Customer Satisfaction and Retention Strategies in the Hotel Sector

This report presents a comprehensive study on enhancing customer satisfaction and retaining loyal customers within the hotel business, with a specific focus on a case study of Marriott. The research delves into the critical factors that influence customer satisfaction in hotels, identifies the challenges faced in meeting customer expectations, and evaluates the significance of employee satisfaction in delivering superior customer service. The report employs a detailed literature review, explores the research methodology including research philosophy, approach, design, data collection, and analysis. Through thematic analysis, the report provides actionable recommendations for improving customer satisfaction and fostering long-term customer loyalty within the hotel sector. The study addresses key research questions, assessing significant factors, identifying problems, and suggesting improvements, ultimately contributing valuable insights for hotel businesses aiming to optimize their customer relationships and drive sustained success.

A study of improving
customer satisfaction and
retaining loyal customers within
hotel business

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
Overview......................................................................................................................................1
Rationale of the research.............................................................................................................2
Aim of the research......................................................................................................................2
Objectives of the research............................................................................................................2
Research questions.......................................................................................................................3
Potential Significance of the study..............................................................................................3
Limitations of the research..........................................................................................................4
Dissertation structure...................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................6
2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................6
2.2 Importance of customer satisfaction......................................................................................6
2.3 Factors which are significant for customer satisfaction at hotel............................................8
2.4 Identification of the problems faced by hotels in satisfying customers.................................9
2.5 Evaluation of the problems faced by hotels in satisfying customers...................................11
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................13
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................13
3.2 Research philosophy............................................................................................................13
3.3 Research approach...............................................................................................................13
3.4 Research technique..............................................................................................................14
3.5 Research design...................................................................................................................15
3.6 Data collection.....................................................................................................................15
3.7 Data analysis........................................................................................................................16
3.8 Ethical consideration...........................................................................................................16
3.9 Validity and reliability.........................................................................................................17
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION........................................................................18
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................18
4.2 Thematic analysis................................................................................................................18
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.....................................................24
5.1 Conclusions..........................................................................................................................24

5.2 Recommendations................................................................................................................25
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................27

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Overview
Customers are considered to be the biggest asset of any organization. It not only assists a
business in achieving its framed objectives but also helps in strengthening the organization to the
core. It leads the company towards success (Blut and et.al., 2015). It helps in ascertaining that
whether the framed strategies of the company are able to fulfil the requirements and desires of
the customer or not. One of the main aspect of achieving customer satisfaction is having
effective strategies of serving customer prepared through the customer’s perspective. Another
important aspect of customer satisfaction is satisfaction and contentment of the employees. A
chunk of satisfied employees is able to deliver better services to its customer ultimately leaving
them happy and content with the kind of deliverables received (Zablah and et.al., 2016).
Hotel industry is one sector in the country which is very competitive. The competition
level in the market demands extra ordinary services from the side of service providers so as to
enhance the market share. It also helps in building competitive advantage over other companies
present in the market (Sengupta, Balaji and Krishnan, 2015). In that scenario, better marketing
practices being framed by the top-level management can help in serving the purpose in the most
effective manner. In the today’s world, hotels not only cater to the requirement of having a
shelter, that is, accommodation and food. but is able to serve more than that, such as,
personalized services. Other operational services of hotel include, housekeeping, security, food
and beverage division, etc. Travel and tourism sector is considered to play a major role in
development of hotel industry in the country. Since, majority of the profits by this sector is
achieved by tourism and tourist visiting the country. Researcher states that 4% of the total GDP
is received through hospitality industry of UK (Saeidi and et.al., 2015). There are approximately
9.6 thousand hotels that are operating in UK in 2016. Moreover, the statistics is constantly
increasing since 2008 in the country. In order to survive in this competitive market, it becomes
important for the organization to come up with the strategies that can capture large number of
market towards it. Moreover, product differentiation is one strategy that is used by the
organizations so that customer can prefer one hotel over other (Orel and Kara, 2014).
Another important aspect of hotel industry that can be analysed is that of customer
retention. When a customer arrives in a hotel, it becomes important for the management to give
long lasting experience so that they can be chosen over other hotels for the next time as well.
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Customer retention hence become an important aspect to retain its customers for longer period of
time and make them loyal towards a particular brand (Gera and et.al., 2017).
The present dissertation on study of improving customer satisfaction and retaining loyal
customers within hotel business will be able to research over the subject title in depth generating
better recommendations for the companies who are dealing in this sector.
