ArticlePDF Available

Service Quality Measurement in Hotel Industry

Authors:
Advances in Economics and Business Management (AEBM)
Print ISSN: 2394-1545; Online ISSN: 2394-1553; Volume 1, Number 3; November, 2014 pp. 196-199
© Krishi Sanskriti Publications
http://www.krishisanskriti.org/aebm.html
Service Quality Measurement in Hotel Industry
Majed Massad Alrawashdeh1 and Najed Massad Alrawashdeh2
1Research Scholar, Deptt of Business Administration, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
2Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Islamic Science University of Malaysia, Malaysia
Abstract: The importance of (SERVQUAL) for business performance
has been recognized in the literature by indirect effect on customer
loyalty and customer satisfaction. The main objective of the study
was to measure the degree of hotels service quality performance from
the customer vision. To do so, a performance-just measurement scale
(SERVPERF) was administered to customers stayed in three, four
and five star hotels. Although, the importance of SERVQUAL and
SERVPERF measurement has been, recognized, there has been
limited research which included the structure and antecedents of the
concept for the hotel sector. The clarification of the dimensions for
managers in the hotel sectors as it identifies the bundles of service
characteristics consumers found important. The results of the study
show that SERVPERF is a reliable tool to measure SERVQUAL in
the hotel sectors.
The instrument consists of five dimensions, namely "responsiveness"
"tangibles", "empathy", "reliability" and "assurance''. Customer are
want more improved service from the hotels in all SERVQUAL
dimensions. However, Hotel Customers have the lowest perception
rate on tangibles and empathy through the phenomenon results,
possibilities, managerial implications are looking and future
research topics are recommended.
Keywords: SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, HOLSERY, LODGQUAL,
LOGSERY
1. INTRODUCTION
In the highly competitive hotel sectors, service becomes one
of the most supreme ingredients in order to get a sustainable
competitive advantage in the markets. Accordingly, the dints
of service academic researchers are directed about
understanding how infiltrators theorize the quality of service.
Customers are likely to view services as a multifarious of that
may, in multi different ways, participation to their purchase
intentions and not the quality of service. Although researchers
Grönroos, Parasuraman (1984), Berry and Zeithaml (1985);
Parasuraman; Zeithaml and Berry (1988); Zeithaml;
Parasuraman and Berry (1990) have focused on different
authority of service quality, they all approved that the
emphasis should be on customer. The most used definition of
the concept is behavior, results from a comparison between
customers expectations with imagination of performance
(Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml-1985, Parasuraman
Zeithaml and Berry-1988). What is more, customer waiting for
service quality as a multiple formats concept.
The specific nature of services makes it difficult to supply,
measure and stay on quality. However, parasuraman berry and
Zeithaml and Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988)
presented the SERVQUAL scale ,which became the most
popular tool for measuring service quality. The model has
been applied in various service industries, including tourism
and chain hospitality sector. In most of the articles the act has
been changed to suit the features of a new service.
The study has a lot of objectives. The first is to definition the
level of aware SERVQUAL in Jordanian hotels. The Second
goal is to establish number of dimensions of expected service
quality in the hospitality sector, using the modified the quality
of service model. Finally, the third objective is to choose the
reliability of the amendment SERVQUAL model.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Tsang, N, & Qu, H.(2000) Assesses the perceptions of
SERVQUAL in China’s hotel sectors, from the perspective of
both hotel managers and international tourists . A
questionnaire was used to survey a sample of 90 hotel
managers and 270 international tourists who visited China and
stayed at hotels in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. A
descriptive statistics analysis was used (Paired ttest and
independent ttest) to evaluate the SERVQUAL of China’s
hotel sectors from both the managers’ and the tourists
perspectives, and to investigate the gaps between managers’
perceptions of tourists’ expectations and the actual
expectations of tourists; between tourists’ expectations and
their actual perceptions; between managers’ perceptions of a
hotel’s service delivery and tourists’ actual perceptions of the
service; and between managers’ perceptions of tourists’
expectations and managers’ perceptions of their hotel’s service
delivery. The results showed that tourists’ expectations of
SERVQUAL provided in the hotel sectors in China were
consistently lower than their perceptions and that managers
overestimated the service delivery, compared to tourists’
perceptions of actual SERVQUAL, in the hotel sectors in
China. From the result of gap analysis, it might be noted that
the Delivery Gap and Internal Evaluation Gap were the main
cause contributing to the SERVQUAL shortfalls in the hotel
sectors in China.
