SERVQUAL Model in Hospitality Management

This assignment delves into the SERVQUAL model, a widely used framework for evaluating service quality in various industries, particularly hospitality. It examines the five key dimensions of SERVQUAL: reliability, assurance, responsiveness, empathy, and tangibles, explaining their relevance to customer perceptions and satisfaction within the hospitality sector. The assignment also discusses the practical implications of applying SERVQUAL for improving service delivery and enhancing customer experiences at resorts.

RESORT
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
a) Analyse the functions of resort management for Spain office...........................................1
b) Comparative analysis of resort structure for company......................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
a) Analysing the impact of effective quality system on legal and conflict situations............5
b) How implementing quality systems impacted operations of the resort.............................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
a) Incidents that could affect resort operations at Costa del Sol............................................9
b) Procedures to deals with possible incidents.....................................................................10
c) Linking procedures on the basis of regulatory guidelines................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
ILLUSTRATION INDEX
Illustration 1: Costa del Sol..............................................................................................................2
Illustration 2: SERVQUAL Model..................................................................................................6
Illustration 3: Dimensions of SERVQUAL model..........................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is a widely and fastest growing sector of the economy. This industry
operates within the market to offer wide range of services to its guests. Further, this sector
focuses on developing well developed guest and host relations (Agarwal and Shaw, 2007). The
traditional concept of hospitality focuses on providing care and shelter to the travellers. In the
current global era, hospitality services can be defined as a combination of science and
management for providing comfortable shelter away from home. Resort management is a crucial
and upgraded part of hospitality. This segment emphasizes on developing a recreational service
for consumers who demands a peaceful and relaxing holiday experience away from home.
Resort management provides full service experiences to its consumers which include
lodging, accommodation, food and beverage, entertainment, adventure services, transportation
etc. (Aldebert, Dang and Longhi, 2011). This segment of hospitality integrates all the services to
offer a luxury and stress free experience for guests at exotic destinations. The major aim of the
industry is to analyse consumer needs, coordinate and collaborate with destinations service
providers and arrange services for their guests. The functions of resort management deal with
planning, organizing, coordinating, marketing, promotion, communicating and relationship
management. This is a complete integration of hospitality management in the overseas market
(Goodall and Ashworth, 2012).
Present study will develop a clear and in-depth analysis of resort management along with
the range of services that this segment provides to its consumers. The case analyses the newly
appointed tour operator which will help in developing a practical understanding about the
functions, structure, service range, challenges and management concepts of the field. The study
will develop extensive research for establishing successful office in Spain (Howe, 2014). The
country is an exotic and popular tourist destination in the present era. It will create a proper
understanding about the areas of functions that the company has to manage in order to integrate
with overseas market to provide complete range of services for the guests. The key focus of
resource management is to attain consumer satisfaction and repetitive demand for the company.
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TASK 1
a) Analyse the functions of resort management for Spain office
LML Holidays Company (Fictitious firm) is a newly established tour operating firm
which has established its business in the UK market. The company presently is focusing on
starting resort management operations in Spain, which is a popular tourist destination with exotic
beauty and adventure services. The establishment of office in selected area demands effective
integration and management with overseas operations (Goodall and Ashworth, 2012). The case
scenario mentions that the company is planning to offer accommodation in three base cities
which are Marbella, Fuengirola and Torremolinos. These cities are situated in Costa del Sol
region of Spain which is a coastal region. It is popular for tourism and has developed wide range
of hospitality services. The functions of resort management that the company will be analysing
are discussed hence forth. Coordination: This is one of the most crucial and significant function of resort
management. LML emphasizes on providing services of luxurious holiday experience to
its consumers. Coordination is the function which will help the company in developing
plans by analysing needs of potential consumers and integrating the same with overseas
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Illustration 1: Costa del Sol
(Source :)

service providers (Middleton and Clarke, 2012). This coordination is significant to
develop effective and favourable results for the organization. Moreover, it will also help
the business in developing healthy and effective relations between service users and
service providers. Provision of services: LML Holidays Company will focus on integrating service range
and will coordinate with the overseas market to analyse service ranges that each
organization provides. This will help the company in coordinating with different
suppliers and develop range of services accordingly (Murphy, 2012). The company will
approach different hotels of the cities and coordinate with them, analyze the range of
services, cost of accommodation, quality analysis and human resource services. This
function of resort management helps in fulfilling consumer needs and requirement
effectively. Coordination with hotels helps in meeting demands of guests and enhancing
loyalty as well as satisfaction level. Customer service: Resort management is the function of providing memorable
experience to the guests at a place away from home. The major function of the company
is to develop a positive relationship with service providers to develop unique services for
guests (Reid and Bojanic, 2009). LML will focus on rendering effective consumer service
regarding transportation, communication, consumer requests, complaints, package
customization etc. this will help in developing trust and loyalty within the gusts. In
addition to customer service functions helps in analysing the service gap for the company
by evaluating consumer feedbacks and complains. Hence, LML will focus on this
function to enhance consumer satisfaction and develop organizational operations as well. Customer information: Tour operator plays a role of mediator between guests and
service providers in overseas area (Wood and Brotherton, 2008). As per the give case,
LML will be providing resort management services in Spain. Customer information is
significant function for the same. This will help the company in effectively integrating
the services with the hotels and service providers. The company collects information and
develop necessary arrangements at both ends. It minimizes the chance of chaos and
confusion for guests in a foreign country. This function also assists in enhancing security
measures for the companies.
