Title: Measuring the service quality of luxury hotel chains in the USA

Authors: Hokey Min

Addresses: Department of Management, College of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University, BAA 3008C, Bowling Green, 43403 Ohio, USA

Abstract: In the hospitality industry, quality of services rendered to customers determines the level of business success. To sustain and improve the high level of service quality continuously, hotel management should assess how well they have served their customers and how competitive they become as a result of continuous service improvements. Such assessment begins with the identification of key service attributes that shape up the customer's perceived service quality and influence the customer's level of satisfaction with hotel services. In particular, to achieve full customer satisfaction and stay ahead of industry rivals, hotel management should gain the knowledge of a hotel's competitive position in the dynamically changing marketplace and create the opportunity for continuous service improvement. With this in mind, this paper develops service standards that help hotel managers monitor their service delivery process, identify performance gaps, and take corrective actions. Based on the exploratory study of customers who have stayed at luxury hotels in the USA, this paper identifies key success factors for luxury hotel franchises and develops service improvement plans for practising hotel managers.

Keywords: hotel service quality; key success factors; competitive gap analysis; benchmarking; USA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2018.093513

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2018 Vol.30 No.4, pp.465 - 479

Received: 01 Jul 2016
Accepted: 28 Oct 2016
Published online: 27 Jul 2018 *

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