Service Quality Measurement in Hotel Industry 197
Advances in Economics and Business Management (AEBM)
Print ISSN: 2394-1545; Online ISSN: 2394-1553; Volume 1, Number 3; November, 2014
Akbaba. A (2006).The role of SERVQUAL in the
development of hotel businesses cannot be denied. It is
important for the hotel managers to have a good understanding
on what exactly the clients want. Identifying the specific
expectations of customers, the dimensions of the
SERVQUAL, and their relative importance for customers for
each specific sector of hotel industry would definitely help
managers in the challenge of development the SERVQUAL.
The objectives of this research were to investigate the
SERVQUAL expectations of business hotels’ customers,
examine whether the quality axes included in the service
quality model apply in an international environment, search
for any additional axes that should be included in the
SERVQUAL construct, and measure the degree of importance
of each specific dimension for the guests of the business
hotels. The findings of this study confirmed the five axes
structure of service quality; however, some of the axes found
and their components were different from service quality. The
five SERVQUAL dimensions identified in this study were
named as “tangibles”, “assurance”, “adequacy in service
supply”, “understanding'' “convenience” and caring” . The
results showed that business travelers had the highest
expectations for the dimension of “convenience” followed by
“assurance”, “tangibles”, adequacy in service supply”,
''caring” and “understanding'' . The research result also
showed that, the service quality scale a very important useful
tool as a concept, it needed to be adapted for the Particular
service segments and for the cultural context within which it
was used.
Mahmoud Ramzi & Mohamed Badaruddin (2009) The aim of
the service quality plays a significant role in the prosperity of
hotel business. It is important for hotel managers to have good
understanding customers' needs. Determine the specific
expectations of clients, the dimensions of SERVQUAL and
their relative importance for clients for each specific segment
of hotel industry would definitely help managers face the
challenge of development the SERVQUAL. This study trying
to investigate the service quality vision of hotels customers,
examine whether the quality dimensions listed in the service
quality model apply in an international environment, search
for any extra dimensions that should be included in the
SERVQUAL construct, and measure the level of importance
of each specific dimension for the hotels clients.
Markovi ´c suzana & raspor sanja,(2010). The aim of the study
is to examine guests’ expectation of SERQUAL in the creation
hotel industry. The goal is to assess the perceived service
quality of hotel characteristic and determine the factor
structure of SERVQUAL. A modified service quality scale
was used to assess service quality expectation from the
perspective of international tourists and internal information
were collected in fifteen hotels in the opatija Riviera (Croatio),
questionnaire used for statistical analysis and exploratory
laborer analysis and reliability test has been done. The study
results refers to the rather high outlook of hotel customers
regarding service quality ‘empathy and ‘reliability competence
of staff,’ ‘tangibles’ and ‘accessibility’ are the key factors that
best explained customers’ perception of hotel SERVQUAL.
The results of the quantitative rating of perceived
SERVQUAL may provide some insights on how clients rate
the SERVQUAL of a specific hotel. Thus, the results can be
used as a guide for hotel managers to develop the crucial
quality attributes and enhance business performance and
service quality.
Al Khattab. Suleiman A & Aldehayyat. Jehad S (2011) spell
out the importance of SERVQUAL for business performance
has been recognized in the literature by indirect effect on
customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. The main
objective of the study was to measure the degree of hotels
service quality performance from the customer vision. To do
so, a performance just measurement scale (SERVPERF) was
administered to customer stayed in three, five star hotels.
Although the importance of SERVQUAL and SERVQUAL
measurement has been. recognized, there has been limited
research which included the structure and antecedents of the
concept for the hotel sector. The clarification of the
dimensions for managers in the hotel sectors as it identifies the
bundles of service characteristics consumers find important.
The results of the study show that SERVPERF is a reliable
tool to measure SERVQUAL in the hotel sectors. The
instrument consists of five dimensions, namely
"responsiveness" "tangibles", "empathy", "reliability" and
"assurance''. Customer are want more improved service from
the hotels in all SERVQUAL dimension. However hotel
customers have the lowest perception rate on tangibles and
empathy. Through the phenomenon results, possible,
managerial implications are looking and some future research
topics has been recommended.