Rationale of the research
It is important for any study to hold certain importance so that adequate output and benefit
can be generated out of it. The present study focusses on addressing the requirement of customer
satisfaction and retaining loyal customers within a hotel business. The findings of the study will
help in supporting and identifying various strategies that can be used by the hotel-oriented
organization so as to improve their satisfaction and retention level. Government is currently
focusing on strengthening the tourism sector as majority of the input in total Gross Domestic
Income happens to be contributed by tourism and hospitality sector of the country. Another
purpose of conducting this research is that researcher is not well versed with the concept of
customer satisfaction and retention. The present research will help in strengthening these
concepts and help the researcher academically as well.
Another important aspect of the present research is that it will also help in addressing the
issues that are presently faced by the hotels currently which is ultimately affecting its revenue
and economic growth aspects to the core (Han and Hyun, 2015). In this manner better
recommendations can be provided to the hotels so as to improve their strategies being prepared
by them with the aim to attract large number customers towards it. Hence, the present research
will be able to serve adequate amount of purposes through its objectives.
Aim of the research
The aim of present research is “A study of improving customer satisfaction and retaining
loyal customers within hotel business: A case study on Marriott.”
Objectives of the research
Based on the above aim, following objectives can be formulated:
 To assess the factors which are significant for customer satisfaction at hotel Marriott.
 To identify the problems faced by Marriott in satisfying customers.
 To evaluate the needs of employee satisfaction in regard to deliver better customer
services in Marriott hotel.
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 To give recommendations for improving customers satisfaction at hotel Marriott.
Research questions
Based on the framed objectives, following research questions can be formulated for the
present research:
 What are the factors which are significant for customer satisfaction at hotel Marriott?
 What are the problems faced by Marriott hotel in satisfying customers?
 What are the needs of employee satisfaction in regard to deliver better customer
services in hotel Marriott?
 What are the recommendation that can be given to Marriott for improving customers
satisfaction at hotel?
Potential Significance of the study
It is important for any organization which is involved in hotel industry to understand the
requirements of the customers. Studies have stated that satisfaction of the customer is the
outcome of marketing activities being prepared and presented to the customers by the
organization (Ennew, Binks and Chiplin, 2015). In order to improve profits and market share in
the competitive market, customer satisfaction is considered to be the major concern. However,
some of the organization are not aware of the strategies that can be used by them to serve this
purpose. In that scenario, display of adequate knowledge with respect to the subject matter can
help in delivering the best to them. The present study can come to rescue at that time and serve
the purpose of delivering adequate amount of knowledge regarding customer satisfaction and
retention.
Further, the present research holds adequate amount of importance of employee
satisfaction at the workplace as well. Since, it can be ascertained that a satisfied employee is able
to deliver better services to its customer than the unsatisfied one. Hence, it become important for
the organizations to ensure that adequate amount of attention is given to employees so that the
best service can be delivered by them. The present study will be able to present effective
arguments which can prove the importance of employee satisfaction in better deliverables to the
client (Agnihotri and et.al., 2016).
Another significant aspect that will be covered in the dissertation is various factors that
leads to client’s dissatisfaction. Rather than knowing what is appreciated by the client, it is
important to ascertain what is not appreciated by the client (Martinaityte, Sacramento and Aryee,
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2015). It helps in preparation of better strategies with the motive to attract large number of
customers towards it. The present study will be able to serve this purpose in an effective manner
so that better strategies can ultimately be recommended to the organizations of hotel industry.
Hotel industry is a dynamic sector that require changes in its strategies as per the changing
scenario of the customers. The trends, tastes and preferences being preferred by the customer
requires adequate research based on which actions can be taken by the organization. It also
ensures that the entity will be able to keep its market share high further leading to growth and
stability in the revenues as well. To cope up with this aspect of the results, it is important to
conduct a study that can help in enhancing the present strategies that are being followed by the
organizations belonging to this industry. Moreover, the research is also significant enough in
ascertaining the current trends of the market regarding customer satisfaction that can ultimately
lead to their retention for longer period of time as well. In the end, it can be stated that, it is
important and significant for the researcher to conduct the research on the stated topic.
Limitations of the research
No study can be perfect in every way and hence have to face certain constraint that may or
may not affect the ultimate results of the research. There are various limitations that are attached
to the present study that can be faced by the researcher while conducting it. Some of the common
constraints are mentioned below:
 Time: Duration is the biggest constraining factor since a specific duration is assigned to
conduct the task. In that case, it becomes difficult for the researcher to give adequate time to
each and every task involved in the research. It leads to deviations in the results ultimately
affecting the overall conclusion and recommendation aspects of the subject matter.
 Budget: A specific budget is assigned to the research so that all the aspects of the study are
covered in particular finances being assigned to each task. It can lead to bring discrepancies
in the results due to not conducting certain activities that can be out of the financial budget. Lack of availability of reliable data: Lack of availability of reliable data limits the scope of
the research. It is considered to be the significant obstacle for the research. There can be
certain data in the research which may not be reliable and some may not have been reached
due to restricted time and budget constraint. Fluency in the language: It is difficult to understand the language of the research paper
which may not be in the native or basic English language of the research. It may become
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difficult to analyse them. Hence, in that case, it can act as a barrier in reaching to an effective
and meaningful results.
