An Integrated Approach to Service Quality in Hotels

ABSTRACT

An examination of service quality in hotels goes beyond the measurement approach by incorporating, customer satisfaction, organizational culture and climate. Customer satisfaction is examined and the use of employee perceptions of customer satisfaction is proposed as an index for customer satisfaction. Organizational climate is discussed as being a fundamental element that needs to be understood and used by managers in order to promote service quality. A conceptual model that incorporates all the elements of an expanded service quality model is presented by utilizing organizational culture and climate as its base. It is argued that hotel managers need to address all aspects of the model simultaneously instead of the single element at a time approach.     

酒店组织公平性氛围和服务氛围与旅客的投诉次数

文章对57家酒店的167个服务团队进行了一次实证研究,探讨酒店的组织公平性氛围和服务氛围与旅客的投诉次数之间的关系。数据分析结果表明,酒店的组织公平性氛围与服务氛围存在显著的正相关关系,酒店的服务氛围与团队的服务质量存在显著的正相关关系,团队的服务质量与旅客的投诉次数存在显著的负相关关系,酒店的服务氛围中介了组织公平性氛围与团队服务质量之间的正相关关系;团队的服务质量是酒店的服务氛围与旅客投诉次数之间的中介变量。     

Measuring Personal Service Quality

Abstract

This study examined the personal service quality of international tourism hotels in China by measuring international hotel customer's satisfaction level and their perceived importance evaluation of personal service attributes. Six international hotels in Beijing and three departments (reception, food and beverage, and housekeeping) in each hotel were selected in this study. Responses from 472 customers were used for the data analysis of this study. It was found that customers identified friendliness and willingness to provide service in all three departments as service attributes with which they were very satisfied. Foreign language ability was identified as the least satisfactory in the reception and food and beverage departments. Customers also regarded friendliness and willingness to provide service as very important.     

The Relationships Between Food Service Wait Staff Skills,Satisfaction, Commitment and Their Levels of Customer Orientation

Abstract

Restaurants are in an industry that seems to be one of the most competitivein the nation. The challenges of operating in this particular industry are exacerbated bythe relative similarities that exist between many food service providers. One means that may be used to achieve a degree of differentiation may be through the restaurant's customer contact personnel, i.e., its wait staff. The restaurant's wait staff is an important factor in determining customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction in turn is an important determinant of the restaurant's profitability and longevity. The purpose of this research is to assess the relationships that exist between the wait staff's levels of customer orientation and their sales skills, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The results indicate that the positive relationships exist between the wait staff's customer orientation and their skills, job satisfaction and organizational commitment.     

Determinants of Customer Satisfaction in the Hotel Industry: An Application of Online Review Analysis

This study illustrates that determinants of customer satisfaction in hospitality venues can be identified through an analysis of online reviews. Using text mining and content analysis of 42,668 online traveler reviews covering 774 star-rated hotels, the study found that transportation convenience, food and beverage management, convenience to tourist destinations and value for money are identified as excellent factors that customers booking both luxury and budget hotels consider important and for which the performance is much satisfactory to them. Customers paid more attention to, but were less satisfied with, bed, reception services and room size and decoration. Most determinants of customer satisfaction also showed a consensus over luxury versus budget hotels, except for factors referring to lobby and sound insulation. As per its findings, the article concludes by presenting theoretical and managerial implications.     

Guest Satisfaction Barometer and Benchmarking

Abstract

An increasing number of companies use customer satisfaction data for improvement programs, strategic decision making, and compensation schemes. Typically, single companies carry out satisfaction measurement for their own purposes. As a consequence, results are not comparable with other companies. Thus, valuable information on competition is not available and benchmarking is not possible. Moreover, in order to use satisfaction data for decision-making, it should be measured continuously and systematically. In practice, however, many firms do not have the required resources or competencies to carry out these research activities on their own. As a result, there is a lack of reliable data. The implementation of a customer satisfaction barometer seems to be a promising approach. It facilitates competitive benchmarking and delivers valuable information for quality improvement. provide participating hotels with information on overall satisfaction, attribute satisfaction, price satisfaction, complaining behavior, loyalty, word-of-mouth, etc.; (3) to identify strengths and weaknesses, as well as improving opportunities; and (4) to provide participating hotels with data for competitive benchmarking. Thirty-seven hotels participated in the pilot phase and data from more than 3,500 guests were collected. In order to illustrate the ideas of the guest satisfaction barometer and the benefits for the participating hotels, the authors first describe the basic ideas and guiding principles of the barometer and report some empirical findings to demonstrate how benchmarks can be used to improve quality and satisfaction. The paper closes with a summary of the experiences and some recommendations for future applications.     

