Customer perceptions of service quality in luxury hotels in New Delhi, India: an exploratory study

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of the study is to assess the service quality perception of customers of luxury hotels, New Delhi in India and to help the hotel management identify areas that need attention to meet and exceed customer expectations.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a survey and interview technique to accumulate information for analysis using SPSS version 12 and was conducted at different four‐ and five‐star hotels in New Delhi involving hotel guests agreeing to participate. A usable sample of 271 participants resulted with a large majority being male.FindingsThe importance‐performance analysis shows that, for responses relating to front office, room service and in‐house café/restaurant, the importance score is statistically significant to and higher than the performance rating. Overall, the results indicate significant difference between expectations of the guests and actual experiences, thus highlighting managerial implications.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study cannot claim to be wholly conclusive as it is limited to a small sample size from only one metropolitan city of India and there could be subjectivity in responses. From a practitioner's perspective the study provides an opportunity to recognise, in ranking order, features that are considered important by the guests staying in luxury hotels of New Delhi in India and to identify the areas of disparity in service and product quality.Originality/valueIt is observed that this is a significant study of service quality in luxury hotels in India; in that sense the study contributes to the literature and provides an opportunity for a comparative study of service quality with other such studies undertaken in different parts of the globe.

Improving service management in budget hotels

“…A large body of research has examined service excellence in the full-service and luxury hotel contexts (Kim and Ki, 2005;Presbury et al, 2005;Mohsin and Lockyer, 2010;Yang and Mattila, 2014;Li et al, in press). However, few studies have investigated the means of achieving quality service and customer satisfaction in the budget hotel sector (Fiorentino, 1995;Zhang et al, 2013b).…”

“…However, there is no consensus on the framework for determining customer satisfaction and firm performance in budget hotels. Traditional hospitality studies have mostly focused on service management in upper-scale or large-size hotel groups (Mattila and O'Neill, 2003;Mohsin and Lockyer, 2010), and relatively little research attention has been paid to budget hotels (hereafter, we also use the term 'economy hotels' interchangeably) (Zhang et al, 2013b). Furthermore, prior research on budget hotels has produced inconsistent findings on the determinants of customer satisfaction and firm performance (e.g., Fiorentino, 1995;Heung and Wong, 1997;Min and Min, 1997;Choi and Chu, 1999;Dolnicar, 2002;Brotherton, 2004;Tanford et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2013b).…”

Customer perceptions of critical success factors for guest houses

“…Some of these factors are related to intangible service elements, whereas some are related to tangible physical elements. Other factors, such as value for money, are difficult or extremely complex to define (Mohsin and Lockyer, 2010). These factors are derived from the features of the internal environment of a particular company and are determined by the nature of the external environment (Brotherton, 2004).…”

Perceived Quality and Corporate Image in Mobile Services: The Role of Technical and Functional Quality

“…While functional quality has been conceptualized and operationalized in great detail in previous literature (starting from SERVQUAL; Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1988), it is very difficult to consistently conceptualize technical quality in different service industries. Thus, technical quality has not yet been conceptualized in a form that could be generally applied across industries (Mohsin and Lockyer 2010).…”