"Abu Khalifeh Ala`a Nimer & Mat Som Ahmad Puad (2012)"
aim: SERVQUAL has been an important subject of research
includes food and beverage (F&B) sections of hotels. Despite
a substantial number of research on service quality, the
reasons why customer reconsider a hotel and why a good
quality service from the F&B department it is necessary have
remained unanswered. The purpose of this paper to review
existing literature on SERVQUAL management in the F&B
supreme departments of hotels, its process, and active
SERVQUAL management framework. This paper discusses
famous models, and discuss Parasuraman’s framework
dimensional of service quality management in the area of F&B
and its implementation to the hotel industry. The conceptual
paper application of the dimensional model in the food and
Beverage department and encourages hotels to develop
management to better satisfy their customers.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this study, an a revised version of service quality mainly
taken from Akibaba (2005) was used to analyze the service
Majed Massad Alrawashdeh and Najed Massad Alrawashdeh
Advances in Economics and Business Management (AEBM)
Print ISSN: 2394-1545; Online ISSN: 2394-1553; Volume 1, Number 3; November, 2014
198
quality perceptions of the guests and expectations. A self-
administered questionnaire was applied to find out perception
and expectation of twenty nine service quality characteristics
based on a review of the literature on service quality and
serious interviews with practitioners in the Thai hotel sector.
The questionnaire for this study in close two sections .in
which first section of the questionnaire was designed to gauge
the respondents’ perceptions and expectations with includes to
the SERVQUAL offered by the hotel in Thailand regarding
recipes such as the convenience of the location, safety
sufficient equipment /decoration, hotel guest–staff interaction,
etc. Some service quality attributes were rectify in order to
make them more flexible to the hotel setting. The
questionnaire was frame so that hotel guests were asked to
assess their level of accord agreement for the hotels at which
they kept on a five-point Liker scale ranging from (1) refers to
“very low” to (5) refers to “very high.” The second section of
the questionnaire was aim to elicit demographic and tour
information about the respondents. The questionnaire was pre-
selection by 20 customers of multiple nationalities staying in
section of business and boutique hotels in Bangkok. Based on
this preflight, several items were reformulate to improve the
clarification of the questions.
Prior to the main survey, the questionnaires was survey by
four skilled working in the hotel industry and four other
guests. This review was to ensure that the respondents
understood the contents and questions in a simple. A pilot test
was further conducted to level the reliability of the attributes,
and to ensure that the formulations of the questionnaire were
clear. Ten questionnaires collected by the guests accompanied
by the writers. The troubles formulation wording were tags,so
some simple revisions were made to avoid confusion.
The questionnaires were received to guest from twenty
boutique hotels and twenty one hotel V.I.P. business (3–4
stars) in Bangkok, where there is a large gallery with high
growth and favorites among investors and chain hotels from
all over the world. A appropriate sampling method was
employed and a total of 200 questionnaires and research
invitation speech were distributed to all the concerned hotels.
Hotel customers who had checked out from the hotel and were
about to vacation were approached. The questionnaires have
been delivered to the ones who were ready to complete them.
A total of 108 ready of use questionnaires from 53 and 55 of
those who answered boutique and business of hotels sector,
respectively, were involve for further analysis, representing a
fifty four percentage acceptance rate. Statistical software was
used to test the data with respect to the descriptive analysis
and the perception and expectation analysis of the twenty nine
features. The paired sample t-test was applied using the mean
and gap / difference. The comparisons between perception
expectation, and gap for boutique and business hotels were
dissection by an separate samples t-test.
4. SERVICE QUALITY MEASUREMENT
One of the main research tools to find out the degree of quality
in service industries is the service quality model, provided by
Parasuraman berry & zeithaml and parasuramn ;zeithaml;
&berry (1985-1988). The model includes twenty two items for
assessing customer expectations and perceptions contain
quality of service. And there is a degree of disagreement or
agreement with a given item were classified on a seven point
LIKERT-type measurement The grade of service quality is
represented by the gap between expected service and
perceived . The service quality model includes on service
quality axes, reliability( ability to perform the promised
service dependably), tangibles( physical facilities, equipment
and personnel appearance) responsiveness (willingness to help
people and provide prompt service) ,empathy (providing
individualized attention to the customers). assurance
(knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
gain confidence and excellence).