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 Communication and legal requirements: Lack of effective communication may create
confusions regarding various factors. Communication is a significant part of managing
organizational functions and providing effective services. LML will communicate with
guests to analyse their needs, service providers will be approached to develop business
relations, communication with government and legal departments will also help in
ensuring safety, security and unrestricted practices (Clarke and Chen, 2012). This helps
in maintaining coordination between head-office, Spain office, suppliers and consumers.
b) Comparative analysis of resort structure for company
Resource management demands effective integration of business activities in order to
attain effective results for the growth and development of business. Every company adopts
unique structure in order to create effective impact on the growth and development of the
business. They plan and organize activities as per the demand and requirements of the guests.
The structure defines a wide range of integrated services that the organization provides in order
to attain consumer satisfaction within the market (Negi and Manoher, 2009). Departments such
as accommodation, food and beverages, lodging, human resource, finance, marketing etc are
focused in this segment.
Thomas cook is one of the well established tour operating company which is serving
efficiently in the global market. The business operations of the company are wide unique. The
organizational structure of the company effectively analyses the needs and demands of the
consumers and design services accordingly. It has integrated its services with luxurious as well
as normal brands to provide different range of services to different segment of consumers.
Moreover, the marketing segment of the company develops effective communication base with
the buyers which help in evaluating their needs (Raybould and Wilkins, 2005). The company
utilized this information to develop different types of tour operations such as summer tour,
winter tour, destination planning etc. The financial department of the company focuses on
developing budgets and prices for the consumers.
Similarly, Cosmos travel is another independent tour operator based in UK. It provides
different holiday packages to its consumers analysing their needs and demands. The company
has developed a base of 85000 consumers and is operating in more that 43 countries around the
world. The business unit has developed an effective brand image within the market. The well
structured business structure helps the company in effectively managing and planning services
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for its consumers. It has developed s hierarchical structure which helps in analysing the
relationship between authority and responsibility efficiently. Effective leadership programs helps
in infusing innovation and creativity within the company (Rishi and Gaur, 2012). The marketing
segments is continuously involved in analysing market trends and demands and thus plans
special and unique holiday plans. It plans its activities and holidays in different countries,
programmes such as destination holidays, event tourism and cultural tours are common parts of
services. It also offers specialised programmes such as sailing, tracking, camping etc. to target
young and adventurous consumer group.
By analysing the structure of above mentioned companies it can be clearly analysed that
resource structure helps in developing a well developed foundation for the business. LML will
thus focus on developing a well planned and structured business operations. The company will
create an effective organizational structure to develop highly defined authoritative titles. This
will ensure effective management of organizational operations. Moreover, well defined
leadership and management will enhance innovations and creativity within the employees as
well. The marketing department of the company will focus on three major functions which will
include relationship management, promotion and research team. These teams will integrate their
operations in order to efficiently analyse and understand employee needs. The organization will
analyse consumer needs and requirements in order to develop innovative programs and
customised packages for the guests. The structure of the company will be well managed and
defined in order to ensure effective communication and innovation for the service users.