Business Traveler Satisfaction with Hotel Service Encounters

Abstract

This study examines customer satisfaction with a series of hotel services. Five service encounters were examined in a sample of business travelers (n = 140) who had stayed in Hong Kong hotels. Overall satisfaction and repurchase intention were differentially impacted by the various service encounters. Business center encounters had the greatest effect on business traveler satisfaction, followed by check-out and check-in encounters. Interestingly, room and restaurant encounters had the least impact on satisfaction. The delivery of good core services alone cannot guarantee customer satisfaction. Hotels must also pay attention to peripheral service delivery, because these encounters help to shape the customer's overall level of satisfaction and repurchase intention.     

The COVID-19 pandemic: The mitigating role of government and hotel support of hotel employees in Egypt

We investigated the effect of government support of hotels on hotels' employee support (namely, health support, staff retention, and staff training) and consequently on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment, through the moderating role of perceived overall organizational justice and ethical climate, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a quantitative approach and a framework that drew on the stakeholder and organizational support theories, we collected data from 669 employees in Egyptian hotels through a web-based survey. The results support the proposed framework and show a positive effect of government support through the strengthened perception of perceived overall organizational justice. Surprisingly, findings indicated that the association between job satisfaction and organizational commitment is significantly and negatively influenced by hotel ethical climate. Furthermore, job satisfaction partially mediates the association between hotels’ support of employees and organizational commitment. The study holds important implications for both theory and practice.     

Burnout and Service Employees' Willingness to Deliver Quality Service

ABSTRACT

Employees are vital for enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty in service organizations because their proactive involvement is an essential part of delivering the services offered. With the recent rapid growth of tourism in the Macau SAR, service employee workloads are clearly increasing, and consequently one would expect that the incidence of job burnout is rising. This study uses the well-known Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to investigate the relationship between service employees' burnout and their willingness to deliver quality services. Self-administered questionnaires from 110 operational staff in three hotels in Macau have been analyzed. The results indicate that job burnout reduces staff's willingness to deliver quality services and that this effect is moderated by individual staff's level of affective organizational commitment, and their perceptions of the extent of organizational and supervisor support provided by the organization. Based on these results, practical managerial strategies to improve service performance are identified.     

An Examination of Job Satisfaction of General Managers Based on Hotel Size and Service Type

ABSTRACT

Because of the flatter organizational structure and decentralized hierarchical configuration of limited-service and extended-stay hotels, managerial job responsibilities may differ between these types of hotels and their full-service counterparts. As job responsibilities vary, so too might approaches to ensuring job satisfaction. This study examined how hotel size and service type affect the job satisfaction of general managers. After hypotheses testing and an analysis of the item correlations, it was concluded that neither hotel size nor service type significantly impacted general manager job satisfaction and gender, age, educational level, and longevity in the hospitality industry or as a hotel manager all had minimal impact on job satisfaction.     

The Measurement of Job Satisfaction

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of various dimensions on job satisfaction, using a sample of Turkish frontline employees in Northern Cyprus hotels as its setting. Results suggest that pay and supervision have significant positive effects on the job satisfaction of frontline employees, whereas the work itself and physical evidence do not have any significant relationship with job satisfaction. The implications of the results for hotel managers and public policy makers are discussed.     

Towards quality of life: the effects of the wellness tourism experience

ABSTRACT

The wellness tourism sector has experienced a significant worldwide increase. This study aimed to identify the relationships between customer experience, leisure and non-leisure satisfaction, and quality of life in wellness tourism. Specifically, customer experience was evaluated with four dimensions of the experience economy: entertainment, educational, esthetic, and escapist. The findings of this study indicate that customer experience influences leisure satisfaction, which consequently leads to non-leisure satisfaction. It was also found that both leisure and non-leisure satisfaction contribute to customer quality of life. This study provides industry practitioners with practical knowledge for promoting traveler quality of life through wellness tourism and designing effective marketing strategies to this end.     

Guest satisfaction in independent and affiliated to chain hotels

In the hotel sector, two basic organisational forms can be distinguished, independent and chain-affiliated, which reflects in the entities' management processes and in the dimensions of the hotel service. Guest satisfaction is the determinant of and the secret to success in the hotel industry, nevertheless the comparison of customer satisfaction of both operational models is scarce. The main goal of this work is to determine whether those differences exist, considering the geographical scope and size of the chain in linked hotels. Customer satisfaction was analysed in 404 four and five-star hotels, measured through the hotel ratings from online travel agent Booking.com, in two tourism destinations in Spain using the Rasch Measurement Theory. Results obtained indicate that the superiority in customer satisfaction of one of these management forms shows for specific dimensions of the service provided.     

