Can blockchain payment services influence customers' loyalty intention in the hospitality industry? A mediation assessment

Al Karim, Rashed; Rabiul, Md Karim; Ishrat, Mahima; Pornpisanu Promsivapallop; Kawser, Sakia Article Can blockchain payment services influence customers' loyalty intention in the hospitality industry? A mediation assessment Administrative Sciences Provided in Cooperation with: MDPI – Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, Basel Suggested Citation: Al Karim, Rashed; Rabiul, Md Karim; Ishrat, Mahima; Pornpisanu Promsivapallop; Kawser, Sakia (2023) : Can blockchain payment services influence customers' loyalty intention in the hospitality industry? A mediation assessment, Administrative Sciences, ISSN 2076-3387, MDPI, Basel, Vol. 13, Iss. 3, pp. 1-17, https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci13030085 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/275550 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Citation: Karim, Rashed Al, Md Karim Rabiul, Mahima Ishrat, Pornpisanu Promsivapallop, and Sakia Kawser. 2023. Can Blockchain Payment Services Influence Customers’ Loyalty Intention in the Hospitality Industry? A Mediation Assessment. Administrative Sciences 13: 85. https://doi.org/10.3390/ admsci13030085 Received: 31 January 2023 Revised: 6 March 2023 Accepted: 6 March 2023 Published: 14 March 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). administrative sciences Article Can Blockchain Payment Services Influence Customers’ Loyalty Intention in the Hospitality Industry? A Mediation Assessment Rashed Al Karim 1,* , Md Karim Rabiul 2, Mahima Ishrat 1, Pornpisanu Promsivapallop 2and Sakia Kawser 1 1School of Business Administration, East Delta University, Noman Society, Chittagong 4209, Bangladesh 2Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism, Prince of Songkla University, Kathu, Phuket 83120, Thailand *Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: This study analyzes the impact of blockchain mobile payment services on customer loyalty intention through the mediating role of service quality, privacy and security, and customer satisfaction in the Bangladeshi hospitality industry. Data were collected through a survey using a structured questionnaire from 326 respondents who stayed in 4and 5-star hotels in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar. Respondents’ (N = 326) opinions were analyzed employing Smart PLS software. The results ensure that privacy and security and customer satisfaction mediate the blockchain-based mobile payment services and loyalty intention relationship. However, service quality does not mediate that relationship. The findings of the mediation effect of privacy and security and customer satisfaction are a unique contribution to the blockchain literature in the field of the hospitality industry. Hoteliers are encouraged to employ appropriate blockchain mobile payment services for better quality customer service and ensured safety and security, and in turn, loyalty intention. Keywords: blockchain mobile payment service; service quality; privacy and security; customer satisfaction; loyalty intention 1. Introduction Developing customers’ loyalty intentions has become a vital issue in today’s business including highly competitive hospitality industry because it functions as a fundamental differentiator to gain a competitive advantage (Al Karim et al. 2022,2023;Pérez-Sánchez et al. 2021;Kandampully et al. 2015). Therefore, hoteliers must now, more than ever, focus on customer loyalty intentions, comprising the intention to use, loyalty, and positive WOM, and revisit intention by fulfilling their needs (Antoniadis et al. 2021;Prentice et al. 2020; Treiblmaier 2020). The widespread use of digitalization in the hospitality industry allows customers to search, book, and purchase travel online, which is different from conventional methods (Antoniadis et al. 2021;Khalifa 2018). However, customers sometimes get cheated and become worried about both their money and data security. Again, blockchain technology provides a wide range of phenomenal services, such as data transparency, robust security, immutability, accountability, lack of intermediary, efficiency, cost reduction, and reduced risk of data tampering, persuading the hospitality and tourism industry to implement this technology in a variety of areas (Marszałek and Szarzec 2022;Dogru et al. 2018;Irannezhad and Mahadevan 2020;Treiblmaier 2020). Thus, blockchain technology offers enormous potential to transform the way hospitality businesses are performing and increase customer loyalty and intention to use (Antoniadis et al. 2021;Dogru et al. 2018;Valeri and Baggio 2020). Consequently, several hospitality organizations in different countries, such as Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and Estonia, have implemented blockchain technology (Current Affairs 2018;Ma 2020;Marr 2018). Nevertheless, in Bangladesh, blockchain technology implementation is already applied in the financial industry. For example, United Commercial Bank Limited, Prime Bank Limited, Standard Chartered Bank, and many other banks have launched blockchain Adm. Sci. 2023,13, 85. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci13030085 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/admsci Adm. Sci. 2023,13, 85 2 of 17 payment services to provide highly secure, faster, more accessible, and cost-effective transaction services (The Daily Star 2017;The Financial Express 2017). While this technology has grown in popularity and impacted the Bangladeshi financial industry, the hospitality industry has yet to recognize the potential of blockchain and its services. The hospitality industry in Bangladesh is a significant sector of the economy (Rabiul et al. 2022;World Travel and Tourism Council 2020). This industry contributed 3% of the country’s GDP (USD 9113.2 million) and 2.9% of total employment in 2019 (Rabiul et al. 2021;World Travel and Tourism Council 2020). This may locate many hospitality businesses in an unfavorable market position, particularly given the industry’s major unwillingness to innovate and efficiently adapt to external market technologies (Filimonau and Naumova 2020). Therefore, for economic viability and development, it is the ideal moment and opportunity for hospitality businesses to use blockchain technology to enhance service quality, customer experience, and profitability and attain customers’ loyalty intentions. However, several internet-based hotels and travel booking services providing sites in Bangladesh, such as ShareTrip, Stay, Ticketshala.com, and Winrooms.com, are making the travel experience more accessible for customers. On the other hand, blockchain technology is a recent Fintech innovation that is still evolving swiftly (Sciarelli et al. 2022;Lou and Li 2017). Blockchain payment services are pioneering developments in the bargain that potentially disrupt tourism and hospitality firms (Nuryyev et al. 2020;Kwok and Koh 2019;Filimonau and Naumova 2020). The use of blockchain technology in the tourism and hospitality industry is being studied (Kwok and Koh 2019;Calvaresi et al. 2019), but there has not been enough empirical research into blockchain payments services, which may become a conventional payment method in the future (Karim et al. 2022;Nuryyev et al. 2020;Rad et al. 2018). Owing to the fast development of blockchain technology, it is vital to understand the elements that influence customers’ loyalty intentions about blockchain payment services. Therefore, due to inadequate research and knowledge, the hospitality industry of Bangladesh is experiencing the gap in blockchain technology implications. Hence, to fulfill the gap, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of blockchain payment services on customer loyalty intention through the mediating role of service quality, privacy and security, and customer satisfaction, which is yet to be explored in the Bangladesh hotel industry. The contributions of this study are numerous. First, since blockchain is still a relatively new idea for Bangladeshi enterprises, this research can help boost the appeal of blockchainbased services by outlining many advantages that the Bangladeshi hospitality industry can gain by utilizing blockchain technology. Second, by investigating the mediating role of service quality, privacy and security, and customer satisfaction between blockchainbased services and customer loyalty relationships, this study provides how customer loyalty can be enhanced. This research will assist managers, administrators, and customers in comprehending the benefits of blockchain services, including hotel organizations, in implementing such technology-based services to build loyal customers. 2. Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Development 2.1. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) This study uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen 1991) and the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis 1989) to examine the impact of blockchain payment services on customer loyalty intention in the hospitality industry. Since TAM and TPB have been employed in numerous studies to forecast and comprehend user perceptions of system use and the likelihood of adopting an online system, they are the most suitable tools for comprehending customer loyalty intention toward blockchain-based payment services (Lee 2009). In order to give a more complete model of blockchain-based online payment system evaluation and acceptance, this study recommends integrating the four characteristics of blockchain-based payment services with the TAM and TPB. Adm. Sci. 2023,13, 85 3 of 17 TPB contends that a person’s loyalty intent, which is impacted by attitude, subjective norms, and perceived loyalty controls, collectively determines how they behave while carrying out certain actions (Ajzen 1991). The level of one’s willingness to put in effort when engaging in particular actions is gauged by their loyalty intention (Ajzen 1991; Lee 2009). Simultaneously, according