TLH339 Service Quality in International Tourism & Hospitality

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of service quality management within the international tourism and hospitality sector, focusing on the Park Avenue Hotel as a case study. It critically evaluates the main theories and principles of managing service quality, emphasizing the importance of measuring service quality to meet customer expectations, increase standards, and reduce competition. The report also appraises the management of service quality at the Park Avenue Hotel, examining its impact on staff engagement and motivation. Furthermore, it determines a suitable Customer Feedback System (CFS) framework for the organization to monitor and continually improve its service quality, utilizing models like SERVQUAL (RATER) and principles such as customer focus, leadership, people involvement, and a systematic approach to management. The analysis underscores the need for effective decision-making and the adoption of appropriate strategies to enhance the hotel's work environment and deliver superior customer experiences.

TLH339 Service
Quality - International
Tourism and Hospitality
Management Top-up

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................................3
A critical evaluation of the main theories and principles of managing service quality...............3
Justify the importance of measuring service quality..................................................................3
Critical appraisal of Management of quality of services of Park Avenue hotel by ascertainment of
impact on engagement and motivation of staff...........................................................................7
Determination of the Customer Feedback System (CFS) framework that the organisation can
utilise to monitor and continually improve service quality.......................................................10
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................14
REFERENCE.....................................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is changing with market trends and level of competition. Service
quality is defined as comparison of expectation of customer and with company performance.
International tourism and hospitality management has widen and changed (Stoyanova, 2017). In
market, customer focuses on good service quality as they pay for acquisition of that service. In
hospitality sector, it is crucial for organisation to provide and meet the customer expectations as
well as demands so that customer relationship management is maintained properly. Main aim of this
report is to understand the international tourism sector and their service quality. Park Avenue Hotel,
which is four star hotel headquartered in UK. The hotel is infrastructure is equipped with modern
architecture, 100 rooms, well organised management. This hotel is being known for its providing
ample number of services, facilities which is provided them to end users or guests. This report
comprises of theories,principles of managing service quality, appraisal of management of service
quality, impact of service delivery practices and customer feedback system.
MAIN BODY
A critical evaluation of the main theories and principles of managing service quality.
Justify the importance of measuring service quality.
Service quality is essential part of every organisation without which objectives of firm
cannot be achieved. It refers to comparison between perceived expectation and perceived
performance of a service (Teshnizi, 2018). It is crucial for every entity to provide good quality of
service so that firm goodwill increases in market. With rise of competition, demand and needs of
end users has also been changed. It is crucial for hotels, resorts, to be aware about the their standard
of service so that according to which decision making done regarding improvement of weak areas.
Further more, it is necessary to use theories and principles for better delivering of quality to
customers.
Importance of managing service quality
Customer expectations- It is important to measure and manage SQ because it assist in
analysing what is actual requirement of customers from enterprise. Also, it help in understanding
and meeting up with their expectations in appropriate manner. In relevance with Park Avenue Hotel,
they need to be deliver high quality of service which will be helpful for managing the end users
expectations (Nazir, 2017). Through this, correct decisions are taken regrading production,
advertisement, promotion etc.

Increases standards- Hospitality industry has a broad range of functions & operations. By
focusing on their quality of service it will be easier for them to increase their standards which is
beneficial for growth as well as development. In business, standards play crucial role in analysing
of value of a product or service.
Reduces competition- SQ is also important because it helps enterprise to reduce
competition by providing highly satisfied quality to customers. Moreover, it assist in overall
development or growth at larger scale. In reference with given hotel, by examining their level of
quality they will be able to deal with their competitors in most efficient manner (Kang, 2017). With
rise of competition in market, it has become necessary to focus on such quality so that more
consumers are attracted towards business.
Reduced amount of risks: Further, Continuous level of measuring service quality help in
maintaining the significant level of services. This is because this will provide an opportunity to
timely identify incumbencies & remove same so nothing harmful will happen in future (Soo Park,
2019). So, the behaviour of continuous level measuring assist in maintenance of significant level
offerings and services that resultant into minimisation of risks and other future performance
associated challenges
Managing quality is a critical task which require deep level of knowledge, skills and
expertise. To measure or manage SQ, models and theories are used by organisations with
appropriate measures and decision.
Theories & principles of service quality management
In management, there are ample number of theories as well as principles which are used by
entities to manage SQM. These are explained below-
SERVQUAL MODEL-

