Assessing the Relationship between Hotel Restaurant Brands Attributes and Customer Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Customer Dining Experience

Abstract

Experience in the context of business has become a part of important attributes especially in the service marketing segment. According to experts, shaping and designing customer experience is part of the experience economy. In a similar vein, experience is built once the customers get to know a product or service through the brand, use its facilities, and experience it. The importance of brand is without exception and it is also associated with the restaurant industry. That is the reason why creating a strong brand is one of the strategies used by many independent and hotel restaurant marketers in attracting and retaining customers for its performance and operational survival. The concepts of brand loyalty, awareness, brand image and brand competitiveness have gained many interests among researchers in general restaurant setting and operational aspects. However, research that specifically looks at the relationship between customer restaurant experience, particularly dining experience in the hotel restaurant setting, is still sparse and overlooked. A quantitative method was used in this study with hotel restaurant customers who dined at the restaurant as samples of investigation. In this study, dining experience is positioned as a mediating variable to see its effect between hotel restaurant brand attributes and customer satisfaction. The results revealed no significant mediating effect of dining experience towards hotel restaurant brand attributes and customer satisfaction.