Cleaning Services Impact on Customer Satisfaction: Hilton Hotel Study

This research project critically analyzes the relationship between cleaning services and customer satisfaction within the UK hospitality industry, using Hilton Hotel as a case study. The study encompasses a detailed research proposal including the aim, objectives, research questions, and problem statement, followed by an extensive literature review exploring cleaning services, types of cleaning services, their role in customer satisfaction, and strategies for improvement. The methodology section outlines the research philosophy, approach, design, strategy, data collection methods, and analysis techniques, including thematic and statistical analysis (correlation coefficient). The report further includes data analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of results, culminating in a PowerPoint presentation of the research outcomes. The findings address the core research questions, offering insights into the impact of cleaning services on customer perception, satisfaction, and the overall success of the hotel. The project concludes with recommendations for improving cleaning services to enhance customer satisfaction and business performance.

Research project
(To critically analyze relationship between cleaning services
and customers satisfaction in a hospitality industry of UK: A
case study on Hilton hotel)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Task 1A: Research proposal............................................................................................................1
Introduction..................................................................................................................................1
Aim and objectives......................................................................................................................1
Research Question.......................................................................................................................1
Problem statement.......................................................................................................................2
Project rational.............................................................................................................................2
Task 1B: Literature review..............................................................................................................2
Cleaning services in hospitality industry.....................................................................................3
Types of cleaning services...........................................................................................................3
Role of cleaning services for customer satisfaction....................................................................5
Different strategies for improving cleaning services of hospitality industry..............................6
Research gap................................................................................................................................6
Task 1C: Research Methodlogy and Appropriate plan....................................................................7
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................7
Research approach.......................................................................................................................7
Design of research.......................................................................................................................7
Research strategy.........................................................................................................................8
Data collection methods..............................................................................................................8
Data collection Instruments.........................................................................................................9
Questionnaire...............................................................................................................................9
Sampling....................................................................................................................................11
Analysis of data.........................................................................................................................11
Validity and reliability of data...................................................................................................11
Timescale...................................................................................................................................12
Task 2A..........................................................................................................................................12
Use of resources to match research question.............................................................................12
Task 2B: Record and collect data..................................................................................................12
Task 3A: Data analysis..................................................................................................................13
Thematic analysis......................................................................................................................13
Statistical analysis (correlation coefficient)...............................................................................17
Task 3B: Intrepretation and Evaluation of the results...................................................................18
Task 4: Power point presentation of research outcomes...............................................................18
conclusion......................................................................................................................................19

references.......................................................................................................................................20
3 | P a g e

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Time scale for conducting investigation..........................................................................16

TASK 1A: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction
Hygiene and cleanliness are important in different types of business industries, but are
most required in hospitality industry. In hotels, restaurants and bars customers consider
cleanliness as a first priority because of health and safety issues (McMillan and Schumacher,
2014). So, providing appropriate cleaning services to their customers is one of the major
operation of every hospitality organization. But, Hilton hotel is facing the problem of low sales
due to the customer’s dissatisfaction towards some cleaning aspects. But, company is investing
huge amount of money in improving housekeeping and other cleaning services in organization.
So, author wants to determine the actual relation of cleaning services of Hilton hotel and level of
customer’s satisfaction. The current study will follow a very systematic process of investigation
which will comprise literature review, research methodology and data analysis process.
Aim and objectives
Aim:
“To critically analyze relationship between cleaning services and customers satisfaction
in a hospitality industry of UK: A case study on Hilton hotel”.
Objectives:
 To identify different types of cleaning services of Hilton hotel.
 To critically analyze the role of cleaning services in satisfaction of customers at Hilton
hotel.
 To determine that whether Hilton hotel is providing effective cleaning services to its
customers or not.
 To recommend appropriate strategies for improving cleaning services at Hilton hotel.
Research Question
1. What is the major relationship between cleaning services and customers satisfaction
Hilton hotel?
2. What are the major types of cleaning services of Hilton hotel?
3. What is the major role of cleaning services in satisfaction of customers of Hilton hotel?
4. What are the major strategies for improving cleaning services of Hilton hotel?
1 | P a g e