to the TAM’s theoretical ground, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are the two critical determinants of loyalty intention to embrace modern technology (Davis 1989). Since its inception, numerous academics have merged TAM with extraneous elements and discovered it useful to correctly estimate technology adoption across a wide range of technologies and diverse environments, including information, software applications, and e-commerce (Sciarelli et al. 2022;Nuryyev et al. 2020; Kwok and Koh 2019;Kim and Woo 2016;Venkatesh et al. 2012;Venkatesh 2000). Due to its strong theoretical underpinning, it serves as one of the cornerstone theories for this research (Sciarelli et al. 2022;Nuryyev et al. 2020;Lou and Li 2017). Numerous studies used the TPB and TAM to examine the factors influencing customers’ loyalty intention (Lee 2009;Irawan et al. 2022). As the TPB model only addresses the influence of user-related or internal variables on loyalty intention, the TAM model might incorporate external elements, such as the effect of blockchain-based payment facilities on customer loyalty intention. By including the TAM and TPB models together, it becomes possible to examine the internal and external factors influencing customer loyalty intention. 2.2. Blockchain Mobile Payment Service and Its Features Blockchain is viewed as a rigid database with a recurrent chain of blocks containing solitary data transactions that are transmitted among the users of that particular network using a decentralized mechanism (Rekha and Resmi 2021;Peters and Panayi 2016). Blockchain technology introduces a wide range of sophisticated features to the industrial and commercial worlds, facilitating development, scalability, and security, and easing many existing industrial and business operations (Al-Jaroodi and Mohamed 2019;Lee et al. 2019; Guo and Liang 2016). As a result, multiple industries, notably healthcare, finance, logistics, and hospitality, are also influenced by these new business models (Al-Jaroodi and Mohamed 2019;Önder and Treiblmaier 2018;Treiblmaier 2020). Organizations seamlessly provide blockchain-based services such as strong security, time-efficiency, and cost-effectiveness (Nowi´nski and Kozma 2017;Peters and Panayi 2016). Many hospitality and tourism organizations adopt blockchain payment services to enhance quality, customer satisfaction, and profitability. The following are the few specific features that represent blockchain payment services for the present study. 2.2.1. Customer Familiarity Customer familiarity is defined as the number of product-/service-related experiences a customer has gathered from previous interactions with a particular product or service (Olya et al. 2021). Customer familiarity includes customer experience, previous knowledge, and strength of inevitability (Olya et al. 2021) and affects customer behavior directly (Türkel et al. 2016). Familiarity with a product or service grows when people use it more frequently; hence, familiarity with a firm and its goods is associated with customer loyalty intention (Olya et al. 2021). Moreover, Miraz et al. (2020) found a strong correlation between customer familiarity and blockchain-based service uptake in the hotel business. 2.2.2. Ease of Transaction The payment system for the hospitality sector has been greatly impacted by the broad adoption of blockchain technology (Marszałek and Szarzec 2022;Önder and Treiblmaier 2018;Treiblmaier 2020). In their study, Kwok and Koh (2019) found that the blockchain system has the potential to ease cross-border transaction procedures and remove the necessity of currency conversion. A wide range of studies found that fundamental features of blockchain technology that ensure shorter technology-based transaction processes along with automating transaction services through smart contracts have a positive impact on Adm. Sci. 2023,13, 85 4 of 17 blockchain’s ease of use (Lee et al. 2019;Lee 2019). Thus, it can be assumed that the ease of transaction procedure can positively impact blockchain-based services. 2.2.3. Transparency Blockchain technology is a revolutionary tool that provides transparent and effective transactions to the users by merging cryptography, distributed systems, and consensus protocol authentically (Batubara et al. 2019;Kizildag et al. 2019;Maupin 2017). It is an incorruptible shared ledger of monetary transactions where transparency can be attained when recording and copying each transaction (Crosby et al. 2016;Golosova and Romanovs 2018;Gupta 2017;Willie 2019). A blockchain system, especially the public blockchain, enables its participants to access all the transaction data and information shared in the ledger and cannot be tampered with or erased by anyone (Golosova and Romanovs 2018; Kizildag et al. 2019). 