Managerial practices and sustainability of family-owned hotels in Southern Morocco

Abstract

Family-run hotels are a cornerstone of tourism in southern Morocco, yet long-term viability increasingly depends on sustainable and professionalized management practices. This study examines how intergenerational succession and managerial routines shape performance and guest satisfaction. A sequential mixed-methods design was adopted. Four semi-structured interviews with family-hotel managers and a tourism-sector official were thematically coded to identify governance, succession, and service-quality dimensions. These insights guided the analysis of 352 online guest reviews from major booking platforms, combining lexical frequency measures and sentiment analysis. Findings suggest that succession planning, more structured pricing and performance steering, and digital guest relations are associated with more favorable evaluations and greater service consistency, while weak knowledge codification and pronounced seasonality hinder competitiveness. The study recommends mentored succession, targeted steering skills, and the adoption of sustainability-oriented digital tools.

JEL classification : L83; M10; L25

Paper type : Empirical research