 Lack of time to study the previous researches: Customer satisfaction is a broad topic and
may require adequate amount of time to explore the consequences of the previous research.
The meaningful data may be miss out due to these available constraints with the researcher.
Dissertation structure
It is important to have a proper structure to the dissertation so that adequate amount of
information and knowledge can be collected by the reader while going through the document.
Hence, the below format of dissertation will be followed by the research in this regard: Chapter 1: Introduction: It is the first and foremost chapter of the dissertation. It helps in
defining the aims and objectives of the research chosen by the research. Moreover, it is also
helpful in ascertaining the rationale and significance of the research. Chapter 2: Literature review: It is another important chapter of the research where research
that has already been conducted by the researcher is analysed. It helps in ensuring that right
type of reliable data is adopted in the present research. Chapter 3: Research methodology: This chapter plays a vital role in the research where
research design, philosophy, data collection methods, etc, are ascertained. The chapter is also
helpful in carrying out the research in effective manner so that appropriate conclusion can be
attained and recommendations can be extended. Chapter 4: Analysis and Evaluation: This chapter helps in analysing the data that has been
collected from the secondary research and ascertaining the results based on it. It also helps in
ensuring that effective results are presented to the readers in the end. Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations: It is the last and the most important chapter
of the research which carries the overall crux of the report. Moreover, it concludes the results
of aims and objectives being framed. Furthermore, the chapter will also present the
recommendation that can be extended to the readers of particular industry for effective
implementation of the strategies.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
After introduction, Literature review is considered to be an important chapter of the
research. It helps in analysing the researcher that have already been conducted by the researcher
on similar topics. Analysing the researches help in understanding various aspects of the stated
topic. In the present secondary research aspect, themes will be formulated that can ultimately
help in finding out and understanding the terms that are related to customer satisfaction and
retention of the customers. Hence, the literature review that will be discussed in the chapter will
directly to aligned to the topic. The main purpose of the research is to study improving customer
satisfaction and retaining loyal customers within hotel business. The literature review will focus
upon importance of customer satisfaction and factors affecting the same. In the end, evaluation
of various issues will be made that can be faced by hotel during its functions.
2.2 Importance of customer satisfaction
According to Zhou and et.al. (2014), customer satisfaction is the concept of understanding
that whether the expectations of the customer have been fulfilled through the demand and supply
of particular product or service. It can also be defined as the number of customers or the total
customers whose ratings exceeds the satisfaction goals of the customers or not. Customer
satisfaction is considered to be Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of how the business is doing at
the ground level and whether it is able to serve the expectations of the customers or not.
However, in contrast to this, as per the views of Zikmund and et.al. (2013), customer satisfaction
is considered to be an abstract concept which helps in measuring the degree of fulfilment of
expectation, the customer has received from a particular product or service. In order to gauge the
results on this topic, businesses commonly use customer surveys and feedback forms. It helps in
seeking the expectation that the customer tends to expect from the organization. It is helpful in
preparing strategies for the same accordingly. There are certain areas that commonly touched by
the companies are, quality of the product being offered, appropriate relationship between quality
of the product and price associated to it, atmosphere of the store, in terms of cleanliness and
staying experience, service issues such as, attentiveness, politeness and helpfulness of the staff,
convenience etc.
In the opinion of Talib, Rahman and Qureshi (2012), customer satisfaction tends to play an
important role in the operations of the business. It is a leading indicator of loyalty of the
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customers, identification of unhappy customers, reduction of churn and increase or decrease in
the revenue due to higher or lower customer satisfaction level. Higher level of customer
satisfaction is considered to be a key differentiation aspect based on which two organizations are
differentiated from each other. Higher customer satisfaction is also important in retaining the
customers for longer period of time. However, as per the views of Silverman (2013), the main
aim of high customer satisfaction is that it helps in reducing negative word of mouth regarding
the company. A survey was conducted by 200 senior marketing managers. Out of which, 71% of
the respondents indicated that customer satisfaction metric is a useful technique that can be used
to monitor and manage the business. Further, it also helps in initiating better strategies in the
organization to get higher score in satisfaction metric.
As per the opinion of Izogo and Ogba (2015), customer satisfaction is considered to be a
leading indicator of the intention of customers regarding repurchase. It also ascertains their
loyalty towards the organization. It is considered to be a key to build a long-term relationship
with the customers. The research states that if the customer is able to get positive experience
from the organization then there are 81% chances that he /she will want to experience the
product or services again. However, there are 95% of the customers who end to share their
negative experience with the organization with their family, friends and relating, creating a
negative word of mouth about it. However, as per the views of Kang and Park (2014), once the
entity is able to place trust in the minds and hearts of the customers, then in that case the
customer will be quite sure regarding doing business with it. It is important for the organization
to never ignore the concept of customer satisfaction. It has a great contribution in the success of
the business. It is important for the entity to track this factor and prepare strategies to improve it
so as to make the customers more loyal towards the brand. It helps in making the organization
recognizable within the target group.
