Importance of Customer Satisfaction in the Hospitality Industry

Research Proposal
“IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMERS’ SATISFACTION IN HOSPITALITY
INDUSTRY: CASE OF BRITANNIA GROUP OF HOTELS”
Introduction
This research proposal identifies the measures to evaluate and access the importance of customer
effectiveness and their satisfaction in the hospitality industry. The outcome of this research will
assist the decision making bodies of a hotel to ensure maximum customer value by identifying
best practices in the customer service design. This will help the hotels’ managers and owners to
gain a competitive advantage and improvement in the customers’ service.
The research study will analyze the service quality in terms of understanding how the customers
have expected the services and to what extent they have been satisfied. This study will highlight
the impediments to the service quality and suggest a way forward to mitigate such issues. So, it
will be a valuable research for the hospitality industry. This study is further more important for
the Britannia group that have 61 hotels across the UK (Kollewe, 2021).
The literature related to tourism and hospitality management widely acknowledge this fact that
keeping strong relations with old loyal customers and making new interactions with other
customers is considered to be the grand business strategy in this industry. (Piercy, 1955, p.22). If
customers are satisfied with company, they will give favorable review about their experience and
continue to avail the service. While, if they are not satisfied enough or disappointed with the
quality of service, then they are more likely to complain the management and switch to another
hotel. Therefore, the customers’ satisfaction is considered to be the most efficient and
economical way of promotion and advertisement.
The basic objective of conducting this research study is to evaluate the customer’s satisfaction in
the services provided by the Britannia Hotels. Moreover, this research will pinpoint the gaps
between the expectation and perceptions of the consumer. This study will be used as a
foundation to further investigate the internal and external challenges that are being experienced
by the Britannia Hotels. The outcome will be considered as an opportunity for the improvement
of hotels’ service. So that the customer’s expectations are met by the management accordingly.

Literature Review
The academic community as well as the industrial practitioners highlights that the essence of
hospitality or tourism industry is based on the experience and satisfaction of the consumer. Pine
and Gilmore (1999) emphasize on the ‘experience economy’ which means that the organization
should undergo such an efficient services that it becomes a good experience for the consumer. In
context of hospitality management, they should provide a memorable and unique hospitable
experiences that help them to gain the competitive edge.
According to Vavra (1997, p.2), customer satisfaction is the leading criteria to determine the
quality of service delivery and is essential for survival of corporate. He defines the customer
satisfaction as the feedback that comes after encountering the service. To assess the quality of
service, the only subjective criteria to follow up is the focus on the perceptions and attitudes of
the customer.
Reuland, Coudrey and Fagel (1985, p.142) explains that the services of hospitality consists of
three elements, firstly the attitude and behavior of employee who are hosting the guest, secondly
the material product which in case of hotel includes rooms, food and beverages. Lastly, the
environment of restaurant such as, the layout, furnishing, building, lighting and all other
elements.
Davis and Stone (1985, p.29) divides the service experience into two elements i.e., direct and
indirect services. The direct service includes the services like check-in or check-out process of a
hotel. Whereas, the indirect services include parking facilities, public telephones and other
related services.
Atkinson and Brown (2001, p.130) predicts that an organization which fails to provide the
services up to the customer’s expectations will sooner or later be out of the business. If the hotel
wants its business to survive, then it should follow proper standards to deal with the potential
customers and fulfil their needs according to their expectations
The hotels can measure the efficiency of their problem by comparing it to their competitors. This
will help them to identify the weaknesses and strengthen their position as best hotel in the
market. By using the conceptual process of benchmarking, the organizations can evaluate and
access their performance or improvements at interval of times. It will not only provide

comparative advantage but also assess the challenges faced by the organization. The application
of this benchmarking process is challenging in the service sector due to the subsequent lack of
universal standards and nature of service quality. In case of the hotel management, this
conceptual process gas been applied successfully. (Min, min and Chung, 2002, p.315)
Sunyoung Hlee, Hanna Lee and Chulmo Koo (2018, p.1141) recognizes the hospitality and
tourism online reviews as an influential tool for decision making of an organization. It helps the
hospitality industry to evaluate the perceptions and customers’ expectations about their service.
The customer satisfaction is the most essential feature to run the business smoothly. The increase
in such reviewing platforms can boost the hotel management and hospitality industry. It give a
paradigm framework for productive outcomes in the tourism industry.
According to Pizam and Ellis (1999. P.326-327), a customer satisfaction measure program must
be installed in corporate culture of an organization. It obtains the knowledge of customers’
requirements and expectations that will help facilitate the organization to work for development
of customer’s satisfaction. Their satisfaction is very important as it provides the commercial
organizations a chance to grow, and a word of mouth recommendations.
Primary Research Objectives
The primary research objective of this research are as follows:
i. To reach the customers satisfaction and expectation about the hotel.
ii. To position the Britannia Hotel Chain as the world class hotel service with excellent
quality.
iii. To identify the gap between customer’s expectation and perception and ways to mitigate
them
iv. To improve the number of returning customers to the hotel by satisfying them with their
visits
v. To increase the revenue for Britannia Hotels
Significance of Proposed Research
The importance of proposing this research is to explore the challenges faced by the Britannia
Group of hotels as its customer’s satisfaction has dropped in the last seven years. Also, the hotels