During the last years a variety of service quality researches
have been conducted (Ladhari-2008). Among a group of
things, the Quality of the service measured in: Audit and
Accounting firms (Ismail,2006), health section (Snoj &Mumel
2002; markovi C, Horvat & Rasport 2014),higher education
(Russel 2005; Markovi C, 2003 ; 2004 Juwaheer 2004,wang ;
& Zhao 2007, Rapor 2009); insurance Tsoukatos, Marwa &
rand 2004); public –transport (Sanchez Perez 2007)
restaurants (Andaleeb &Conway 2006, Namkung & Jang
2008) travel agencies (Martinez Caro &Martinez Garcia 2008)
and web-sites (Parasuraman, Zethaml & Malhotra 2005
Nursair and web-sites (Parasuraman, Zethaml & Malhotra
2005, Nusair & Kandampully ,2008).
Although widely used the model, they has faced criticism by a
number of academics ( Carman 1990, Babakus & Boller 1992,
Teas 1994). Criticism was directed at the operational and
conceptual base of the model, mostly its validity, reliability,
expectations, operationalization of dimensional structure.
However, there is general consensus that SERVQUAL items
are reliable guess of overall service quality (khan, 2003).
As a result of these objections, alternative solutions of service
quality for specific service setting have improved. In the
tourism and hospitality sector, Knutson.(1991) introduced a
model utilized to measure SERVQUAL in the lodging sector
.The model is based on five original service quality axes and
includes twenty six items. Getty and Thompson (1994)
introduced another LOGSERY specific model for hotel
planning, called LODGQUAL, as did Wong .Ooi Mei, Dean
and white (1999) who introduced a HOLSERY Model. The
LODGQUAL model identified axes, namely reliability
tangibles, and contact from another direction, the HOLSREY
model includes twenty seven items, grouped in five original
service quality axes moreover, dineserv is a model for
measuring restaurant SERVQUAL (stevens, Knutson & patton
Service Quality Measurement in Hotel Industry 199
Advances in Economics and Business Management (AEBM)
Print ISSN: 2394-1545; Online ISSN: 2394-1553; Volume 1, Number 3; November, 2014
1995). It include twenty nine items and five SERVQUAL
axes. . O’Neill et al. (2000) developed the diveperf model
include of evaluation perceptions of diving services. The
model include of five service quality axes and 27 items
ecoserv was presented by Khan (2003). It was used to measure
SERVQUAL expectations in eco-tourism, using 30 axis and
five SERVQUAL axes. All of these models represent
amendments of the SERVQUAL instrument, aiming to
develop its original methodology.
Nevertheless, Cronin and Taylor (1992) argued that
performance report is the, measure that best explains
customers’ acceptation of SERVQUAL so expectations can
not be included in the SERVQUAL measurement tool. It used
a performance-only scale, called SERVPERF and tested it in
four sectors. Results indicated that the SERVPERF model
define more of the variation in SERVQUAL than
SERVQUAL; it had an excellent fit in four industries and it
includes only half the number of items that must be measured
,these results were explanation incentive for the superiority of
the SERVPERF approach to the measurement of SERVQUAL.
SERVQUAL in hospitality and several authors used the
performance-only style to assess tourism settings. Travelers’
expectation of hotel characteristics was measured in Kong’s
hotels (Choichu 2001), hotels of Mauritius (Juwaheer 2004) &
Malaysin & Hotels (Poon & Lock-Teng Low 2005).
The question of whether SERVQUAL should be measured as
the difference between customer expectations and perceptions,
or if there is some alternative approach is more suitable Part of
an extensive dialogue in service quality chastens.
5. CONCLUSION
Identifying accurately the expectations and perception of
customers, the axes of the SERVQUAL around which
customers make their quality grades, and their relative
importance for VIP customers carries vital importance in
quality development efforts (Asubonteng et al; 1996). Having
knowledge about these sectors would definitely help managers
in the confrontation of improving the SERVQUAL in the hotel
sector. From this point of view, obtaining specific information
about these areas for the hotel sectors that explain differences
with regard to the customers they serve, the services they
provided, and the cultural sequence from which the hotel
generates its new customers would create more satisfying
results in quality efforts .