It is most commonly used framework in which it is used for measuring standard of quality
of service. It assist in analysing the gap between expectations of customer & experience. This,
model is useful for analysing standards quality of service. Further, quality is analysed by
segmenting the end users into different sectors through rating or scores (Knuuti, 2019). It assist
entity to assess service quality performance by analysing every dimensions. In relation with Park
Avenue Hotel, they also uses this model with appropriate market research. It in includes several
components (RATER) which are discussed below-
Reliability- It refers to capability of an entity to focus on delivering the same quality as
which was offered in their portfolio. It is difficult to maintain this level of reliability at every
department of organisation. In relevance with The Park Avenue Hotel, they failed to deliver this
reliability due to lack of skilled employees and work load (Nasr, 2018). So, correct use of decision
making process is needed to be carried out in such a way that reliability is maintained accordingly.
Main area which are to be focused by customers are consistency, timeliness, accuracy. If end users
report that firm have a reliability issue, it means that company has failed to deliver as promised on
service, or it could mean that customers misunderstood what the actual service is.
Assurance- It depicts the credibility of personnel to deal with end users problems, issues
which they faced during process. With help of assurance, it is possible develop trust for customers
so that they have proper trust in services which are offered by firm. In relevance with given firm,
manager of hotel is responsible for this assurance aspect. By focusing on assurance it is easy to
solve end users issues by understanding their actual needs.

Tangibles- This component is being considered as most important one because it is related
with physical appearance of organisation. It is crucial because it have a direct impact in market and
in the minds of customers. In context with undertaken enterprise, they have a good modern
architecture of hotel which attracts customers in easier way. Moreover, they have a ample number
of facilities with good images, paintings equipment etc. Through this, they are able to attract &
influence more end users for their business. Also, these tangibles influence more business
opportunities at wider scale. Tangibles includes physical touch like, amenities, design & look etc.
Further, in terms of hotel industry they have uniformed staff, restrooms, etc. (Saadatfar, 2017).
Empathy- It refers to the degree to which caring, love, respect is being provided by entity
to their customers, clients guests. In reference with chosen enterprise, they need to focus in this
elements such as by improving employees communication skills, establishing of positive
environment etc. It leads to development of mutual respect between both parties. Empathy results
in developing coordination & mutual understanding between employees/ end users. By showing
empathy, issues are resolved in most effective manner. Moreover, it will help in examining of every
one point of perspectives.
Responsiveness- It is defined as intensity or level of subordinates to deal with customers
problem, issues and deliver them with high level of satisfaction. In context with The Avenue Park
Hotel, they need to active regarding end users experience, problem they faced during stay in hotel
etc. Through this, they are able to improve their hotel standards and management quality of work. It
also depicts how fast employees manages problems of personnel (Klapalová, 2019). It is essential
to react in proper way whenever a individual find any problem during their service process.
Thus, after analysing above matter it is seen that they are able this SERVQUAL model
assist hotel in enhancing their work environment which results in delivering of better experience to
end users. It is duty of manager to make ensure that SQM is carried out by properly following
research analysis, models & appropriate use of theories. To use RATER, proper decision making
with proper measurement is required.
Principles of managing service quality
Customer focus- The first main principle of SQM is customer focus which depicts that it is
necessary for businesses to analyse customer's demands so what and when they need. By following
this principle, they are able to meet up with expectations properly (Bejar, 2020). Without this
principle, it is not possible for entity to achieve objectives, or use their resources efficiently. As
end users focus is examined, it become more easy to implement strategies, gain competitive
advantage, access new opportunities.