TASK 2
a) Analysing the impact of effective quality system on legal and conflict situations
Resort operation is one of the most critical and crucial tour operation function. The core
focus of the operation is on developing an effective base to analyse consumer needs and
demands and implement effective measures to attain those needs and services within the market.
Quality system in the business units plays an effective role of analysing service standards and
comparing those with the actual performance of the company (Tsai, Pan and Lee, 2011). This
helps a business unit in finding necessary gaps and developing effective measures to fill those
gaps for the organizations. Implementing effective quality system for LML holidays will help the
business in enhancing its growth and development prospects within the market. The business
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operations will thus be designed and developed as per consumer expectations and demands. In
order to closely accomplish the above stated objective LML holidays will adopt
SERVQUALRATER model within the company.
The above stated model is well defined measure to determine consumer services within
the market. The model helps a company in developing an effective measure to analyse consumer
needs and adopt practices for attaining the same. Each gap defined in the process helps in
defining the potential performance and compare with the actual performance of the organization.
This helped the company in creating an effective base for quality analysis. The model highlights
five areas that customers generally consider important when they use a service, and focuses on
differentiating between customer experience and expectation (Jayawardena, 2001). This helps
the company in efficiently understanding customer needs and adopting practices for the same. In
minimizing the conflict situation within the firm. The dimensions for quality ascertainment used
in the model includes:
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Illustration 2: SERVQUAL Model
(Source : REVIEW OF THE SERVQUAL CONCEPT, 2005)

 Reliability: This dimension focuses on developing services such that consumers and legal
authorities could depend upon. LML will effectively integrate organizational services in
order to provide accurate services abiding legal and quality framework. For example
effective brand image helps a company in developing reliability within the market. Assurance: LML will focus on developing trust and loyalty within consumers by
providing effective communication and consumer service (Ormiston Gilbert, and
Manning, 2008). The company will train and develop its employees for the same. Tangible: Physical facilities and resources is another crucial requirement for resource
management. In order to establish tour operations in Spain the organization will develop
office within the market which could be visited by country authorities and consumers as
well. Empathy: LML is focusing on developing effective and specialised offers for the
consumers. For this the company will focus on closely examining consumer needs and
will provide individual attention to meet special needs as well. It will provide customised
services to fulfil individual needs and demands of the employees (Gill and Williams,
2011).
 Responsiveness: The company will be ready and prepared to respond to the needs and
demands of consumers. For this the business will develop an effective online
infrastructure as well. This will help the consumers to access digital presence of the
company as and when needed and will also develop an effective base for communication.
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Ill
ustration 3: Dimensions of SERVQUAL model
(Source : REVIEW OF THE SERVQUAL CONCEPT, 2005)

Hence, on the basis of above analysis it can be clearly seen that LML has planned and
effective measure to provide quality based services to the consumers. This will help in
minimizing the any legal complications as well. Moreover, in case of conflict situations the
proposed method will be widely useful.
b) How implementing quality systems impacted operations of the resort
An effective quality system helps in developing a strong and effective base for effective
results for the business. This develops a well based measures to enhance working system for an
organization. The business unit focuses on creating a wide and effective impact on organizational
growth and development (Newsome and Moore, 2012). Cosmos Travel is one of the leading tour
operating firm within the economy. In order to enhance results and develop well developed
results to the consumers the business unit adopted Total Quality management (TQM) to ascertain
quality systems for the consumers. This system has helped the company in developing high and
effective growth measures within the economy.
The adopted method focused on developing quality results at every step of operation.
This is an effective and integrated precess where the organization has developed quality
gateways to check and enhance the organizational process before delivering it to the ultimate
consumer. It keeps a close check to assess compliance, efficiency and effectiveness of health and
safety standards followed in the firm (Importance of quality system, 2014). Moreover, this
customer satisfactions and demand ascertainment was also one of the leading requirement. This
helped the company in enhancing the quality of performance within the market. The level of
customer satisfaction raised which helped the company in developing high market demand
(Pickering and Buckley, 2010). Moreover, the process of TQM assured legal and regulatory
compliance with regards to every poly of different countries. This helped the business in fighting
off the fierce market competition (Cosmos travel, 2014). This independent resort management
company developed well developed brand recognition within the market.
In addition to this quality performance of the firm helped the business in developing high
growth prospects within the market. It helped the employees of the company in adopting
measures to perform as per the set organizational standards. It assured sustainable and
continuous growth to the company.
