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Diffuse and Integrated Hotels as Innovative Form of Accommodation: Review of the Concept and Its Implementation in Croatia

This paper examines concept and examples of diffuse and integrated hotels as a new and innovative form of accommodation introduced to Croatian tourism practice in 2014. Diffuse hotel as a term and concept was originally initiated in Italy as a form of hospitality oriented on accommodation facilities distributed in different buildings but all located in the same village/town with a common reception hall, common room for socializing and other tourist facilities. Nowadays diffuse (in some literature also known as “scattered”) hotels can be found in many tourist destinations, not just as accommodation form that enables guests the immediate familiarization with the authentic local culture and atmosphere, but also as the efficient model for the valorization of towns and villages that are artistically or architecturally interesting. The term “integrated hotel” which is also introduced as a special standard in Croatian hotel categorisation is not so widely recognized, but it shares the most important characteristics with diffuse hotel. Hence family/private accommodation makes up about half of the total Croatian accommodation capacities, main aim of implementation of these specific models was the facilitation of cooperation and increasing the quality and professionalization of family accommodation. The purpose of this paper is to provide overview of the main principles of diffuse and integrated hotels and potential benefits of their concepts, but also to conduct analysis and comparison between goals targeted at the Croatian policy- making level and application of proposed models through (so far) registered diffuse and integrated hotels in Croatia.For the purpose of presenting main characteristics and management principles of diffuse/integrated hotels, desk research of available literature, relevant websites and examples was performed. In order to analyze current situation regarding management practices and models of existing Croatian diffused/integrated hotels, case study method was used, based on available secondary qualitative and quantitative data. Results of the analysis provided in this paper show significant discrepancy between the initial idea and aims of diffuse and integrated hotels (including the expected benefits for the local community) and the actual implementation in Croatian tourism practice in terms of number and management characteristics of (currently) registered diffuse and integrated hotels. CONTRIBUTION This paper provides systematical review of the main characteristics, management practices and organizational forms related to the diffuse and integrated hotels with emphasis on their benefits in terms of sustainable tourism and local community development. Analysis provided in this paper gives new insights on the important differences between planned positive changes intended by the introduction of diffuse and integrated hotel models in Croatian practice and their recognition and interpretation in real tourism sector. Based on the aforementioned analysis, recommendations for the future development and management of diffuse hotels are proposed, which contribute to the body of literature related to the management and organization in tourism, but also might be useful for tourism managers, investors and local government.

Diffuse hotels ; Integrated Hotels ; Management ; Organizational Forms

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