Leadership- Then , further one is that it is crucial for organisation to direct and guides
employees in most effective way so that resources, skills and decisions are carried out in
appropriately. In reference with selected entity, they use bureaucratic leadership style which focused
on completion of work by following rules and regulation set by superior authorities (Kansra, 2016).
Thus, it is duty of manager to assure that appropriate leadership style is being used for
accomplishing positive results. Without of leadership, it is difficult to monitor, regulate employees
at work place. Without the use of leadership it is not possible to manage or measure anything in
management.
People involvement- Further comes the involvement of people in entity to deliver high
quality of service. This principle states that it is crucial to pay attention to effectiveness as it results
in elimination of use of waste resources & leads to improvement in service delivery. By involving
people, it is easy to generate new ideas and thoughts which is beneficial for maintaining the service
delivery process or quality. As there is well structured and organised processes, it is possible to
make decisions effectively & carry out work properly. With more people involvement, it is easy to
manage every role & responsibility with proper way.
Systematic approach to management- This states that when service is being delivered,
management activities & other processes are to be used as a system so that systematic processes are
carried out (Osborne, 2017).With this use of systematic approach to management, demands are
being analysed in correct way. In hotel industry, multiple processes are carried out which results in
increase of better efficiency level. It is necessary to carry out everything in systematic way for
better results.
Therefore, the above stated paragraph states that principles of SQM are crucial to be
examined so that everything is being done in proper way. With help of these principles, service is
delivered in correct way. Also, they guides as well as direct how to manage processes to deliver
quality of services. Hence, to apply them appropriate ways are to be adopted for accomplishing
common objectives.
Critical appraisal of Management of quality of services of Park Avenue hotel by ascertainment of
impact on engagement and motivation of staff
Service quality is a tool that is used to understand the expectation of customers and then
comparing it according to execution in organisation. Service quality is a aspect that is having high
focus on meeting of the requirement of target segment of customers (Uddin, , Mahmood and Fan,
2019). It is also going to help in meeting the overall customer expectations that are necessary for
managing and delivering of services. Respective organisation has to focus on high quality of

products and services to manage and deliver high quality products. Service quality is a attribute that
is part of hospitality sector and provides a opportunity to achieve a sustainable benefit and higher
customer confidence in comparison with other competitors that are part of external market. It leads
to better opportunities to deal with other rivalries who are offering high competition. This hotel
delivers effective quality facility to target audiences and service quality is considered the life of the
hotel. Service quality includes of three dimensions such as physical facilities, staff and materials. It
also categorised into two aspects such as functional quality and technical quality. Moreover
respective business venture also offers quality services and practices to its employees with the
purpose of motivating and engaging them with the firm. For motivating employees, the
management of enterprise organise motivational sessions so that employees can inspire and perform
their work with more effectiveness and provide their contribution in the establishment till long term
Managerial implications:
It is the responsibility of management in Park avenue hotel to take timely measures to tackle
all the issues that are part of management. For this there are some efforts on part of management to
handle improper functioning that is taking place in the organisation.
Personalisation: It is the responsibility of management of Park avenue hotel to ensure that
there are personalised services that are being offered to customers. The high quality services with
changes according to specific customers will be very helpful in addressing with issues like longer
waiting lines, lack of competent workforce are some of commonly felt problems that have to be
dealt in order to provide personalised services top customers. Personalization is powerful tool which
is to be used in most efficient manner. By focusing on this, it attracts more ned users towards entity
& enhance trust of end users at wider scale. Moreover, it assist in understanding needs of customer
in proper manner. Also, through this personalization it is possible to differentiate brand from
competitors. It is duty of manager to make assure that this service is provided to customers in
appropriate measures.
Empowerment of employees: it is very crucial for organisation specially in case of service
sector to to enhance employee empowerment. For this there can be adoption of several motivation
tools that can help in increasing the present level of employee motivation. It is necessary to
empower subordinates so that work and goals are achieved in proper way. Without empowerment, it
is difficult to motivate employees and to get the work done on deadline. In relevance with given
entity, they can use this by implementing effective strategies & tactics. By appropriate use of tools
like, trust empowerment can be established amongst employees at wider scale.
Such as in Present case study of Park avenue hotel it can be seen that management is not
making adequate efforts for enhancing empowerment or motivation of employees. The major issues
that have been identified by the staff members are that there are no proper reward schemes or