Problem statement
Low sales and decline in the number of customers of Hilton hotel is one of the major
problem (Hilton hotel, 2015). Customers of this company are making complains of some
cleaning services of Hilton hotel. Company is investing money in maintaining cleanliness but
still in some section customers are doing complains. So, for resolving this issue Hilton hotel
needs to focus on improving cleaning services quality. Organization needs to assure about that
existing housekeeping staff and other employees of this department must have appropriate skills
and knowledge about how to maintain clean environment in a hospitality industry. Along with
this they have to pay attention towards the needs and requirement of customers (Hospitality &
Hotel Cleaning, 2015). So, for resolving this, issue and determining link between customer’s
satisfactions cleaning services author has conducted current investigation.
Project rational
Low sales and inappropriate cleaning services of Hilton hotel is one of the major issue of
this research. Hilton hotel is maintaining the major services of cleaning but does not pay
attention towards the minor aspects of the same. So, it is serious issue for company and increases
the scope of customer’s complain. For getting solution of the research problem author has
decided to conduct study on this subject. For resolving this issue research will focus on cleaning
services of Hilton hotel and customer’s perception towards the same (The Importance of Quality
Hotel Cleaning, 2015).
TASK 1B: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review can be determined as the assessment of information recovered from the
area of study. In other words, it provides the background study which has to be done in the
research. It evaluates, summarises and clarifies this literature. It can also be determined as the
synopsis or summary or entire research and helps the supervisor to determine that researcher is
on right track or not (Radojevic, Stanisic and Stanic, 2015). This research would aim at critically
analysing relationship between cleaning services and customers satisfaction in the hospitality
industry in UK.
This research would cover different types of cleaning services which can be adopted in
hospitality sector. Further, it covers critically analysis roles of cleaning services in satisfaction of
customers. Moreover, it determines whether cited hospitality industry is providing effective
2 | P a g e

cleaning services to its customers. Lastly, it also recommends appropriate strategies for
improving cleaning services in hospitality sector.
Cleaning services in hospitality industry
According to Alvarez and Hatipoğlu, 2014, “customers prefer to visit those places more
which provide them with healthy environment” (Alvarez and Hatipoğlu, 2014). According to my
view point cleanliness plays important role in attracting customers and in developing trust and
confidence among the customers. In this context, it is essential for hospitality industry to spend
highly so that they would be able to provide adequate services to their customers. On the other
hand, Prud’homme and Raymond, 2013, states that “in today's world people are very concious
about their health and they expect to get clean and healthy environment so that they could save
themselves form illness” (Prud’homme and Raymond, 2013). There are many basic things which
should be followed by the employees in hospitality industry. In this context, it is the
responsibility of management to look after that their employees wear gloves, clean the table
properly, wash plates, cleaning up the dust, etc. However, Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013, states
that “most of the business in hospitality industry rely on support and cleaning services so as to
meet quality targets and making the customers happy” (Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013) For
maintaining cleanliness housekeeping plays vital roles in hospitality industry. As to provide
better services and cleanliness to customers, employees are provided with training so that they
understand the different ways through which they could provide healthy environment to
customers. In hospitality sector, for making the job comfortable management has divided the
roles and responsibilities to employees in different aspects. There are different functions if we
talk about hotels in specific. As hotel has kitchen, rooms, and hall in which customers have their
food, reception, etc. (Kim, Vogt and Knutson, 2015). In all the area's, management focus on
maintaining employees in each area who would look after the cleanliness. These employees are
provided with training so that they understand their roles and responsibilities more clearly and
effectively.
Types of cleaning services
There are many types of cleaning services and each of the services are very important.
According to Maggioni, Marcoz and Mauri, 2014 “there are four types of cleaning services
which are House cleaning, Kitchen cleaning, carpet cleaning and office cleaning” (Maggioni,
3 | P a g e

