Independent or branded : The dilemma of Bulgarian hoteliers

Hotel chains are major actors in the hospitality industry. Still, many hoteliers have not decided yet whether to join their properties to a chain or stay independent. The paper explores how the managers of Bulgarian independent hotels perceive hotel chains as a development opportunity. More specifically it evaluated their opinions about the advantages of chain affiliated and of independent hotels, the suitability of the various types of affiliation for the Bulgarian hotel market, the factors that influence on hoteliers’ decision to choose a type of affiliation, the preferred attributes of the chain, and the hotel attributes preferred by the chains. Furthermore, the paper compares the current findings with the results of a previous study, implemented in 2012, and identifies how the opinion of hoteliers changed over time