achieve empowerment of staff (Byrne, Hayes and Holcombe, 2017). Management is also not able
to value the workforce, further only 50 percent of the total staff has been employed on a part time
basis so they are making limited contribution towards their assigned roles and job duties.
Complaints are also in relation to minimum amount of wages, bureaucratic Management style and
low level of empowerment. Training measures have also not been properly adopted by the
organisation as it just lasts for a period of one week so there is no long term association. This is the
Present situation that is there have been adequate standards that are being set by the management of
park avenue hotel there has been no proper compliance to any such measures.
Impact over workforce: When organisation is not able to provide enough individual
development opportunity to staff members they get highly demotivated. This is also a major reason
for underperformance of many employees (Stoyanova and Iliev, 2017). Further even if some of
them are making required contribution then there are lot of complaints because of the bureaucratic
style of management. This denotes that there is no consideration of employees views & opinions in
any type of decisions that are being made by the top management in organisations. It also results in
decreasing morale of subordinates which have direct impact on their work. Therefore, with deep
analysis of personnel progress level, there work efficiency can be determined easily which is
beneficial for enterprises to analyse those factors which affects the workforce at deeper level.
Impact on employee engagement: Employee engagement is regarded as a emotional
commitment of employee for the organisation or leaders that are associated with the organisation.
There is high contribution when employee engagement level is high as employees are contributing
maximum according to the level of competence (Osborne and Hammoud, 2017) . For the purpose
of having higher level of employee engagement Park avenue hotel has to focus on incorporation of
strategy that will help in enhancement of contribution of employees and employee engagement.
There are certain ways that can be used by Park avenue hotel in order to enhance the level of
employee engagement in organisation.
Encouragement of flexibility: for purpose of enhancing employee engagement there is need
to ensure that employees are provide required flexibility at workplace. So that they are able to
adjust their schedules and way of working according to their needs. If there is no flexibility in firm,
than it is not easy to engage subordinates in working environment. In reference with chosen hotel,
they should provide flexibility to departments so that engagement activities are carried out
effectively. By encouraging it and using it in correct way positive results are accomplished. Thus, it
is necessary to establish flexible structure within business so that subordinates work efficiently.
Promotion of training programs: There are two types of training that can be organised by
management to ensure individual development. Such as application of on the job training and on
the job training. Park avenue hotel can consider the option of on the job training as it is going to

help employees to not compromise with their exiting job roles & duties along with this they can
develop themselves for performing increased responsibilities (Nazir and Islam, 2017). Also, there
is a problem of understaffing that is lower number of staff according to requirement. If employees
are well trained then this issue can be handled properly as limited employees can perform several
job roles at a particular point of time. When training is conducted, personnel are able to access their
inner capabilities, weak areas which they improve. In relevance with undertaken enterprise, they
should use most appropriate training approaches so that subordinates understand their roles as well
as responsibilities. Because, these methods help them in recruitment of staff which is beneficial for
increasing staff or number of personnel. Training programmes assist in developing skills of every
individual. These programmes are beneficial for improvement and advanced learning opportunities.
Employee focussed culture: Management of park avenue has to focus on development of a
balanced lifestyle at workplace. For this employees who are appointed for fill time must be
provided timely breaks so that they are not getting over utilised and frustrated because of high work
pressure. Specially at times when there is no peak season employees should be offered leaves that
can help them in getting more motivated to perform their job duties in a better way. People focussed
culture is a great tool that can help in enabling a proper balanced working environment (Kang, and
Sung, 2017). Employees will feel more value, a sense of camaraderie will be developed that is
going to lead towards a positive impact on the level of employee engagement.
From above discussed information it can be said that management of Park avenue hotel
there is need to ensure that employees are motivated and they are actively taking part in the process
of decision making. It will help in taking increasing the level of employee engagement that can lead
to delivering of quality services to customers. Focussing on employee satisfaction level will help a
lot in reduction of all issues that are faced by customers in Park Avenue hotel.
Determination of the Customer Feedback System (CFS) framework that the organisation can utilise
to monitor and continually improve service quality
Customer feedback system is the information that is provided by customers related to
experience of services and products offered by a organisation. Motive is to understand the
satisfaction level of customers and providing assistance related to products. It is related with
information, singsongs, issues & information that is hared with customers related to particular
business organisation. Customer feedback is very crucial specially in case of service sector
organisation to work towards improvement of their product quality and services so that there can be
building up of a positive brand image (Knuuti, 2019). There are different ways that can help in
understand customer feedbacks that can be used by management of park Avenue hotel to work
towards improvement of service quality & achievement of competitive advantage.