2.2.4. Efficiency According to several studies, participants in a blockchain system do not need mediators to build trust because all transactions and verifications are performed automatically in the network (Dogru et al. 2018;Gupta 2017). According to Willie (2019), hospitality organizations must evolve and become significantly more flexible in offering payment alternatives that guests select during transactions, to remain relevant and competitive. Though credit card transactions are more prevalent in the hospitality business than any other transaction, taking credit cards comes with the drawback of large commission fees that must be paid to credit card issuers (Willie 2019). Since blockchain technology eliminates the intermediate connection of the agent and eliminates commission fees or additional charges, the hospitality industry can help organizations reduce their operating and transaction costs for both business owners and customers (Nam et al. 2021;Treiblmaier 2019;Irannezhad and Mahadevan 2020;Willie 2019). 2.3. Blockchain Payment Services, Privacy and Security, Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction One of the most remarkable features of blockchain is security solutions. A blockchain network does not require any central authority to approve or manage transactions (Irannezhad and Mahadevan 2020). Even in a blockchain system, to achieve consensus, every step of the transaction is approved and checked by all participants, increasing the level of transparency in the system (Dogru et al. 2018;Irannezhad and Mahadevan 2020;Rekha and Resmi 2021). Since these blockchains are stored on many computers and all transactions are rigorously guarded by unique cryptographic hashes, the hacking or changing the data history of the transaction by any individual in this system is impossible (Crosby et al. 2016;Dogru et al. 2018). By employing blockchain technology, the hospitality industry can introduce seamless transaction processes and improve financial management for both customers and service providers (Jobs 2021). Moreover, Willie (2019) suggests that blockchain can benefit the hospitality industry by making transactions easier, more secure, and transparent, improving business operations. So, the proposed hypothesis is as follows: Hypothesis 1 (H1). BPS positively affects privacy and security. Service quality has emerged as the most critical component in hospitality businesses’ quest to gain a long-term competitive edge and hold existing customers (Ali et al. 2021; Lee et al. 2016). Service quality refers to customers’ perceptions and assessments of service offerings by a business entity (Prentice et al. 2020). Ali et al. (2021) contended that services are imperceptible, so it is extensively complicated for the service providers to unwrap and customers to estimate. Several studies claim that responsiveness, safety and security, reliability, customization, and stability are all common sorts of service quality (Top and Ali 2021). Blockchain technology has a range of prosperous applications in the hospitality industry (Antoniadis et al. 2021;Dogru et al. 2018;Erceg et al. 2020;Valeri and Baggio Adm. Sci. 2023,13, 85 5 of 17 2020). By implementing this technology, hotel industries can ensure quality service, as the hospitality industry is extremely competitive, and the nature of blockchain-based services is remarkable (Dogru et al. 2018). According to Shahab and Allam (2020), businesses can reduce uncertainties, complexities, and the need for third-party involvement in transaction processes through blockchain payment services and improve the relationship between customers and service providers by enhancing service quality. So, based on the discussion above, the proposed hypothesis is offered: Hypothesis 2 (H2). BPS positively affects service quality. Top and Ali (2021) define customer satisfaction as whether the services or products provided meet the customer’s expectations. Customer satisfaction has become the most important part of the hospitality industry, and compared to other industries, hospitality firms are assuring profitability and maintaining consumers through customer satisfaction (Jana and Chandra 2016). However, as hospitality firms become more competitive over time and customer preferences shift, meeting all the demands and needs of visitors has become difficult for these enterprises (Erceg et al. 2020;Preece and Easton 2019). The hospitality industry will undergo rapid transformation because of digitization, fueled by shifting customer preferences and needs for hotel and tourism-related products and services (Zsarnoczky 2018). Simultaneously, these new applications, such as blockchain payment, are affecting a variety of industries, including the hospitality industry, through their exceptional services (Treiblmaier 2019). According to Dogru et al. (2018), the immutable tracking feature of blockchain can increase tourists’ efficiency, leading to customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry, as this technology has the potential to track a customer’s overall travel details. Along with transaction convenience, blockchain technology can play a vital role in improving customer satisfaction in the tourism industry (Erceg et al. 2020). Thus, we propose: Hypothesis 3 (H3). BPS positively affects customer satisfaction. 