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TASK 3
a) Incidents that could affect resort operations at Costa del Sol
Resort management is the process whereby companies arrange a wide range of services
and amenities to provide a luxurious experience to the consumers of the company. However, risk
is the integral part of the business operations. As per the given case risk of operating resort
management functions in Spain is high and considerable. There are numerous incidents that can
take place within the country while carrying out the business operations. The list of major and
most significant incidents that may occur within the country are: Natural Incidents: These are those uncontrollable incidents on which the business units
has no control. Costa del Sol is a coastal location and natural incidents such as hurricane,
earthquakes, Floods, tsunamis etc. has high chance of occurrence. These incidents are
unavoidable and company is unable to take any effective measures to avoid these totally.
Travellers, travel agencies, and tour operators have major impact of such events on the
growth and development of business (Resort, 2014). Such incidents may develop fear of
unsafe within the consumers and may thus result in avoiding travelling to these places. Medical Incidents: Medical issues and incidents may happen to people at any pint of
time. The occurrence of these issues may be because of personal, regional or other issues.
These incidents may include incidents related to spreading of particular disease, Food
related problems, issues arising from weather etc. these incidents may be controlled
effectively within the market (Agarwal and Shaw, 2007). Costa del Sol is a coastal
region where medical incidents related with sea food, allergies, food poisoning etc
commonly occur. Moreover, incidents like spreading of disease is common and
unavoidable in the economy in this global scenario. Recent incidents such as outbreak of
H1N1 virus in some countries, Ebola in Africa etc create high level of economic and
social disaster. These incidents were not expected however those occurred causing huge
impact on the companies. Thus analysing the same it can be suggested may suffer a huge
impact of such incidences as well. Economic issues: The economic issues of the country creates a significant impact on
travel and tourism industry. The economic instability in Greece for example has shaken
the economic base of the country. The rate of inflation has raised highly which has
caused wide economic unsuitability (Middleton and Clarke. 2012). The occurrence of
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such events is yet another factor which may affect the operations of resort management
sustainability in Costa del Sol region.
 Transportation incidents: Increasing terrorism attacks creates direct impact on travel and
tourism industry of the country. The incidence of internal safety issues has caught the
news headlines multiple times. These may enhance safety issues for the travellers.
Incidences related to hijacks, travellers safety, kidnaps etc may develop fear and
insecurity within travellers. The incidence of human trafficking is yet another major
issues that has been taking repetitively in Spain. However, thee incidences are
controllable and may be avoided with effective protection and security measures.
b) Procedures to deals with possible incidents
It is essential for LML Holidays to implement the different norms and regulations so that
they are able to manage the incidents effectively. In consideration to this, resort staff should be
able to able to handle different incidents and thus provide proper health and safety to toursits as
well as employees at the time of incidents. Further, there are different incidents that could take
place in the resort such as natural, transport, medical and political incidents (Reid and Bojanic,
2009). However, management should be able to deal with such type of incidents by developing
proper plans and rescue operations amd thus maintain safety guidelines to tourists to feel them
secure. For instance, the main objective behind delaing with such incidents properly that tourists
should feel safe and secure and resort should provide better quality service as per the set industry
standards. Resort is required to provide specific training to its employees so that they are able to
effectively overcome the natural, medical and transport incidents and thus provide safety
assistance to individuals.
LML Holidays is required to promose tourists that it will provide proper safety guidelines
at the time of emergency so that success can be attained. The main aim of firm is to fulfill the
needs of consumers and thus minimize the rate of incidents so that brand image of firm can be
maintained. Also, following proper industry standards helps in achieving overall safety and
security guidelines and thus deal with the incidents effectively (Raybould and Wilkins, 2005).
Company is also required to install proper safety gadgets and equipment such as fire
extinguisher, doctor facility etc. so that essential health and safety should be given to clients.
Also, the safety equipments should be checked regularly so that they can be used whenever
required and thus provide safety to tourists at the time of emergency.
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c) Linking procedures on the basis of regulatory guidelines
It can be evaluated that there are different governing bodies such as ABTA, CAA and
ATOL that works in order to manage and control the incidents. Further, such authorities helps in
fulfilling the principles and thus helping them to understand the needs of tourists visiting the
store.
 ABTA assists in providing travel guidnace to people who are planning their holidays.
