Promoting Green Buildings and Low-Carbon Design Strategies of Green B&B Rooms for Sustainable Tourism after COVID-19

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

There needs to be a distinction between B&B and hotel industry, as they are quite different.

what were the exact changes in the hotel industry, taht you have noticed?

line 43 - 44 what is green evaluation and what are green rooms (in the entartainment industry, the green room has a different meaning).

In the research, the respondents were simple tourists or experts in the field of hospitality, as the 30 items listed in table1, require some sort of proficiency or expertise. It is unclear from the methodology what the 261 persons did and what the 10 persons(experts) mentioned in Figure 2 did.

figure 7 and appendix A are fuzzy and cannot be 

line 38 and 39 - significant appears twice - try to rephrase

Line 47 - On one hand, instead of for

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1,

Hope all is well.
We are very grateful for your comments about the manuscript. According to your advice, we amended the relevant parts of the manuscript. All revisions to the manuscript have been revised in the manuscript. After these revisions (your professional and excellent comments), the quality of this article has been dramatically improved. Thank you very much again.

 

There needs to be a distinction between B&B and the hotel industry, as they are pretty different.

What were the exact changes in the hotel industry that you have noticed?

1 Response:

Thank you very much for the comments about the details. This excellent suggestion helped us a lot. You helped us discover some of the main issues about “a distinction between B&B and hotel industry” and “the exact changes in the hotel industry” in the manuscript. Your comments also helped us improve the quality of the manuscript.

We revised these as follows:

From line 69:

2.1. New opportunities for green B&Bs after COVID-19

COVID-19 will be a new opportunity for tourism. After COVID-19, some green B&B strategies were studied, some hospitality socio-economic implications were studied [8,9], healthy cities [10][11], and hospitality marketing and management were studied [12,13]. They found that COVID-19 will significantly and permanently affect China's hotel multi-channel industry's four significant aspects (multi-channels/business, market re-shuffle, product design, and intelligent transformation). The meaning of hotel is an accommodation function to solve the problem of staying outside. The significance of B&B is the accommodation experience based on the accommodation function, the tourism experience and enjoyment based on the proper solution of the accommodation problem, and the transformation of the accommodation function into the tourism experience itself. Bor-rowing Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory: the accommodation function is aimed at survival and safety needs; B&B aims at higher needs such as enjoyment, respect, and self-realization. Therefore, the development idea of B&B should be based on good accommodation functions to improve the accommodation experience.

2.2. Green B&B in China

“Do B&Bs' ‘green’ attributes contribute to customer satisfaction?” The answer is positive. In the past, different experts have researched many aspects of green B&Bs. Suki and Suki [14] studied the green B&B on consumers’ environmental behavior. Moreover, some previous papers also studied the sustainable and green B&B evaluation model [15,16]. But few previous articles focused on green B&B and green room evaluation models for post-COVID-19. Therefore, a potential study emphasizes that green B&B types should be the focus on d after the COVID–19 crisis.

Starting in April 2020, all travelers returning to mainland China from abroad will be quarantined in different hotels for 14 days. The tourist visa time for mainland Chinese tourists abroad is 15 days. Short-term travelers can travel or reside overseas for three weeks or less [18]. But the previous papers on short-term travelers mainly focused on medical research [19,20]. From December 2022, most regions in China gradually ended the strict control of COVID-19. The government is looking forward to the economy's recovery, such as tourism. This provides an excellent opportunity for the research object of this paper (green B&B building environment). After that time, more and more Chinese citizens visit hotels and B&Bs in good-landscape sites. For example, from the reception of operational accommodation facilities data in Sanya on January 26, the average occupancy rate in the city was 86.39%, and the number of overnight tourists received was about 202,500. Among them, the number of overnight guests received by tourist hotels is about 95,300; The number of people who stay overnight at B&Bs is about 12,300. Rural tourism spots received 233,700 tourists, up 5.06% month-on-month and 31.60% year-on-year.

 

Line 43 - 44 what is green evaluation, and what are green rooms (in the entertainment industry, green space has a different meaning).

