ABSTRACT
National branded hospitality services may come across tension in their need to maintain a standardised national brand through which customers learn to know what to expect when encountering local or regional tastes that cut across the standard brand. In hospitality service contexts, the same brand may represent a different cluster of benefits, depending on the means by which customers are supplied with products and services. In most hospitality situations, the service received by customers involves face-to-face interactions. While the type and quality of products on offer to customers is important, the key feature for hospitality managers to understand is the precise nature of the service experience being supplied, and what customers are expecting of each specific service encounter. A common feature is that customers, who may be referred to as guests, are well aware of the commercial relationship with the hospitality service supplier.