2.4. Privacy and Security, Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Loyalty Intention Privacy concerns are not unusual in the service industry. Personal information control, reproductive autonomy, accessibility to locations, confidentiality, and self-development are all aspects of privacy concerns (Sudigdo et al. 2019). Customers have become extremely concerned about the privacy and security of their private details on the wide global web, internet environment, and internet platforms and have demanded stronger protections (Rekha and Resmi 2021;Top and Ali 2021). Customers are typically unmoved by privacy when they sense their personal information is being employed only for the sake of the transaction. Customers become ever more worried about privacy if service providers use customers’ personal data beyond the original transaction (Rekha and Resmi (2021). Customers are more willing to trust online payment service providers if they guarantee secure transactions and the secrecy of personal information (Shankar and Jebarajakirthy 2019). A transparent privacy and security strategy leads to better customer responses to the merchant (Orel and Kara 2014). Earlier studies have shown that privacy and security are positively significant to customer loyalty intention (Shankar and Jebarajakirthy 2019). Moreover, the overall service quality evaluation leads to emotional reactions such as customer satisfaction (Makanyeza and Chikazhe 2017). Service quality has an extensive and supportive effect on consumer satisfaction and loyalty intentions (Makanyeza and Chikazhe 2017). This demonstrates that service quality is a crucial element that can generate customer satisfaction. Customers who leave due to dissatisfaction with the goods or service tend to tell others about their disappointment, which can influence other customers’ loyalty intentions and, eventually, affect the service provider organization (Mokhtar et al. 2019). Similarly, customer satisfaction has been identified as an evaluation that defines how delighted customers are with an organization’s service offerings. Satisfaction has become Adm. Sci. 2023,13, 85 6 of 17 a significant concern for a company’s product or service since it evaluates the level of expectation between the company’s product and the customer’s expectations (Ali et al. 2021). Customer satisfaction has a remarkable impact on both the company and the service they are providing, as customers happier with product performance and services means more sales and more profit (Top and Ali 2021). So, based on the discussions, the proposed hypotheses are: Hypothesis 4 (H4). Privacy and security positively affects customer loyalty intention. Hypothesis 5 (H5). Service quality positively affects customer loyalty intention. Hypothesis 6 (H6). Customer satisfaction positively affects customer loyalty intention. 2.5. Blockchain Payment Services and Customer Loyalty Intention Like other industries, the hospitality industry is continuously searching for new strategies to attain customer satisfaction and competitive advantage, increase productivity, and win customer fidelity (Willie 2019). Visitors consider loyalty intention in addition to motivation, purpose, and satisfaction when making decisions, and it is crucial to remember that a range of factors influences visitors when booking a hotel for travel purposes (Hu et al. 2020). The presence of customer loyalty intention (such as intent to use, loyalty, positive word of mouth, and revisit) is mandatory for the long-term sustainability of any hospitality firm due to the availability of a wide range of tourist spots and hotel businesses. Furthermore, market competition has become severe, so retaining loyal customers rather than acquiring new ones has become the major goal of these businesses (Pérez-Sánchez et al. 2021). Organizations can employ a range of blockchain-based payment services, such as easier transaction methods, transparency, efficiency, and immutability, to make the customer experience more satisfying (Antoniadis et al. 2021). Even the incredible feature of blockchain, smart contracts, can be used by the hospitality industry to facilitate transactions (Crosby et al. 2016;Dogru et al. 2018). Additionally, blockchain technology has been recognized as a powerful innovation competent to enhance the value of customer loyalty intention (Ebarefimia 2017). Pérez-Sánchez et al. (2021) explored that blockchain implementation in the tourism and hospitality sectors might positively impact customers’ loyalty intention. The following hypothesis is offered based on these arguments: Hypothesis 7 (H7). BPS positively affects customer loyalty intention. 