2    Response:
Thank you very much for the comments about this issue. It enables us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality. We revised it as follows:

COVID-19 opened a window of opportunity (e.g., the green/healthy physical environment of B&Bs may be the new target) to change the green development of the hospitality and tourism industry [1]. Product design (e.g., green B&B room evaluation model and promotion strategies) is one of the four aspects of China’s hospitality industry significantly and permanently affected by COVID-19 [2]. Therefore, we urgently need to research the green hotel industry: how to improve customer satisfaction during/after COVID-19, then restart the hotel industry for better development in the future. Moreover, the changes in the hotel industry have exceeded our expectations, especially after the outbreak of COVID-19. Therefore, the current paper attempts to establish a new dynamic green building evaluation of green B&B rooms through descriptive statistics of Chinese tourists after the end of COVID-19 control and different green B&B standards combining IPA (importance-performance analysis) (Figure 1).

 

In the research, the respondents were simple tourists or experts in the hospitality field, as the 30 items listed in Table 1 require some proficiency or expertise. It is unclear from the methodology what the 261 persons did and what the ten persons(experts) mentioned in Figure 2 did.

3    Response:
I greatly appreciate your contribution and time, which assisted the journal in reaching its goals and enabled us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality. Your comment focuses on the central issues. These are both excellent suggestions that would help us greatly. You helped us discover some of the main issues in the methodology part of our manuscript. Without the dedication of Reviewers like you, it would be impossible to manage an efficient peer review process and maintain the high standards necessary for a successful journal.
We revised these issues.
From line 211:

3.3.   Delphi method and questionnaire items

The Delphi method is considered a collective decision before questionnaires [82]. It was studied in previous papers: the Delphi method studied an environmental management system for green B&B evaluation [83], and valuable advice to solve complex problems was also studied [84]. Delphi's method is also called the "expert consultation method." It is the most commonly used intuitive prediction method. In the 1950s, it was initiated by the Rand Corporation of the United States, such as Heilmer, to predict the development of defense technology and research on future social and technological issues. From the Delphi method, 30 items were selected. Figure 2 shows the design logic. Measurement items of green B&B room for the questionnaire survey from customer satisfaction were identified (Table 1).

From line 225:

3.4.   IPA (Importance-Performance Analysis)

Importance performance analysis (IPA) is an essential study technique for management strategies that provides practical suggestions for promoting management [85][86]. Choosing the best site to divide o quadrant thresholds is the main issue [87]: the data-centric (DC) method [88], the scale-centric (SC) [89], diagonal lines (DL) or isolines (IRL) [89] were used. Compared with the previous method review [93], about 80% of papers used DC and the average of actual importance in B&B tourism research. Therefore, the current study uses the DC to specify thresholds (Figure 3). Albayrak [90] studied hospitality companies with importance-performance competitor analysis (IPCA). A questionnaire of 261 was used for the IPA.

 

 

figure 7 and appendix A are fuzzy and cannot be 

4    Response:
Thank you very much for the comments about this issue. It enables us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality. We revised it in the manuscript.

 

Lines 38 and 39 - significant appears twice - try to rephrase.

 

5   Response:
Thank you very much for the comments about this issue. It enables us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality.

We revised it as follows:

COVID-19 opened a window of opportunity (e.g., the green/healthy physical environment of B&Bs may be the new target) to change the green development of the hospitality and tourism industry [1]. Product design (e.g., green B&B room evaluation model and promotion strategies) is one of the four aspects of China’s hospitality industry significantly and permanently affected by COVID-19 [2]. Therefore, we urgently need to research the green hotel industry: how to improve customer satisfaction during/after COVID-19, then restart the hotel industry for better development in the future. Moreover, the changes in the hotel industry have exceeded our expectations, especially after the outbreak of COVID-19. Therefore, the current paper attempts to establish a new dynamic green evaluation of green rooms for B&Bs through descriptive statistics of Chinese tourists after the end of COVID-19 control and different green B&B standards combining IPA (importance-performance analysis) (Figure 1).

 

Line 47 - On one hand, instead of for

6    Response:
Thank you very much for the comments about this issue. It enables us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality.

We revised it as follows:

On the one hand, many previous papers studied green B&Bs from the perspective of tourism or the built environment perspective [3–5]. But the cross-study with built-environment and tourism perspective was lacking. Therefore, it is essential to study improving the green satisfaction of urban B&Bs and attempt to fill the gaps in research on green B&B rooms.