Marcoz and Mauri, 2014). Each and every services has their own importance and benefits and do
play vital role in increasing customer satisfaction.
House cleaning: It is the responsibility of housekeeper to look after the house and keep the
house clean. In the context of hospitality industry and more specifically in hotel, there are
housekeeper whose main aim is to keep the room of the customers clean and to provide all the
requirement by customers. According to Ong, 2012 “housekeeper are one how can make
difference between reputed hotels and hotel in which customers are not likely to visit” (Ong,
2012). “Primary duty of these housekeepers are to ensure that the thing in the room are placed in
right places and order” (Sarkar, Au and Law, 2014) Further, they ensure that the room is clean
and all the thing provided by the firm is are in working condition or not. So as to ensure that
housekeeper are performing their roles effectively, they are managed by a manager who make
sure that perform their roles effectively.
Kitchen cleaning: Riley, 2014, states that for “attracting customers providing healthy and
nutritious food is very important” (Riley, 2014). It is very important for chiefs to look after the
cleanliness of kitchen. They should be responsible to wear gloves in their hands. “They should
clean all the equipments which are used in preparing food, the base on which food is made, etc.”
(Hoque, 2013). In addition to this, “it is essential that the quality level of food and services
should be maintained and customers should be satisfied.” In order to look after the kitchen there
are head Chief who would look after the other chiefs.
Carpet cleaning: According to Hargreaves, 2015, “carpets play an important role on customers,
whether they liked or disliked the hotel” (Hargreaves, 2015). “Floors gives or develop a first
impression among the mind of the customers” (Borkar, S. and Koranne, 2014). On the other
hand, Radojevic, Stanisic and Stanic, 2015, “However, when it comes to rooms of the hotel, then
carpets in the room develops last impression among the mind of the customers” (Radojevic,
Stanisic and Stanic, 2015) According to a survey, “it was found that guest get fully satisfied
when management of hotel keep clean and attractive carpets.”
Office cleaning: It is very essential for the hotel to maintain their reception and office.
According to Alvarez and Hatipoğlu, 2014, “reception is the face of the hotel where customers
gets to notice first. Both reception and office should be maintained and should be kept clean”
(Alvarez and Hatipoğlu, 2014) In this context, reception is the main part which affects the
perception of the customers.
4 | P a g e

Role of cleaning services for customer satisfaction
“Customers are satisfied when their needs and wants are satisfied” (Prud’homme and
Raymond, 2013). In this context, it is very essential for the management to understand the
requirements and accordingly they could make changes in their services. Following are the roles
which are played by cleaning services in satisfying customers:
Understanding and satisfying customer’s needs: It is very essential for the services providers to
understand the needs and accordingly there should focus provide services which would satisfy
them. Mainly customers prefer to get services which would not affect their health. In this
context, it is very essential for the cleaning services to understand their customers’ requirements
and accordingly they would be satisfied.
Changing customers perception: According to Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013, “customers
perception changes according to what they are provided and what they are shown” (Boella and
Goss-Turner, 2013) On the other hand, Kim, Vogt and Knutson, 2015, “they are very keen to
accept any service which would not affect their health” (Kim, Vogt and Knutson, 2015) Cleaning
services should focus on providing health services so that they would be able to maintain good
perception of customers.
Attraction of customers: “Providing satisfaction is through delivering services which would help
them attract customers” (Maggioni, Marcoz and Mauri, 2014) “The only way to attract
customers is by fulfilling all the needs which would satisfy them” (Ong, 2012) Training plays a
vital role in understanding the roles and responsibilities effectively and accordingly they would
be able to satisfy their customers’ needs and wants easily.
Feedback: “Taking feedbacks are very helpful in understanding the areas in which services
providers lack” (Sarkar, Au and Law, 2014) “Service users are the one who closely know the
drawback” (Riley, 2014) In order to understand the customers’ needs more closely feedbacks are
very helpful. Accordingly, they could provide services which would be helpful to satisfy them.
Image of the company in terms of cleaning services: “Cleanliness is the first thing which
customers notices” (Hargreaves, 2015). Management should be very careful in providing
customers with healthy environment. “In context with hotel, cleanliness should start from
reception itself” (Borkar and Koranne, 2014) When customers enter the hotel, which they feel or
see first, they make a perception out of it and based on the perception it is made up that whether
they would visit again or not.
5 | P a g e

