Service quality and customer satisfaction: The moderating effects of hotel star rating

Abstract

• The study uses PLS-SEM to conduct an MGA and an IPMA. • Hotel star rating moderates the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. • For low-end establishments, accommodation infrastructure and employee expertise are important predictors of satisfaction. • Safety and security and room quality are the two significant determinants of satisfaction for three-star establishments. • We provide managerial interventions for improving guest satisfaction for accommodation establishments in each grading category. This research contributes to customer satisfaction knowledge with regard to accommodation in South Africa whose star grading differs. A multi-group analysis and an importance-performance map analysis by means of PLS-SEM allow us to differentiate between service quality performance scores and their influences on customer satisfaction across accommodation with a different star grading. The two most important predictors of satisfaction with one-star and two-star category accommodation are the accommodation infrastructure and the employee expertise. Both predictors were found to have relatively low levels of performance. Safety and security and room quality are two significant determinants of satisfaction with three-star establishments, although they under-perform with regard to safety and security. In respect of four-star and five-star accommodation, waiting time and customer interaction, both of which have above average performance scores, influence customer satisfaction. We provide specific guidelines for managerial interventions to improve service quality and guests’ satisfaction for each grading category.