 

Thank you for reviewing the manuscript again. I greatly appreciate your contribution and time, which assisted the journal in reaching its goals and enabled us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality. Without the dedication of Reviewers like you, it would be impossible to manage an efficient peer review process and maintain the high standards necessary for a successful journal.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper aims to improve built environment strategies for green rooms for B&Bs using IPA (importance-performance analysis). Authors must improve the Abstract providing more information and detais about the methodology and conclusions. The introduction section repeats the content of the abstract. The literature review must be updated with the contribution of several studies:

Hou, H., & Wu, H. (2021). Tourists’ perceptions of green building design and their intention of staying in green hotel. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 21(1), 115-128.

Kuo, P. J., & Zhang, L. (2021). The impact of hotel room colors on affective responses, attitude, and booking intention. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 1-21.

Sharma, T., & Chen, J. S. (2023). Expected Green Hotel Attributes: Visit Intentions in Light of Climate Change and COVID-19 Double Whammy. In Advances in Hospitality and Leisure (Vol. 18, pp. 155-176). Emerald Publishing Limited.

The section 4.2.2 with the analysis of the Table 5 is very difficult to read. The conclusions section should have some discussion about the implications of these changes in terms of building costs and hotel operational costs.

The Figure A1 in Appendix A does not have enough quality/resolution

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2,

Hope all is well.
We are very grateful for your comments about the manuscript. According to your advice, we amended the relevant parts of the manuscript. All revisions to the manuscript have been revised in the manuscript. After these revisions (your professional and excellent comments), the quality of this article has been dramatically improved. Thank you very much again.

 

This paper aims to improve built environment strategies for green rooms for B&Bs using IPA (importance-performance analysis). Authors must improve the Abstract providing more information and detais about the methodology and conclusions. The introduction section repeats the content of the abstract. The literature review must be updated with the contribution of several studies:

Hou, H., & Wu, H. (2021). Tourists’ perceptions of green building design and their intention of staying in green hotel. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 21(1), 115-128.

Kuo, P. J., & Zhang, L. (2021). The impact of hotel room colors on affective responses, attitude, and booking intention. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 1-21.

Sharma, T., & Chen, J. S. (2023). Expected Green Hotel Attributes: Visit Intentions in Light of Climate Change and COVID-19 Double Whammy. In Advances in Hospitality and Leisure (Vol. 18, pp. 155-176). Emerald Publishing Limited.

1 Response:

Thank you very much for the comments about the details. This excellent suggestion helped us a lot. You helped us discover some of the main issues in the manuscript. Your comments also helped us improve the quality of the manuscript. We revised the "error reference source not found." And we also added the references.

We revised these as follows:

From line 68:

2. Literature review

2.1. New opportunities for green B&Bs after COVID-19

COVID-19 will be a new opportunity for tourism. After COVID-19, some green B&B strategies were studied, some hospitality socio-economic implications were studied [8,9], healthy cities [10][11], and hospitality marketing and management were studied [12,13]. They found that COVID-19 will significantly and permanently affect China's hotel multi-channel industry's four significant aspects (multi-channels/business, market re-shuffle, product design, and intelligent transformation).

2.2. Green B&B in China

"Do B&Bs' 'green' attributes contribute to customer satisfaction?" The answer is positive. In the past, different experts have researched many aspects of green B&Bs. Suki and Suki [14] studied the green B&B on consumers' environmental behavior. Moreover, some previous papers also studied the sustainable and green B&B evaluation model [15,16,17]. But few previous articles focused on studying green B&B and green room evaluation models for post-COVID-19. Therefore, a potential study emphasizes that green B&B types should be the focus on d after the COVID–19 crisis.

Starting in April 2020, all travelers returning to mainland China from abroad will be quarantined in different hotels for 14 days. The tourist visa time for mainland Chinese tourists abroad is 15 days. Short-term travelers can travel or reside overseas for three weeks or less [18]. But the previous papers on short-term travelers mainly focused on medical research [19,20].

From December 2022, most regions in China gradually ended the strict control of COVID-19. The government is looking forward to the economy's recovery, such as tourism. This provides an excellent opportunity for the research object of this paper (green B&B building environment).

2.3. Green customer satisfaction and hospitality recovery

Green satisfaction is positive to customers' green consumption [21][22]. It also has positive impacts on green B&Bs in previous studies: green buildings' indoor environmental quality and perceived quality were studied with satisfaction [23][24], service directly affects people was studied [25], customer satisfaction is an essential aspect of customer service [26][27], consumer sentiment, perceived value, and service quality are positive with satisfaction [28], tourists' determination to revisit the attractions were studied [29][30],. Therefore, the promotion of green satisfaction is essential for post-crisis recovery. Akinci et al. [31] and Hall et al. [32] studied destination decision-making of satisfaction with spatial health and revisit intention.