2.6. Mediating Role of Service Quality, Privacy and Security and Customer Satisfaction Along with cost-effectiveness, blockchain technology has the potential to assure secure transaction procedures as this advanced innovation is built on a system of cryptographic rules and strategies, such as hashing, consensus mechanisms, and timestamping for performing transactions (Papadopoulos 2015). By implementing this technology, businesses and customers could lessen the risk of credit card fraud, cybercrimes, identity theft, and personal data forgery (Hackius and Petersen 2017). Furthermore, firms must consider privacy and security concerns to maintain a long-term relationship with customers (Papaioannou et al. 2014). Likewise, many studies on privacy and security and customer loyalty intention found a positive association between these constructs (Shankar and Jebarajakirthy 2019). What is more, according to Willie (2019), several hospitality companies have embraced blockchain technology to attain strategic and practical goals, namely, operational effectiveness, profitability, and efficiency. In addition, blockchain-based services are being employed in very few hospitality sector areas, aiming to enhance service quality. The findings of previous studies suggest that blockchain-based services can simplify business operations and accelerate service quality (Dogru et al. 2018;Rekha and Resmi 2021). With a favorable quality service, customers are likely to refer the product or service and spend more. Adm. Sci. 2023,13, 85 7 of 17 Moreover, service quality and customer loyalty intention are firmly related, and improved service quality is likely to improve loyalty intention (Myo et al. 2019). If the service quality is uneven or poorer than the requirement, customers may become unsatisfied and not engage again, leading to a significant loss in hotel revenues (Sudigdo et al. 2019). However, earlier studies discovered a direct and indirect connection between service quality and customer loyalty intention (Khalifa 2018;Sudigdo et al. 2019). Erceg et al. (2020) and Dogru et al. (2018) specified that blockchain-based services might lead to guest satisfaction in the hospitality and tourism industry by tracking their current location, flight schedule, hotel check-in and out times, the location of their baggage, and transaction history, ensuring a cost-effective transaction process and streamlining the identity verification process. Customers are more likely to recommend the hotel’s products, name, or services when they are more satisfied with the hotel’s services (Khalifa and Mewad 2017). Further, satisfied customers will be loyal customers of the service provider corporation, and their aspirations to shift to another corporation will be restricted (Khalifa 2018). Numerous studies also stated that customer dissatisfaction could become a barrier to captivating customer loyalty intentions in the hotel industry that may negatively impact the business’s profitability (El-Adly 2019;Kandampully et al. 2015). Following the discussions, the proposed hypotheses and the conceptual framework (Figure 1) are: Adm. Sci. 2023, 13, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 17 and personal data forgery (Hackius and Petersen 2017). Furthermore, firms must consider privacy and security concerns to maintain a long-term relationship with customers (Papaioannou et al. 2014). Likewise, many studies on privacy and security and customer loyalty intention found a positive association between these constructs (Shankar and Jebarajakirthy 2019). What is more, according to Willie (2019), several hospitality companies have embraced blockchain technology to attain strategic and practical goals, namely, operational effectiveness, profitability, and efficiency. In addition, blockchain-based services are being employed in very few hospitality sector areas, aiming to enhance service quality. The findings of previous studies suggest that blockchain-based services can simplify business operations and accelerate service quality (Dogru et al. 2018; Rekha and Resmi 2021). With a favorable quality service, customers are likely to refer the product or service and spend more. Moreover, service quality and customer loyalty intention are firmly related, and improved service quality is likely to improve loyalty intention (Myo et al. 2019). If the service quality is uneven or poorer than the requirement, customers may become unsatisfied and not engage again, leading to a significant loss in hotel revenues (Sudigdo et al. 2019). However, earlier studies discovered a direct and indirect connection between service quality and customer loyalty intention (Khalifa 2018; Sudigdo et al. 2019). Erceg et al. (2020) and Dogru et al. (2018) specified that blockchain-based services might lead to guest satisfaction in the hospitality and tourism industry by tracking their current location, flight schedule, hotel check-in and out times, the location of their baggage, and transaction history, ensuring a cost-effective transaction process and streamlining the identity verification process. Customers are more likely to recommend the hotel’s products, name, or services when they are more satisfied with the hotel’s services (Khalifa and Mewad 2017). Further, satisfied customers will be loyal customers of the service provider corporation, and their aspirations to shift to another