In the views of Bowen and Chen McCain (2015), customer satisfaction helps the
organization to stand out from the competition. If the customer is satisfied then in that case he /
she will never move to the competitors to avail services. However, in case of negative
experience, it becomes impossible for the organization to regain the client in the market where
the competition level is already quite high. Positive customers lead to repeated transactions and
also receive a life time valued customer. The organization will be able to increase its brand value
and revenue as well. Hence, it is important for the organization to measure the level of
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satisfaction of the customers in specific intervals so that strategies and services of the
organization can be moulded accordingly. However, in contrast to this, as per the views of Hao
and et.al. (2015), level of customer satisfaction must not be neglected. It must exclusively be
planned by the team while deciding positioning and marketing campaign. Satisfied customer
keenly welcomes the organization with positive comments, compliments and delightful
memories from the association with the entity. Hence, it can be stated that providing better
customer service will be able to serve both the targets of the organization and expectations of the
customers. The more appropriate services are the more the organization will be able to earn
revenues. Hence, it is important to prepare strategies in such a manner that this purpose can be
served appropriately.
2.3 Factors which are significant for customer satisfaction at hotel
In accordance with Söderlund and Colliander (2015), it is not sufficient to attract new
customers but strategies must be prepared so as to retain the existing customers for a longer
period of time. Hence, effective implementation of strategies is required so that customers can be
served in a better manner that can bring loyalty and bring satisfaction to them. There is a direct
relation between customer satisfaction and hotel attributes. Facilities and services are the main
criteria based on which hotel is chosen or preferred by the customer. The main characteristics of
the products and services served in a hotel are, inseparable, intangible, perishable and variable. It
helps in ascertaining the expectations of the output from it. The attributes and features being
extended by the hotel can directly influence the customer that whether they will choose it over
other hotels or not. The chances for the preferences increases many folds if the services offered
by one hotel is different from the others. However, in contrast to this, asper the views of
Stathopoulou and Balabanis (2016), the events of becoming a loyal customer is higher if the
customer is highly satisfied with the services of the hotel. The services are an essential factor that
builds an image of the hotels and leaves a good impression on the minds of the service users.
Enhancement of customer loyalty is considered to be key aspect of enhancing the business.
Research have stated that cost value for money services is the one core reason that leave them
unsatisfied. Offering low quality products and services and charging high for the same increases
their dissatisfaction level because customer satisfaction is considered to be imperative part of any
business.
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According to Kaura, Durga Prasad and Sharma (2015), the main difficulty that is faced by
this sector is in continuously satisfying the customers in every go and also satisfy the
requirements of huge profits as well. Competition is the main reason that puts pressure on the
industry which compels the hotels to keep their prices low and also enhances the service quality.
So as to serve the purpose of low prices and high quality, it becomes important for the
organization to come up with their own unique manner that can help in achieving this aspect.
However, in comparison to this, as per the views of Radojevic, Stanisic and Stanic (2015),
employees play a major role in ensuring the requirements of the customers are met. Therefore,
proper training to them can help in serving this purpose. Moreover, feedback from the clients and
customers can also help in determining the service quality extension by the staff. The
competency of the staff members can be ascertained and based on which further duties can be
divided by the employer. It helps in delivering the best services to the end users. These elements
also assist in defining the quality elements of ideal employees of the organization.
In opinion to Ibrahim and Aliyu (2016), responsiveness of employees while handling the
requests of the customers also plays an important role in deriving the output of service quality.
The evaluation technique for the same can be handling of customer requests. Measurement of
responsiveness of the employee is the key criteria based on which effectiveness of the employees
and services extended by them can be ascertained. Another important aspect is speedy delivery
of the services. It assists in ascertaining that whether the needs and requirements of the
customers have been met on time or not. It shows the commitment of hotels towards them.
Responsiveness towards their willingness to handle the customer requests decides in large way
that whether the customer is satisfied with the services of the hotel or not. However, in
comparison to this, as per the views of Chung and et.al. (2015), it is worth noting that the level of
satisfaction may vary from customers to customers. The research states that some services may
not be appreciated by some customers and may be liked by the others. Subsequently, hotels are
required to customize their services appropriately in a manner that all the customers that arrive to
the hotels are satisfied with the services. Hence, it becomes important to have adaptive
employees and services that can meet the needs of the customers. Hence, customer loyalty and
retention is the aftereffect of the set of services being decided by offering the services in the
customized manner.
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