2.4. Green& healthy B&B rooms with tourist satisfaction

Further exploration of the relationship between the indoor environment of existing green B&Bs and guest comfort is essential to improve guest satisfaction and revisit future green B&Bs [33][34]. Green/beneficial solution brings a variety of results that are beneficial to the health of individuals and society as a whole (e.g., reducing stress, enhancing physical exercise, reducing health inequality, improving mood/emotion, reducing stress, increasing happiness, increasing mental health, improving air quality, reduce pollution, reduce noise and improve water quality)[35]. The six parameters of indoor environmental quality (visual, thermal comfort, lighting, air quality, acoustic) and its interrelation with human ease were reviewed by previous papers [33]. Green and healthy attributes for a B&B room have also been travelers' most preferred [36].

2.4.1.     Design of green indoor environment

The design-based study has had its power in sustainable tourism over time [37][38]. Green environment design enhanced learning environment design and research [39][40]. And green environment design has become increasingly important [41][42]. The Design's environmental value and conceptual design's importance relative to basic or detailed Design have been widely recognized [43][44].

(1)   Sound environment

Isolating the room from the air and impact sound, preventing noise, the best reverberation time in public areas, and reducing the nuisance of conversation in the B&B are direct B&B facilities' issues. Sound in the B&B environment is one of the essential items for tourists: safety and health for users, combining good architecture with the best acoustics, and exciting solutions [45,46].

(2)   Lighting & illumination & View

B&B room lighting positively affects consumer preferences, emotional states, and behavioral intentions [47]. Similarly, the temperature of lighting and comfort positively impact the perceived value, landscape perception, and behavior intentions of B&B guests [48].

For insiders, a window can meet human needs for basic information, including visual details on location, time and weather conditions, and activities and events outside the building [49]. According to previous research, apart from lighting, the view outside windows is one of the most appreciated functions [50]. It provides the possibility of maintaining continuous contact with the external environment. The existing assumptions and research findings of the preference perspective can be divided into three categories: the need for external environmental information, the need for aesthetic experience (satisfaction and stress [51]), and the need for recovery and health (Health benefits of a view of nature through the window [52]) [53].

(3)   Thermal comfort & Air Quality

The B&B aims to provide guests with a high level of comfort [54]; however, complaints about uncomfortable thermal environments and indoor air quality (IAQ) often arise [55]. On the other hand, few studies have been on IAQ audits of B&Bs. Some previous articles have pointed out four main problems with IAQ [56]: (1) Insufficient ventilation speed; (2) The particle concentration in some rooms is too high; (3) Legionella contaminates the hot water system. (4) The filtering effect of all air handling units (AHU) is poor [57,58].

2.4.2.     Design for green indoor service quality

Green service quality is also crucial for improving travelers' and employees' well-being [59][60]. Once tourists are keen or meet with a destination, motivation will affect the positive evaluation [61][62].

 

The section 4.2.2 with the analysis of the Table 5 is very difficult to read. The conclusions section should have some discussion about the implications of these changes in terms of building costs and hotel operational costs.

2 Response:

Thank you very much for the comments about the details. This excellent suggestion helped us a lot. You helped us discover some of the main issues in the manuscript. Your comments also helped us improve the quality of the manuscript.

We revised the "Discussion and conclusion" as follows:

From line 302:

Third, NO.1- Good sound insulation (walls, doors, windows, etc.), NO.2- Good sound absorption (wall decoration material) (Sound environment); NO.3- Anti-glare/shading measures are reasonable, NO.4- Comfortable illumination level (indoor light brightness can be adjusted) (Lighting & illumination& View); NO.7- Good humidity control, NO.10- The type of air conditioning system that uses fresh air (equipment for clean and fresh air in the guest room) (Thermal comfort& Air quality); NO.14- Place green plants that are beneficial to human health, NO.15- Good function and usability of devices (bright) (Health, safety, and security); NO.24- Supply clean drinking water; NO. 26- Cotton fabrics are neat (carpets, sofas, and curtains are tidy) (towels, bath towels, and nightgowns are soft and have good moisture absorption.) (Green service). These need to keep up the excellent work.

