An assessment of service quality and customer satisfaction in the hotel sector

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer an empirical examination of the service quality in the hotel sector. While service quality is considered as an important factor on generating customer satisfaction and repurchase intention, little is done on assessing and exploring it in the Albanian context. So, this paper aims to offer an assessment of the quality of the service offered by the hotels in the Albanian coast and also an assessment of the effect of service quality on the satisfaction of hotel customers. Methodology – An instrument was built in order to gather important data and to assess the variables of the study. It consists of a structured questionnaire used as a self-administered one. A revised SERVPERF with 5-Likert scale is used to collect the tourists’ perceptions on service quality and customer satisfaction while, factorial analyses are used to assess service quality and the impact of quality on customer satisfaction.The sample is composed of tourists who were staying at the hotels of the sun and sand sector in the Albania coast line. Findings – The results of the statistical analyses of the collected data show the significant importance of the perceptions of the tourists about the service quality and the significant impact of the perceived service quality on customer satisfaction for hotel guests. Contribution – This paper contributes to the existing empirical literature exploring service quality and its impact on customer satisfaction. It presents a methodology for developing the service quality and customer satisfaction. So, businesses and institutions in the hotel sector have a better understanding of the factors that are considered important from the customer point of view to create and maintain high service quality and customer satisfaction.