Hotel Service Quality : Perceptions and Satisfaction among Domestic Guests in Kenya

Abstract

The Kenya tourism industry is a key contributor to its GDP. Hotel subsector benefits directly from growth of tourism but sustainable customer base would require polished customer service. Domestic hotel guests to play an important role in bridging the seasonality gap that is the core of the international tourism business model. The ability to harness this capacity is dependent on the extent to which they perceive the services provided as being worth their money value. This study therefore aimed at determining the guest actual experience and evaluation from the stay hence assess how the hotel performed against perceived quality and the effect on guest satisfaction operationalised as emotional satisfaction. Descriptive Survey design was adopted for the study. Cluster sampling was applied to select the hotels from which customers were derived. The study self-administered questionnaires to 182 guests. 26 items were used to measure perceived service quality on using a seven-point Likert-type scale for their responses. The study found out that tangibility as a service is rated highly. However confidence and communication dimensions of quality scored low means hence low rating. The path leading from “service quality” to “emotional satisfaction” had a coefficient of 0.701, with a p-value of 3.621. The path was significant; we therefore reject the null hypothesis and conclude that emotional satisfaction is dependent on service quality which supports that that emotional satisfaction is dependent on service quality. This study has revealed moderate influences of quality dimensions such as reliability, responsiveness and communication as given in their path coefficients on service quality. The study concludes that emotional satisfaction was derived from service-quality evaluation and agrees with Bagozzi’s (1992) conclusion that cognitive evaluations precede emotional responses. The study recommends that service delivery capacity of employees be improved in the said hotels so that for example the customer can feel that their needs are anticipated, better communication is achieved, employees become more responsive as well as reliable. The management of these hotels may also pursue other motivating strategies to improve service quality. Key word: Domestic guests, service quality; perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and emotional satisfaction