This study identified five service quality axes that represent
the criteria customers use to assess SERVQUAL of the
business hotels named as, ‘‘empathy’’ ,‘‘tangibles’
‘‘responsiveness’, ‘‘reliable ’’ and ‘‘assurance’’.
This study will provides to the methodological and theoretical
advancement of SERVQUAL and hotel industry literature by
analyzing some pivotal SERVQUAL issues in a specific class
of residence.
6. SUGGESTIOINS:
Service in main thing in the Hotel Industry it is provided that
service model in essential to considered. Despite this model
consideration, in Hotel Industry Manager and M.D. should
take benefit from it to provide better service quality provide.
Service in main product of this study through the study we
may take to my on consider a hotel and why a good quality
service from the F&B department it is necessary have
remained unanswered. How we can provide better service to
customers in five and four and three hostel industry at
National and International level.
REFERENCES
[1] AbuKhalifeh, Ala`a., Nimer. & Mat, Som. Ahmad Puad. (2012),
Service Quality Management in Hotel Industry: A Conceptual
Framework for Food and Beverage Departments, International
Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 7, No. 14; 2012, pp.
100-105.
[2] Akbaba, A. (2006), Measuring service quality in the hotel
industry: A study in a business hotel in Turkey. International
Journal of Hospitality Management,25(2), 170-192.
[3] Al Khattab, Suleiman., A. & Aldehayyat, Jehad, S.(2011),
Perceptions of Service Quality in Jordanian Hotels, International
Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 6, No. 7; July 2011
[4] Gabbie, O., & O’Neill, M., A. (1996), SERVQUAL and the
Northern Ireland hotel sector: a comparative analysis-
part,Managing Service Quality, 6(6), 25-32.
[5] Harrington, D., & Akehurst, G. (1996), Service quality and
business performance in the UK hotel industry. International
Journal of Hospitality Management, 15(3), 283-298.
[6] Mahmoud, Ramzi. & Mohamed, Badaruddin.(2009), Measuring
Service Quality at Five Stars Hotels in Jordan third International
Conference on Operation and Supply Chain Management,
Malaysia 2009.
[7] Markovi ´c, suzana. & raspor, sanja.(2010), Measuring
Perceived Service Quality
[8] Using servqual: A Case Study of the Croatian Hotel Industry,
International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 7, No.
14; 2012
[9] Rajabipoor, Alireza.(2012),Measuring service quality using
servqual model: a cuse study of brokerage office in iran,
International Journal for Quality research, UDK-
336.761:005.6(55),
[10] Su, A. Y. L. (2004). Customer satisfaction measurement practice
in Taiwan hotels. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 23(4), 397-408.
[11] Tsang, N., & Qu, H. (2000), Service quality in China’s hotel
industry: a perspective from tourists and hotel managers.
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,
12(5), 316-326.
... In this case, when a company deviates from its optimal scale of production, profit efficiency gives us a better estimation of possible inefficiencies (Berger & Mester, 1997). 2. Quality as a differentiating element has become a key mechanism in the search for greater competitiveness in the hospitality industry (Ingram & Daskalakis, 1999;López & Serrano, 2001;Poon, 1993). 3 What is more, as stated by Assaf and Magnini (2012), for a correct estimation of efficiency both the quantity and quality of output should be taken into account. ...
Article
Full-text available
This article focuses on estimating and discussing cost and profit efficiencies related with the Spanish hotel sector. Managers have a special interest in controlling costs as a source of competitive advantage, which may enable companies to improve their results in a continuous manner. However, they usually do not attribute much importance to the improvement of profit efficiency, which is generally much lower than cost efficiency and as a result vital for achieving competitive advantage. In this article, cost and profit efficiencies are estimated in the Spanish hotel sector using a data panel for the years 2007 to 2011 and using distribution free approach methodology. The results show profit efficiency levels significantly lower than levels of cost efficiency, thereby confirming our working hypothesis.
