| Abstract: | Bed and breakfast ( B&B) industry is flourishing in Taiwan. Through the organization of unions and associations, many B & B groups do the exchange of experiences in business management, and share related resources to improve their service quality and upgrade their competitiveness. According to the survey of Tourism Bureau in Taiwan, there are 17 B & B non-official associations. These associations are founded under the principle of service and non-profit making. Under the insufficiency of funds and the shortage of enough human resource, the effectiveness and performance of these associations are not as good as their members have originally predicted and expected; consequently, this unsatisfying anticipation gradually leads to the low participation of most members, and even worse, it causes some members to quit from the associations. In addition, under the competition from other tourism organizations, B & B industry confronts more pressure; consequently, the members of the associations are shrinking, it might finally lead to the disintegration of the associations due to undesirable management and performance.
The existence of associations for B & B groups is very essential. The associations not only can promote the quality of the management, but also can help bridge the communication between the government and B & B groups. Therefore, how to meet the requirements and demands of B & B groups, how to satisfy association membership with needed services, and how to attract more B & B owners to join the associations to keep continuing development of the organization has become an essential and imperative issue. Checking from the past literature review, we found the related studies on B & B groups’ organization are few. Therefore, this research sampled from members of “Taiwan Rural Accommodation Association” that was the first established National B & B groups’ organization in Taiwan. Based on the theories of non- profit organizations and collecting data from past literature, the appropriate evaluation criteria and scale to B & B groups’ performance have been developed and induced. Through the questionnaires and IPA method (importance - performance analysis), we also explore the membership’s satisfaction and emphasis on the evaluation criteria and scale to the overall performance and efficiency of the organization.
In this research, there are mainly five domains that were used as the criteria to assess B & B associations. These five domains respectively are “Administrative Service Ability,” “Marketing Effectiveness in Travel Fair,” “Social Activity Skills,” “Membership’s guidance and assistance,” and “ Extra Resources from the External.” Among these domains, we find association members play importance on the domain of “Administrative Service Ability” most, and the domains on “Administrative Service Ability” and “Extra Resources from the External” are the most satisfying. “The Principle and Enthusiasm of the Director,” “The Professional Level of the Secretariat,” “The Service Attitudes of the Secretariat,” “The Administrative Efficiency of the Secretariat,” “Holding Related Instructions and Trainings on B & B running,” and “The communication and Interaction with the Governmental Bureaus,” are the important indexes that most membership pays highly attention and care. This research can be a very effective reference for B & B groups on upgrading and evaluating their management performance. |
