated in a Quranic verse: “O you who have believed, eat from the good things which We have provided for you and be grateful to Allah if it is [indeed] Him that you worship” (Al-Baqarah 172). In another verse it is stated: “O mankind, eat from whatever is on earth [that is] lawful and good and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy” (Al-Baqarah 168). The boundaries of halal food and beverage have been very well identified in the literature (Henderson 2016).

With respect to entertainment services in hospitality facilities, it can be said that all recreation and entertainment services must be designed according to Islamic standards where obscenity and inapropriate behaviours are not allowed. In Surah An-Nur (31), it is stated:

And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.

Finally, all services in a hospitality facility should be designed and provided according to the needs of the beneficiaries. Islam recognises every individual in his/her condition and status, and teaches to treat the person according to personal needs of the condition or status. Females, children, disabled, and elderly are given special status and should be treated with care. In a hadith, it is stated: “Treat your children fairly, treat your children fairly” (Sunan an-Nasa’i: 31/16/3687). Furthermore, the family is the building block of Islamic social life (Stephenson 2014) and all halal hospitality services should be designed according to the needs of family.

All the above-mentioned qualities of hospitality services are well researched in services marketing literature. Research on customer segments and the role of customer perceptions based on religious beliefs on service provision is still an emerging area (Jafari & Scott 2014; Oktadiana, Pearce & Chon 2016). Empirical research in this area is still relatively scarce and future research can focus on customer markets to identify the effect of customers’ religious beliefs on their hospitality service choice and evaluations. A further under-researched area pertaining to halal hospitality services is the perceptions of non-Muslims on these services. In a number of destinations, hospitality and tourism businesses that are designed to meet Muslim customer needs are increasing. A number of Internet-based travel operators (e.g. halaltrip.com; halalbooking.com; crestentrating.com; luxuryhalaltravel.com) have started operations to sell hospitality and tourism products and services to predominantly Muslim customers, although research on the profile and psychological characteristics of non-Muslim customers who consume such products and services is limited (Wibowo & Ahmad 2016).

Post-consumption stage and feedback

The final stage in the process model is the post-purchase stage and feedback on the consumed services. The resulting behaviours of Muslim customer segment can be expected to be more specific, focusing on evaluations that are based on their religious beliefs. Following the consumption experience, Muslim consumers’ summary evaluations of service quality, satisfaction, and value will be based on their expectations which include requirements of their belief system. For example, it can be expected that those hotel services that are weak on properties listed in Table 3.3 will be evaluated as less acceptable and resulting future behaviours of loyalty and recommending behaviour will be less strong. However, this aspect of halal hospitality service consumption suffers from a lack of research.