Chapter
Full-text available
Ekonomik, sosyal, kültürel ve çevresel anlamda her alanda etkili bir sektör olarak turizm sektörünün önemi her geçen gün daha da artmaktadır. "Turizm Araştırmaları II" başlığı altında ortaya çıkan bu kitap, turizm endüstrisinin derinliklerine inerek, turizm alanını akademik bir bakış açısıyla incelemekte güncel ve geniş bir perspektif ile araştırılan konular hakkında çeşitli bilgiler sunmayı hedeflemektedir. Turizmin günümüze olan gelişimini, değişen çerçevesi ile farklı alanlara olan yansımalarını, endüstriyel boyutlarını ve küresel etkilerini ele alırken, aynı zamanda sektördeki stratejileri, trendleri ve pazarlama dinamiklerini de incelemektedir. Birçok farklı bölümden oluşan kitap disiplinler arası bir yaklaşımla turizm endüstrisini ele almakta, ekonomi, sosyoloji, çevre bilimleri, pazarlama ve yönetim gibi farklı alanlardan gelen perspektifleri bir araya getirerek, okuyuculara kapsamlı bir bakış sunmaktadır. Bu kitap, öğrenciler, akademisyenler ve turizm sektöründe çalışan profesyoneller için değerli bir kaynak niteliği taşımasının yanında, teorik bilgiyi güncel uygulamalarla birleştirerek, okuyucuların turizm endüstrisindeki değişen dinamikleri anlamalarına ve analiz etmelerine olanak tanımaktadır. Serinin II. Kitabı niteliğini taşıyan "Turizm Araştırmaları II", turizm alanında derinlemesine bir anlayış geliştirmek isteyen herkes için essiz bir kaynak olma özelliği taşımakta, akademik temelde sağlam bilgiler sunarken aynı zamanda sektördeki geleceğe yönelik tahminler ve stratejik düşünceler ile okuyucuları aydınlatmayı hedeflemektedir.
Article
Full-text available
The importance of service quality for business performance has been recognized in the literature through thedirect effect on customer satisfaction and the indirect effect on customer loyalty. The main objective of the studywas to measure hotels' service quality performance from the customer perspective. To do so, a performance-onlymeasurement scale (SERVPERF) was administered to customers stayed in three, four and five star hotels inAqaba and Petra. Although the importance of service quality and service quality measurement has beenrecognized, there has been limited research that has addressed the structure and antecedents of the concept forthe hotel industry. The clarification of the dimensions is important for managers in the hotel industry as itidentifies the bundles of service attributes consumers find important. The results of the study demonstrate thatSERVPERF is a reliable and valid tool to measure service quality in the hotel industry. The instrument consistsof five dimensions, namely "tangibles", "responsiveness", "empathy", "assurance" and "reliability". Hotelcustomers are expecting more improved services from the hotels in all service quality dimensions. However,hotel customers have the lowest perception scores on empathy and tangibles. In the light of the results, possiblemanagerial implications are discussed and future research subjects are recommended.
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: Many organizations especially service organizations to suit their ideals and mission specific approach to the topic that have quality and management. This paper is intended to subject the importance of quality serve the brokerage offices, the gap analysis using the model and analysis techniques to Servqual quality service brokerage offices presented a case study (Stock Brokerage office's regional provinces Yazd) pay. Design/methodology/approach: Application of statistical non-parametric test for the qualitative analysis of significant gaps in services, suggestions for improving the quality of brokerage services at a low-level case study is presented. Statistic's tests in five areas, including service quality conceptual donor tangible form, reply to, guarantee, credit, and charity have been. For this purpose, based on service quality gaps five branches, a questionnaire measure designed level perception and expectations of investors and broker's service brokerage offices, and the navigation. Findings: Results show that donor expectations and perceptions between investor's quality service brokerage offices in all areas, there are significant differences. Brokerage Managers, the models analyzed using the service quality, will be able to create gaps between the way the service provided, i.e., investors and agents known to the agency planned to strengthen and reform pay problems. Originality/value: Servqual technique used for the first time in Iran and in particular, in Yazd province, for the assessment the service quality of brokerage offices. It certainly results in improving the quality of services these offices will be effective.
