Level of Failures in Services at Four-Star Hotels in the City of Campos De Jordão/Sp

Abstract

Purpouse: This research aims to investigate, using the Servqual model, the level of gaps in services offered by four-star hotels in a winter season city, characteristic of Switzerland, called Campos do Jordão/SP, Brazil. Teorical Framework: Quality of service is crucial to the success of any service organization. As customers participate in the delivery and consumption of services, they closely interact with various aspects of organizations, critically evaluating the services they provide. Customers assess the quality of a service they receive by comparing it with the service they desire. Thus, quality of service plays a critical role in adding value to the overall service experience. Metodology: This research uses qualitative and quantitative data. The data collection instrument was a Servqual questionnaire published by Parasuraman et al. (1988), which was applied to eight hotels (owners, managers, and customers). In this way, we verify significant dysfunctions and service results about the competitive factors that customers value. Findings: This research sought to investigate the level of gaps in the services offered by hotels in the city of Campos do Jordão, the size of gaps related to competitive, strategic, and operational dysfunctions in the businesses surveyed, and to test a set of hypotheses. All of the hypotheses were confirmed. The research did not observe significant dysfunctions pointing to strong adherence among the agents, so much so that the medians of all the gaps were null. From the results, it can be concluded that the competitive gap is influenced equally by the operational and strategic gaps. Research, Paratical and Social Implicantions: This research sought to investigate the level of gaps in the services offered by hotels in the city of Campos do Jordão, the size of gaps related to competitive, strategic, and operational dysfunctions in the businesses surveyed, and to test a set of hypotheses. All of the hypotheses were confirmed. The research did not observe significant dysfunctions pointing to strong adherence among the agents, so much so that the medians of all the gaps were null. From the results, it can be concluded that the competitive gap is influenced equally by the operational and strategic gaps. Originality/Value: The results help stimulate new research on the quality of services and facilitate an analysis of the procedures used to meet the expectations of hospitality in hotels. Finally, this study has presented some initial considerations and guidelines for the elaboration of specific projects that allow quantifying the quality of services and developing actions that reduce or even eliminate competitive dysfunctions, as well as contributing to future studies regarding the proposition of new models for the evaluation of the quality of services.