corporation will be restricted (Khalifa 2018). Numerous studies also stated that customer dissatisfaction could become a barrier to captivating customer loyalty intentions in the hotel industry that may negatively impact the business’s profitability (El-Adly 2019; Kandampully et al. 2015). Following the discussions, the proposed hypotheses and the conceptual framework (Figure 1) are: Hypothesis 8 (H8). Privacy & security mediates the BPS and loyalty intention relationship Hypothesis 9 (H9). Service quality mediates the BPS and loyalty intention relationship Hypothesis 10 (H10). Customer satisfaction mediates the BPS and loyalty intention relationship Figure 1. Conceptual Framework. Hypothesis 8 (H8). Privacy & security mediates the BPS and loyalty intention relationship. Hypothesis 9 (H9). Service quality mediates the BPS and loyalty intention relationship. Hypothesis 10 (H10). Customer satisfaction mediates the BPS and loyalty intention relationship. 3. Methods 3.1. Sample and Data Collection Procedure Although various sources indicated that only 44 star-rated hotels operate in Bangladesh (Karim and Rabiul 2022), the desired hotel list was not available on the government list or any other website. As a result, information was gathered using a structured questionnaire from guests at 4-star and 5-star hotels in the two most well-known cities, Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar, in order to evaluate the hypothesis. Both cities contain a total of 22 hotels. Cox’s Bazar is Bangladesh’s most popular tourist attraction, and Chattogram is the largest port city. The managers of all 22 hotels were contacted to seek permission to conduct a survey on their customers, but only 17 granted permission to conduct a survey. As such, a total of 17 star-rated hotels were selected for data collection purposes from these two cities. Adm. Sci. 2023,13, 85 8 of 17 Moreover, permission was secured from the hotel’s human resources and housekeeping managers to conduct the survey. We asked the housekeeping managers to hand out surveys in an open envelope to their hotel customers. Housekeeping departments gathered our questionnaires in sealed envelopes on our behalf. Furthermore, before disseminating the questionnaires to the participants, the purpose of the study was clearly explained. The consent was obtained from all the participants verbally. The filled-out surveys were taken from the housekeeping departments after between six and eight weeks. The survey was started in February 2022 and ended in April 2022 after several follow-ups for questionnaire retrieval. A total of 600 questionnaires were circulated using the convenient sampling technique, which is a non-probability sampling method, and after deleting the outliers and missing responses, we received 326 usable responses, yielding a response rate of 54.33%. 3.2. Measurements The blockchain mobile payment services (BPS) include four components, such as customer familiarity, ease of transaction, transparency, and efficiency, and were measured by 14 items adapted from an earlier study (Miraz et al. 2020;Nuryyev et al. 2020;Chen et al. 2022;Rekha and Resmi 2021). The items for service quality (five items) and privacy and security (four items) were adapted from Rekha and Resmi (2021), and customer satisfaction was measured by three items obtained from Chen et al. (2022). Lastly, the three items from Pérez-Sánchez et al. (2021) were used to measure loyalty intention. The items of the variables were in a five-point (1 = “Strongly Disagree” and 5 = “Strongly Agree”). 4. Results 4.1. Demographic Profile Table 1demonstrates the demographic profile of the respondents. About 59.5% were men, and 40.5% were women. Regarding the age group, 52.5% belonged to the age group 26–35 years, 22.1% were between 18 and 25 years old, 21.8% were between 36 and 49 years old, and the rest were above 50 years old. Regarding educational qualifications, most of the participants (55.2%) had completed or were pursuing bachelor’s degrees, and 34.7% of respondents were master’s degree holders. Lastly, 34% of respondents were service holders, 27.6% were businesspersons, and 17.5% were students. Table 1. Respondent profile (N = 326). Category Frequency Percent (%) Gender Male 194 59.5 Female 132 40.5 Age Group in years 18–25 72 22.1 26–35 171 52.5 36–49 71 21.8 Above 50 12 3.7 Educational Qualification Bachelor’s degree 180 55.2 Master’s degree 113 34.7 Professional degree 22 6.7 Other 11 3.4 Profession Student 57 17.5 Service holder 111 34.0 Businessperson 90 27.6 Professional 18 5.5 Other 50 15.3 4.2. Common Method Bias and Multicollinearity Harman’s single-factor test was run using SPSS 26 to examine the common method bias in the data. The total explanatory variance of a single component was 46.97%, below the cut-off value of 50% (Podsakoff and Organ 1986), and the total exploratory variance Adm. Sci. 2023,13, 85 15 of 17 Jobs, Soeg. 2021. Blockchain For Hospitality Industry—Benefits and Uses. SOEGJOBS. 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