Different strategies for improving cleaning services of hospitality industry
There are many strategies which could be adopted by hospitality industry in order to
improve cleaning services. Following are few of the strategies:
Rewarding employees: According to Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013, “employees are the soul of
an organisation” (Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013) In order to improve cleanliness, management
can provide reward through which employees would work with more efficiency. On the other
hand, Kim, Vogt and Knutson, 2015, states that providing reward is one of the best way to
motivate employees and in improving the efficiency level (Kim, Vogt and Knutson, 2015).
Hiring right employees: It is very important for the management select employees who would be
capable enough to take understand the needs and wants of the customers effectively.
Management should be able to select capable and should be able to analyse skills so that they
would be able provide proper satisfaction to the customers (Hargreaves, 2015). In this context, it
is very important for the management to focus on selecting a procedure with the help of which
they would be able to select capable candidates for their organization.
Providing equipments: Equipments like dishwasher, dryer, etc. should be provided by the
management so that employees would be able to provide better services to their customers.
“Equipment makes the work more easy and comfortable” (Borkar and Koranne, 2014)
Management should spend more on cleanliness of their organization so that they could attract
customers effectively. “In modern world, there are equipment available for each and every thing
and it is the responsibility of the organization to make available those equipments so that they
would be able to attract more and more customers and could be satisfied easily” (Alvarez and
Hatipoğlu, 2014).
Providing training: According to Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013, “training makes employees
enhance their skills, work with more efficiency and they would be able to clear their roles and
responsibilities which the help of which they would be able provide better services” (Boella and
Goss-Turner, 2013) In this context, employees would be able to better understand their
customers and provide them better services accordingly.
Research gap
This research would critically analyse the relationship between cleaning services and
customers satisfaction in a hospitality industry of UK. Earlier, there where researches conducted
6 | P a g e

on understanding the customer's satisfaction, cleaning services, etc. But till know the relationship
between cleaning services and customers satisfaction in hospitality sector has not been
conducted. This research would be helpful for the reader.
TASK 1C: RESEARCH METHODLOGY AND APPROPRIATE PLAN
Research methodology can be defined as a systematic process which includes different
tools and techniques for conducting whole investigation in effective manner. For analyzing
cleaning services of hospitality industry of UK researcher will use the most suitable research
methods which are described as under:
Research philosophy
Philosophy of research can be defined as a paradigm which plays very significant role in
collecting and analyzing data to get appropriate solutions for every research question. There are
two types of philosophies positivism and intrepretivism. For analyzing cleaning services of
Hilton hotel, author will apply positivism research paradigm. It will be applied by author because
it focuses on research objectives rather than subjectivity of the project topic (Sunil and et.al,
2014). Along with this, it is a quantitative approach which will help in getting appropriate data to
make realistic assumptions for attaining objectives.
Research approach
Approach of the research plays important role in determining that whether study should
move towards specific content or not. There are two types of research approaches; inductive and
deductive. As per the objective of current research, author wants to conduct specific
investigation on cleaning services of Hilton hotel. So, inductive approach will be suitable for
attaining this objective. It will be significant for present investigation because it will help in
stating a new theory on relationship between cleaning services and customer’s satisfaction.
Inductive research approach focuses on the research questions rather than hypothesis (Kriz,
Gummesson and Quazi, 2013). Therefore, by using this approach, research will get appropriate
solution for every research question.
Design of research
Research design means a blue print of the investigation which develops the most
appropriate plan for whole study. There are three types of research designs; descriptive,
7 | P a g e

exploratory and casual. Relationship between cleaning services and satisfaction of customers is a
subjective aspect so, author will apply descriptive research design for whole investigation. It will
be used by researcher because it helps in collecting qualitative as well as quantitative data. It
includes survey methodology, observation and case study analysis for data collection process
(Daniel and Sam, 2011). Therefore, by using descriptive research design, author can resolve
research problem in effective manner.
Research strategy
Every researcher needs to adopt suitable strategy for conducting investigation in most
appropriate manner. There are two types of research strategy qualitative and quantitative. For the
current investigation, author will use a combined strategy which will include both qualitative and
quantitative methods. Qualitative research strategy will help in analyzing the quality and
effectiveness of cleaning services of Hilton hotel and perception of customers towards these
services. These are subjective and theoretical subjects (Gay, Mills and Airasian, 2011). On the
other hand, quantitative strategy will play important role in determining relationship between
cleaning services and satisfaction level of customers. Along with this, combined strategy will be
significant for analyzing facts and figures in effective manner.
Data collection methods
The current investigation is based on cleaning services of hospitality industry of UK. In
addition, study will also focus on connection of cleaning department of Hilton hotel with
satisfaction of needs and requirements of customers. So, in these aspects, author will use primary
and secondary methods of data collection. For collecting new, fresh and current information of
cleaning services and customer’s satisfaction level, researcher will use primary data collection
methods. Study will apply online questionnaire survey methodology for gathering primary data.
On the other hand, secondary data collection process will help in obtaining historical findings
which have been already disclosed by past researchers on similar subjects. It will be conducted
by reviewing available literature (Li, Zhao and Chen, 2012). Consequently, by implementing
primary and secondary data collection methods, researcher will obtain all necessary information
which will resolve research problem in appropriate way.
8 | P a g e