Forth, NO.9- Good ventilation/natural ventilation performance (Thermal comfort& Air quality); NO.18- The electrical switch is installed intact and connected correctly, and its purpose is marked; NO.20- Good reliability (the equipment is installed firmly, and the spare parts are intact.), NO.23- Suitable crime prevention measures (security door locks, etc.) (Health, safety, and security); NO.25- There are recyclable disposable/non-disposable consumables, NO.27- There is a reminder card for replacing and replacing cotton fabrics, NO.28- There is an energy-saving reminder card, NO.29- The bathroom adopts a non-slip design (non-slip mat, non-slip rod, etc.); NO. 30- Daily disinfection of toilet basins, bathtubs, and toilets (or provide disinfectant) (Green service). These as long remained under constant joint attention.

The increase of these strategies will not increase the building renovation cost. On the other hand, adding these strategies will not increase the hotel's operating costs. More importantly, these strategies are a new change to the past.

Moreover, it is an attempt to use the dynamic evaluation model of the green B&B room after COVID-19, and it also can be discussed for other regions experiencing the same situations. Although some aspects of the evaluation of B&Bs were studied, there have been few evaluation studies after COVID-19 control ended. Moreover, this paper provided a dynamic evaluation model for fixing a gap in the previous static evaluation model study. It will be easier for practitioners, policymakers, and scholars to quickly get different satisfaction from different groups with the linked targets for improving sustainable hospitality development. It can also be conducted at other times and spatially.

Although due to limited resources, the sample of the objects in the current paper was limited. Therefore, our next plan is to investigate other areas to compare the differences and summarize the similarities from an attitude: after COVID-19, the changes have exceeded our expectations. Although this process may be controversial, at least we have taken the first step: try to fill the gaps in green B&Bs. This way, we look forward to cooperating with experts worldwide to establish a green B&B room research system.

 

The Figure A1 in Appendix A does not have enough quality/resolution

3 Response:
Thank you very much for the comments about this issue. It enables us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality. We revised “Figure A1 in Appendix A”.

 

 

Thank you for reviewing the manuscript again. I greatly appreciate your contribution and time, which assisted the journal in reaching its goals and enabled us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality. Without the dedication of Reviewers like you, it would be impossible to manage an efficient peer review process and maintain the high standards necessary for a successful journal.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This paper includes credibility, completeness, novelty, originality, expansibility, usefulness.

b) Description and representation method: (i) Appropriateness and consistency of the point of the argument. ii) The method of experiments/surveys is appropriate iii) Positioning in relation to past related studies is clarified but needs more international references iv) Appropriate representations v) Appropriate terms for the concerned field should be used in a correct manner. Figures and tables are correctly representing their contents. vi) The reference citations are fine. vii) The paper is neutral in terms of commercialism, without over use of names such as those of corporations, products and facilities/institutions.

The paper addresses a specific issue of the post-Covid-19 city, providing new knowledge. All the research is of interest, including the figures and tables. however, this paper should contextualize the case study within the wider theme of providing better environments in the post-covid-19 period. While all parts of the paper are suitable for publication, I strongly recommend to provide a specific subsection in the literature review on the following themes and incorporate them into the concluding remarks:

 

- healthy city,

(2020). COVID-19 and Cities: from Urban Health strategies to the pandemic challenge. A Decalogue of Public Health opportunities. Acta Bio Medica Atenei Parmensis, 91(2), 13-22

- negative environmental factors,

(2020). The Effects of Air Pollution on COVID-19 Related Mortality in Northern Italy. Environmental and Resource Economics, 76, 611-634

 (2020). Do environmental factors such as weather conditions and air pollution influence COVID-19 outbreaks?. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

- concrete proposals for the redevelopment of the city

 (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on public space: an early review of the emerging questions – design, perceptions and inequities. Cities & Health.

(2020). New Healthy Settlements Responding to Pandemic Outbreaks: Approaches from (and for) the Global City. The Plan Journal, 5(2): 385-406

OECD (2020). Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19). Cities policy responses,

(2020) Recommendations for Keeping Parks and Green Space Accessible for Mental and Physical Health During COVID-19 and Other Pandemics. Preventing Chronic Disease, 17, 200204

 

- more-human centered approach for urban governance (here a reflection on global cities, that may be useful also for the case study https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980211045571

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 3,

Hope all is well.
We are very grateful for your comments about the manuscript. According to your advice, we amended the relevant parts of the manuscript. All revisions to the manuscript have been revised in the manuscript. After these revisions (your professional and excellent comments), the quality of this article has been dramatically improved. Thank you very much again.

