Do hotel green practices influence customer satisfaction? Evidence from the Indian hospitality sector

The study investigates the impact of Hotel Green Practices (HGP) on customers' Willingness to Pay (WTP) for the sustainable initiative, Customer Loyalty (CL), and Customer Satisfaction (CS) in the hotel industry. Although green practices have gained considerable importance in hotel operations, empirical studies that simultaneously assess their direct and mediated effects on customer satisfaction remain limited. To address this gap, the present research integrates HGP, WTP, CL, and CS into a unified structural framework and examines the mediating roles of WTP and CL in explaining consumers' satisfaction with hotel green practices.

Data were collected from the guests who stayed in star rated hotels of Delhi, India, between 9 ^th to 29 ^th October 2025. Convenience sampling was used, and a self-administered questionnaire served as the data collection tool. Measurement items were adapted from well-established scales in hospitality and consumer behaviour research. Data were analysed using SmartPLS 4, and PLS-SEM was employed to examine the structural relationships, as well as the explanatory and predictive capabilities of the proposed model.

The structural analysis demonstrated that HGP has a significant impact on both WTP and CL. A direct, although weaker, positive association was also observed between HGP and CS. Both mediators WTP, and CL contributed significantly to CS, with CL has the strongest effect, followed by WTP. Mediation analysis confirmed partial mediation, with indirect effects surpassing the direct effect of HGP on CS. The model showed substantial explanatory power, particularly for CS (R ² = 0.627), and demonstrated strong predictive relevance, with Q ² values exceeding the recommended threshold of 0.35.

The findings suggest that HGP has positive impact on CS, CL, and customers' WTP. Furthermore, customer loyalty emerged as a strong mediating variable between hotel green practices and customer satisfaction relationship. Overall, these results highlight the importance of adopting sustainability practices in hotel operations, as they not only strengthen customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, but also influence customers to pay premium price for the hotel's sustainable initiatives.