Service climate and customer satisfaction in a casino hotel: An exploratory case study

Given the global escalation in gaming availability, this paper proposes a service management framework for the study of competitive advantage in casino hotels. Using data collected from 303 employees at an Australian casino hotel, an exploratory case study in service climate and customer satisfaction is presented. The findings suggest that while service climate is highly correlated with customer satisfaction, internal dynamics result in significant differences in the perceptions of casino employees versus non-casino employees, highlighting the need to tailor organisational strategies to different types of employees.     

Effects of psychological contract breach on attitudes and performance: The moderating role of competitive climate

The performance of hotel employees is an important driver of customer satisfaction, which in turn affects hotels’ financial outcomes. Hotel managers should encourage their staff to deliver quality service and should inspire them to perform their best. This study advances a multilevel model that draws connections among competitive climate, organizational identification (OID), job performance, affective commitment (AC), and psychological contract (PC) breach from a sample of hotel staff. The results indicate that (1) PC breach is negatively related to OID and AC, (2) OID and AC have a significant positive relationship with job performance, and (3) competitive climate at the organizational level moderates the effects of OID and AC on hotel workers’ in-role performance. These results offer valuable implications for managers to produce more efficient hotel human resource management techniques.     

Extra-Role Customer Service: The Roles of Leader–Member Exchange (LMX), Affective Commitment,and Psychological Empowerment

ABSTRACT

Based on the social exchange and job characteristic theories, this study advances a moderated-mediation model that tries to explain the social-psychological processes connecting the leader–member exchange (LMX) and extra-role customer service, and examined it by collecting data from employees and managers employed in tourist hotels operating in Uttarakhand, India. A hierarchical regression analysis determined that LMX was positively related to extra-role customer service where affective commitment mediated this relationship. Further, an analysis of a moderated-mediation path revealed that psychological empowerment strengthened the direct influences of LMX on affective commitment and its indirect influence on extra-role customer service. Based on these findings, important theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

The Impact of Self-Efficacy on Job Outcomes of Hotel Employees

Abstract

This study aims to examine the effect of self-efficacy on job performance, job satisfaction, and affective organizational commitment using data collected from employees in three-, four-, and five-star hotels in Northern Cyprus as its setting. The research hypotheses were tested using LISREL 8.30 through path analysis. The model test results demonstrated that self-efficacy is a significant determinant of job performance. This study, however, failed to find a significant positive association between self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Although not hypothesized, the results of the present study revealed that job performance mediates the impact of self-efficacy on job satisfaction. In addition, the results of the path analysis showed that self-efficacy is among the significant predictors of affective organizational commitment. The model test results provided empirical support for the rest of the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, the path-analytic findings indicated that job satisfaction exerts a significant positive influence on affective organizational commitment. The model test results also demonstrated that job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment are negatively associated with intention to leave. Discussion of the results, implications for hotel managers, and future research directions are presented in the study.     

Influence of sustainable hospitality supply chain management on customers’ attitudes and behaviors

This study aims to identify the impact of the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable hospitality supply chain management actions on customers’ attitudes and behaviors including satisfaction, loyalty and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable hospitality goods and services utilizing data collected from U.S. consumers who frequently stay at hotels. Findings suggest that while both environmental and economic dimensions’ actions of sustainable hospitality supply chain management have positive influences on customer satisfaction, loyalty and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable hospitality goods and services, the social dimension actions are found to have a positive influence on customer satisfaction and a negative influence on customer willingness to pay a premium. Results also indicate that customer satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between social dimension actions and customer loyalty. In addition, customer satisfaction positively influences customer loyalty, which ultimately increases customer willingness to pay a premium. The implications of the research findings are provided.     

Pushing forward high-performance work systems in the hotel industry: A procedural-justice climate to promote higher unit-level outcomes

In this study, we examine how the high-performance work system (HPWS) can be used to promote positive employee behavior leading to higher organizational service performance in the hotel industry. Specifically, we suggest that the collective organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees links the HPWS to organizational service performance, and a stronger procedural-justice climate of a hotel strengthens the relationship between the HPWS and the collective OCB. Using multi-source data drawn from 5290 employees across 180 independent franchise hotels in North America and customer feedback on each surveyed hotel, we found that the collective OCB mediates the relationship between the HPWS and organizational service performance, and when hotels have a stronger procedural-justice climate, the mediating effect is more salient. The implications of these findings for tourism researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Multiattribute Decision Making Analysis for Customer Preference of Tourist Hotels

This study focuses on perception of hotel attributes that affect the selection of tourist hotels. These hotel service attributes are further categorized into seven hierarchies: business image, hotel location, service attitude, room service, beverage and food service, hotel facilities, and hotel environment. These hierarchies include twenty-seven evaluation items. Analytic Hierarchy Process method and multiple attribute utility function have been utilized to evaluate customer preference of hotels. Then, we conducted a thorough perception consciousness investigation of service quality to assess customer evaluation and preference of service attributes, which led to an understanding of the factors that affect hotel selection