Perceptions of Chinese and International Tourists on China Hotel Service Quality

Abstract

Most of the studies of China hotels' service quality have been conducted from the international tourists' perspectives. There is a lack of research on how Chinese tourists perceive the service quality of China's hotels and how similar or different Chinese tourists' perceptions are from their international counterparts. This research attempts to fill this gap by investigating the service quality of China's hotels perceived by both Chinese and international tourists. As on-line guest review Web sites are popular and becoming “a new kind of word-of-mouth communication,” the guest reviews posted on elong.com and tripadvisor.com were collected and analyzed. The results show that Chinese and international tourists were generally satisfied with the service quality of the hotels where they stayed. However, Chinese tourists were “pickier” than international tourists when evaluating hotel services. They demanded more personal services and were more conscious of value.