 

This paper includes credibility, completeness, novelty, originality, expansibility, usefulness.

1. b) Description and representation method: (i) Appropriateness and consistency of the point of the argument. ii) The method of experiments/surveys is appropriate iii) Positioning in relation to past related studies is clarified but needs more international references iv) Appropriate representations v) Appropriate terms for the concerned field should be used in a correct manner. Figures and tables are correctly representing their contents. vi) The reference citations are fine. vii) The paper is neutral in terms of commercialism, without over use of names such as those of corporations, products and facilities/institutions.

The paper addresses a specific issue of the post-Covid-19 city, providing new knowledge. All the research is of interest, including the figures and tables. however, this paper should contextualize the case study within the wider theme of providing better environments in the post-covid-19 period. While all parts of the paper are suitable for publication, I strongly recommend to provide a specific subsection in the literature review on the following themes and incorporate them into the concluding remarks:

 

- healthy city,

(2020). COVID-19 and Cities: from Urban Health strategies to the pandemic challenge. A Decalogue of Public Health opportunities. Acta Bio Medica Atenei Parmensis, 91(2), 13-22

- negative environmental factors,

(2020). The Effects of Air Pollution on COVID-19 Related Mortality in Northern Italy. Environmental and Resource Economics, 76, 611-634

 (2020). Do environmental factors such as weather conditions and air pollution influence COVID-19 outbreaks?. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

- concrete proposals for the redevelopment of the city

 (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on public space: an early review of the emerging questions – design, perceptions and inequities. Cities & Health.

(2020). New Healthy Settlements Responding to Pandemic Outbreaks: Approaches from (and for) the Global City. The Plan Journal, 5(2): 385-406

OECD (2020). Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19). Cities policy responses,

(2020) Recommendations for Keeping Parks and Green Space Accessible for Mental and Physical Health During COVID-19 and Other Pandemics. Preventing Chronic Disease, 17, 200204

 

- more-human centered approach for urban governance (here a reflection on global cities, that may be useful also for the case study https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980211045571

Response:

Thank you very much for the comments about the details. This excellent suggestion helped us a lot. You helped us discover some of the main issues in the manuscript. Your comments also helped us improve the quality of the manuscript. We revised the "error reference source not found." And we also added the references.

We revised these as follows:

From line 68:

2. Literature review

2.1. New opportunities for green B&Bs after COVID-19

COVID-19 will be a new opportunity for tourism. After COVID-19, some green B&B strategies were studied, some hospitality socio-economic implications were studied [8,9], healthy cities [10][11], and hospitality marketing and management were studied [12,13]. They found that COVID-19 will significantly and permanently affect China's hotel multi-channel industry's four significant aspects (multi-channels/business, market re-shuffle, product design, and intelligent transformation).

2.2. Green B&B in China

"Do B&Bs' 'green' attributes contribute to customer satisfaction?" The answer is positive. In the past, different experts have researched many aspects of green B&Bs. Suki and Suki [14] studied the green B&B on consumers' environmental behavior. Moreover, some previous papers also studied the sustainable and green B&B evaluation model [15,16,17]. But few previous articles focused on studying green B&B and green room evaluation models for post-COVID-19. Therefore, a potential study emphasizes that green B&B types should be the focus on d after the COVID–19 crisis.

Starting in April 2020, all travelers returning to mainland China from abroad will be quarantined in different hotels for 14 days. The tourist visa time for mainland Chinese tourists abroad is 15 days. Short-term travelers can travel or reside overseas for three weeks or less [18]. But the previous papers on short-term travelers mainly focused on medical research [19,20].

From December 2022, most regions in China gradually ended the strict control of COVID-19. The government is looking forward to the economy's recovery, such as tourism. This provides an excellent opportunity for the research object of this paper (green B&B building environment).

2.3. Green customer satisfaction and hospitality recovery

Green satisfaction is positive to customers' green consumption [21][22]. It also has positive impacts on green B&Bs in previous studies: green buildings' indoor environmental quality and perceived quality were studied with satisfaction [23][24], service directly affects people was studied [25], customer satisfaction is an essential aspect of customer service [26][27], consumer sentiment, perceived value, and service quality are positive with satisfaction [28], tourists' determination to revisit the attractions were studied [29][30],. Therefore, the promotion of green satisfaction is essential for post-crisis recovery. Akinci et al. [31] and Hall et al. [32] studied destination decision-making of satisfaction with spatial health and revisit intention.

