Assessment of Customer Satisfaction in a Five Star Hotel - A Case Study

Abstract

Tourism industry has become one of the most profitable industries in the world. Customer satisfaction has been identified as a key performance indicator in hotel industry. This study focused on customer satisfaction of a five - star hotel in Kandy district. Servqual model was employed in the assessment of customer satisfaction of the hotel. The overall objective of this study was to examine the level of customer satisfaction and major factors contributing to customer satisfaction in a five star hotel. The data were collected using a questionnaire containing 49 questions based on 22 variables of the five dimensions of Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. Sixty residential customers of the hotel were randomly selected. Focus group discussions and a perception survey among hotel staff were also conducted to enrich the findings. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, MINITAB Version 14 with Two Sample T- test. Majority of the customers expressed their satisfaction with the overall service they received from the hotel, especially regarding Tangibility, Responsiveness and Assurance. Findings revealed that the hotel had not fulfilled the customers’ satisfaction with regard to Reliability and Empathy. It was note-worthy that a minority of customers felt overall dissatisfied with the service of the hotel. Customers seemed to have perceived the same service differently. Customers’ expectations had been influenced by their knowledge about general standards of hotel practices. INTRODUCTION