They also make other travel arrangements so that toursits can feel comfortable while they
are staying. ABTA offers support, protection and expertise that means it possess a strong
trust and ensure that people can buy travel arrangement from the members of ABTA
(ABTA, 2014). They always fulfill their code of conduct of providing best products and
services and not affects health and safety guidelines of tourists. Company provides varied
services in the form of holiday experience adn ensure to satisfy the clients. For instance,
at the time of any unlikely incident such as natural and medical incident happens with
holiday makers then company continues to make their holidays better by providing them
best care and support so that success can be gained.
 Further, another agency is CAA which is Civil Aviation Authority based in UK and thus
it ensures that company meet the highest safety standards so that toursits can be safely
reached to their destination. It provides choices to people and value for their money so
that they gain fair returns when they fly with them. Also, they are essential in managing
the security risks obtained by tourists and thus regularly improve the airline, airports and
environmental performance of flights so that best results can be attained (Clarke and
Chen, 2012). For instance, it is crucial for government to make effective aviation
regulation and policy that ensures consistent levels of safety and consumer protection.
 At the end, there is another crucial agency i.e. ATOL which is working since 1973 in
order to protect the tourists travelling to different countries. It is essential for every tour
operator to hold ATOL that stands for Air Travel Organisers license and thus provide
safe and secure travel to individuals. For instance, the scheme of ATOL protects the
customers who had booked holidays with the particular business and ensures that they do
not get stranded abroad or lose money. Thus, such scheme is designed in the form to
assure that clients are safeguarded in respect to money loss and also will support in case
of failure of the travel company.
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CONCLUSION
The above report creates an in-depth analysis of various measures that could be adopted
in order to establish a successful resort management business in overseas market. The case
analysis helped in developing a clear and effective idea about measures that could be adopted by
the business. Spain is leading destination which has developed an effective impact on the
development of hospitality industry. The in-depth analysis of operations and functions of
resources management reflected the organization has high and effective prospect of growth in the
selected market. The effective safety measures may help the business in developing an effective
base for enhancing sustainability measures for the company. Hence, it may be analysed and
evaluated that effective integration of business actions may help an organisation in flourishing
resort management business.
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REFERENCES
Journals and books
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Clarke, A. and Chen, W., 2012. International Hospitality Management. Routledge.
Gill, A. M. and Williams, P. W., 2011. Rethinking resort growth: understanding evolving
governance strategies in Whistler, British Columbia. Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
19(4-5). pp.629-648.
Goodall, B. and Ashworth, G., 2012. Marketing in the tourism industry: The promotion of
destination regions. Routledge.
Howe, P. W., 2014. Tourism industry knowledge and students' career choice: An experimental
study in career intervention.
Jayawardena, C., 2001. Challenges in international hospitality management education.
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 13(6). pp.310 – 315.
Middleton, V. T. and Clarke. J. R., 2012. Marketing in travel and tourism. Routledge.
Murphy, P., 2012. Resort management analysis. The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Research.
Negi, J. and Manoher, G., 2009. Hospitality Management. Laxmi Publications, Ltd.
Newsome, D. and Moore, S. A., 2012. Natural area tourism: Ecology, impacts and
management (Vol. 58). Channel View Publications.
Ormiston, D. Gilbert, A. and Manning, R. E., 2008. Indicators and standards of quality for ski
resort management. Journal of Travel Research. 36(3). pp. 35-41.
Pickering, C. M. and Buckley, R. C., 2010. Climate response by the ski industry: the
shortcomings of snowmaking for Australian resorts. Ambio. 39(5-6). pp.430-438.
Raybould, M. and Wilkins, H., 2005. Over qualified and under experienced: Turning graduates
into hospitality managers. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management. 17 (3). pp.203 – 216.
Reid, D. R. and Bojanic, C. D., 2009. Hospitality Marketing Management. 5th ed. John Wiley
and Sons.
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Rishi, M. and Gaur, S. S., 2012. Emerging sales and marketing challenges in the global
hospitality industry: A thematic analysis of customer reviews from the world's top two
tourist destinations. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Theme. 4 (2). pp.131 – 149.
Tsai, H., Pan, S. and Lee, J., 2011. Recent research in hospitality financial management.
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Wood, C. R. and Brotherton, B., 2008. The SAGE Handbook of Hospitality Management. SAGE.
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