2.4. Green& healthy B&B rooms with tourist satisfaction

Further exploration of the relationship between the indoor environment of existing green B&Bs and guest comfort is essential to improve guest satisfaction and revisit future green B&Bs [33][34]. Green/beneficial solution brings a variety of results that are beneficial to the health of individuals and society as a whole (e.g., reducing stress, enhancing physical exercise, reducing health inequality, improving mood/emotion, reducing stress, increasing happiness, increasing mental health, improving air quality, reduce pollution, reduce noise and improve water quality)[35]. The six parameters of indoor environmental quality (visual, thermal comfort, lighting, air quality, acoustic) and its interrelation with human ease were reviewed by previous papers [33]. Green and healthy attributes for a B&B room have also been travelers' most preferred [36].

2.4.1.     Design of green indoor environment

The design-based study has had its power in sustainable tourism over time [37][38]. Green environment design enhanced learning environment design and research [39][40]. And green environment design has become increasingly important [41][42]. The Design's environmental value and conceptual design's importance relative to basic or detailed Design have been widely recognized [43][44].

(1)   Sound environment

Isolating the room from the air and impact sound, preventing noise, the best reverberation time in public areas, and reducing the nuisance of conversation in the B&B are direct B&B facilities' issues. Sound in the B&B environment is one of the essential items for tourists: safety and health for users, combining good architecture with the best acoustics, and exciting solutions [45,46].

(2)   Lighting & illumination & View

B&B room lighting positively affects consumer preferences, emotional states, and behavioral intentions [47]. Similarly, the temperature of lighting and comfort positively impact the perceived value, landscape perception, and behavior intentions of B&B guests [48].

For insiders, a window can meet human needs for basic information, including visual details on location, time and weather conditions, and activities and events outside the building [49]. According to previous research, apart from lighting, the view outside windows is one of the most appreciated functions [50]. It provides the possibility of maintaining continuous contact with the external environment. The existing assumptions and research findings of the preference perspective can be divided into three categories: the need for external environmental information, the need for aesthetic experience (satisfaction and stress [51]), and the need for recovery and health (Health benefits of a view of nature through the window [52]) [53].

(3)   Thermal comfort & Air Quality

The B&B aims to provide guests with a high level of comfort [54]; however, complaints about uncomfortable thermal environments and indoor air quality (IAQ) often arise [55]. On the other hand, few studies have been on IAQ audits of B&Bs. Some previous articles have pointed out four main problems with IAQ [56]: (1) Insufficient ventilation speed; (2) The particle concentration in some rooms is too high; (3) Legionella contaminates the hot water system. (4) The filtering effect of all air handling units (AHU) is poor [57,58].

2.4.2.     Design for green indoor service quality

Green service quality is also crucial for improving travelers' and employees' well-being [59][60]. Once tourists are keen or meet with a destination, motivation will affect the positive evaluation [61][62].

 

 

Thank you for reviewing the manuscript again. I greatly appreciate your contribution and time, which assisted the journal in reaching its goals and enabled us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality. Without the dedication of Reviewers like you, it would be impossible to manage an efficient peer review process and maintain the high standards necessary for a successful journal.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

figure 7 and appenix A are still fuzzy, and out of focus, and so they are irrelevant.

 

 

Author Response

figure 7 and appenix A are still fuzzy, and out of focus, and so they are irrelevant.

 

Dear reviewer,

Figure 7 and Appendix A were revised again.  Apologies for that the PDF translation causing this issue in the previous manuscript. 

Thank you for reviewing the manuscript again. I greatly appreciate your contribution and time, which assisted the journal in reaching its goals and enabled us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality. Without the dedication of Reviewers like you, it would be impossible to manage an efficient peer review process and maintain the high standards necessary for a successful journal.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper is ready for publication after the modifications.

Author Response

Thank you for reviewing the manuscript again. I greatly appreciate your contribution and time, which assisted the journal in reaching its goals and enabled us to disseminate our work at the highest possible quality. Without the dedication of Reviewers like you, it would be impossible to manage an efficient peer review process and maintain the high standards necessary for a successful journal.