Article
The service quality philosophy have gained in importance in recent years and has been the subject of much conceptual and empirical research. The studies undertaken, however, have primarily focused attention on the financial services, healthcare and professional service sectors, and have not generally included analyses of quality in the hotel industry. Also, the former have not addressed the possible relationship between service quality and business performance, and the competitive implications of adopting and operationalising a quality ethos. The exploratory study reported in this article focuses on the nature of service quality in UK hotel organisations, and examines the performance implications of institutionalising service quality initiatives. Although a large proportion of respondents acknowledge the importance of developing, promoting and measuring service quality it would appear that few managers at the unit level have systems in place to effect implementation. The results also reveal that firms who have adopted quality policies do not exhibit exceptional performance in financial and competitive terms. It is concluded that further research needs to be carried out to establish empirically whether service quality implementation practice is consequential for business performance.
Article
The primary research carried out for this study focuses on hotel guest comment cards (GCCs) and customer satisfaction management schemes in Taiwan. Content analysis was used to determine the extent to which each hotel's comment card design corresponded to the identified best practice criteria. Results reveal that no single hotel analyzed within the survey sample of this study meets all identified best practice criteria for their GCCs. It is recommended that the hotel industry in Taiwan reexamine its approach to evaluating customer satisfaction, with the goal of achieving conformity to all critical best practice criteria identified in this paper.
Article
Assesses the perceptions of service quality in China’s hotel industry, from the perspective of both international tourists and hotel managers. A questionnaire was used to survey a sample of 90 hotel managers and 270 international tourists who visited China and stayed at hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. A descriptive statistics analysis was used (paired t-test and independent t-test) to evaluate the service quality of China’s hotel industry from both the tourists’ and the managers’ perspectives, and to investigate the four gaps: between tourists’ expectations and their actual perceptions; between managers’ perceptions of tourists’ expectations and the actual expectations of tourists; between managers’ perceptions of a hotel’s service delivery and tourists’ actual perceptions of the service; and between managers’ perceptions of tourists’ expectations and managers’ perceptions of their hotel’s service delivery. The results showed that tourists’ perceptions of service quality provided in the hotel industry in China were consistently lower than their expectations and that managers overestimated the service delivery, compared to tourists’ perceptions of actual service quality, in the hotel industry in China. From the result of gap analysis, it might be concluded that Delivery Gap and Internal Evaluation Gap were the main reasons contributing to the service quality shortfalls in the hotel industry in China.
Article
Forms the first part of a two-part investigation, exploring the relationship between quality service and customer expectations in the Northern Ireland hotel industry. Notes that, in line with customers’ demands for higher and higher service quality, the Province’s tourism sector has recognized the need to raise its profile from the back-seat position it has taken for some years. Details the Northern Ireland Tourism and Hospitality Training Council’s introduction, in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Quality Centre, of a total quality management programme, and reports the findings of a study, using the SERVQUAL instrument, carried out on two hotels within the Province, one of which has successfully implemented the new programme.
Article
The role of service quality in the success of hotel businesses cannot be denied. It is vital for the hotel managers to have a good understanding on what exactly the customers want. Identifying the specific expectations of customers, the dimensions of the service quality, and their relative importance for customers for each specific segment of hotel industry would definitely help managers in the challenge of improving the service quality. The objectives of this study were to investigate the service quality expectations of business hotels’ customers, examine whether the quality dimensions included in the SERVQUAL model apply in an international environment, search for any additional dimensions that should be included in the service quality construct, and measure the level of importance of each specific dimension for the customers of the business hotels. The findings of this study confirmed the five-dimensional structure of SERVQUAL; however, some of the dimensions found and their components were different from SERVQUAL. The five service quality dimensions identified in this study were named as “tangibles”, “adequacy in service supply”, “understanding and caring”, “assurance”, and “convenience”. The findings showed that business travelers had the highest expectations for the dimension of “convenience” followed by “assurance”, “tangibles”, adequacy in service supply”, and “understanding and caring”. The research findings also confirmed that, although the SERVQUAL scale was a very useful tool as a concept, it needed to be adapted for the specific service segments and for the cultural context within which it was used.
Service Quality Management in Hotel Industry: A Conceptual Framework for Food and Beverage Departments
AbuKhalifeh, Ala`a., Nimer. & Mat, Som. Ahmad Puad. (2012), Service Quality Management in Hotel Industry: A Conceptual Framework for Food and Beverage Departments, International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 7, No. 14; 2012, pp. 100-105.
Using servqual: A Case Study of the Croatian Hotel Industry
Using servqual: A Case Study of the Croatian Hotel Industry, International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 7, No. 14; 2012