Differences in service quality perceptions of stakeholders in the hotel industry

Abstract

Purpose– Studies in the service quality evaluation literature have generally attempted to determine the service quality perception level of customers by mainly focusing on customers’ quality evaluations. However, the nature and characteristics of differences in service quality perceptions among customers, managers and employees are not sufficiently researched. In this study, the differences in service quality perceptions among the aforementioned stakeholders are examined.Design/methodology/approach– Multivariate analysis of variance was used to test the significant differences between stakeholder’s perceptions of service quality, using a sample of 845 hotel stakeholders (customers, employees and managers).Findings– The findings showed that employees perceived service performance to be at a high level, while customers perceived it to be at a low level. According to thepost-hoctest, even though managers’ perception of service quality performance was lower than that of employees, no significant difference was found between them. In addition, it was determined by second-order confirmatory factor analysis that the lowest explanation ratio was the tangible dimension in SERVQUAL.Originality/value– One major shortcoming in the concept of service quality is that stakeholders perceive service quality differently. In particular, a hotel business that lacks service quality may face issues such as negative customer satisfaction, lack of customer loyalty and lower competitive advantage. However, while most of the studies on the hotel sector in the literature focus mainly on the evaluation of customers for service quality, other stakeholders’ (employees’ and managers’) perceptions have been ignored. Therefore, the current study’s contribution to the literature explores the differences in stakeholders’ perceptions of the hotel industry.