International Review of Business Research Papers Vol. 13. No. 1. March 2017. Pp. 78 – 87 Customer Preferences toward Hotel Facilities and Service Quality: A Cross-Cultural Analysis Laila Shin Rohani*, May Aung** and Khalil Rohani*** The objectives of this study are to identify and compare customers’ preference toward hotel facility and service attributes depending on their travel purpose. Therefore, vacation and business travelers staying in participating hotels were asked to rate important attributes of hotel facility and service. Based on ANOVA results, significant differences were found between hotel guests (survey respondents) in Canada, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates in the importance of some hotel attributes. 1. Introduction Customers from different cultures have different preferences for hotel facilities and services and these differences influence consumer behaviour (Loudon and Bitta, 1993). According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), international tourism was accounted for US$ 1.5 trillion in export earnings in 2015 and international tourist arrivals are expected to reach 1.8 billion in 2030(UNWTO, 2016). Therefore, it is time for hotels to increase their competitiveness through understanding important factors for their customers’ satisfaction from various cultures. For these reasons, this study was conducted in three different countries such as Canada, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that are located on three different continents. The tourism industry is considered as one of the most important industries in Canada, New Zealand, and the UAE. According to Supporting Tourism Canada, the tourism industry is very important in all regions of Canada. Tourism activity produced over $34.4 billion in revenues and directly employed over 620,000 Canadians. Approximately 2% of Canada`s gross domestic product (GDP) is generated by the tourism industry (Supporting Tourism Canada, 2014). The tourism industry in New Zealand was worth NZD 24 billion in 2013 contributing 5.7% of the total workforce in New Zealand (New Zealand Government, 2016). The UAE also has a large tourism industry with 5.3% of the jobs associated with the industry in 2014 (Abbas, 2015). Hotel customers’ preference toward hotel facility and service attributes has yet been explored in terms of cross-cultural context. The objectives of this research are to identify factors that are considered important to customers, to measure expectations, and to compare customer needs when traveling for different purposes. Furthermore, this study examined differences and similarities of needs among Canada Guest Respondents (CGR), New Zealand Guest Respondents (NGR), and UAE Guest Respondents (UGR). * Dr. Laila Shin Rohani, Department of Marketing, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Canada. Email: lrohani@ryerson.ca **Dr. May Aung, Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies, College of Management and Economics, University of Guelph, Canada. Email: maung@uoguelph.ca ***Dr. Khalil Rohani, Pilon School of Business, Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Canada. Email: khalil.rohani@sheridancollege.ca