There are different types of methods that can be adopted by Park avenue hotel that can help
them in developing a detail overview of the products and services qualities (Nasr,, Burton and
Gruber, 2018). There are different methods that can help in taking timely feedbacks so that there
can be efforts towards improvement of service quality & help in attracting of large number of
customers. These methods included feedback survey, social media applications, instant feedback
via online available websites, exploratory customer interviews. All are different ways that can help
in getting timely feedbacks and help Park Avenue in enhancement of quality of their services. These
are some ways that lead to development of competitive advantage for a organisation.
Customer feedback system basically helps a organisation in developing insights about view
points of customers and clients in a better manner (Klapalová, 2019). This system has been
designed to encourage Customers and provide a platform where they are able to share their views,
opinions, thoughts related to services and products. In the present case study of Park Avenue hotel
there is a need of system that is to be designed to analyse several issues that are being faced by their
customers. Common issues that are faced by customers consist of issue of poor quality, no proper
information available on online site, no response of customer care services etc. all are some of
issues that can posses a negative impact on the existing brand image of a organisation and thus lead
to dissatisfaction of customers. For purpose of dealing with these issues there is need of a proper
customer feedback that can help in increasing the present customer base. In order to develop a
proper customer feedback system there is need to consider some of the stages in Park Avenue hotel
in order to enhance and work towards improvement of their overall quality. These steps are
mentioned below:
Step 1: Using multiple platforms: It is one of most crucial aspect that sets the initial stage of
the customer feedback system. In this there has to be creation of a social media page such as on
Facebook, Instagram, own website of the organisation (Saadatfar, 2017). These are some of the
most commonly available platforms that can be easily accessible by customers & the management.
There is need by the management of Park avenue hotel to create page on such social media
platforms that can help in getting insights about customer opinions and reaction on different aspects
of services. Such platforms are also very helpful in updating regular information about the changes
that are taking place in hotel. These platforms can be easily accessed by present and prospective
customers so that they can easily share their view points that can be both positive or negative.
These feedbacks are very crucial in developing a insights to hotel about the need of improvement in
quality of services. There will be timely identification of all the gaps between set standards and
Present level of performance.
Stage 2: Notification: It is the second stage in which customer feedback system is used on a
regular basis. In this stage the complete feedback system will be used to get the daily basis

notification of customer views (Nagarajan, Thirunavukarasu and Shanmugam, 2018). All the
feedbacks that will be taking place at a single platform, further all these will be reviews timely by
the management of Park avenue hotel to review each comment to understand customer notion
behind it in order to take necessary actions to deal with these feedbacks. In service industry such
feedbacks are very crucial to evaluate customer feedback and take timely actions to deal with them.
It helps organisation in enhancement of the quality of their services and improvement of existing
brand image for customers. These timely actions are also very helpful in improvement of brand
image for customers and in the market as compared to other competitors. With help of notification,
they will be able to aware about regular issues or challenges which are faced by end users.
Stage 3: Solutions: This is the third stage in which after there has been a in depth analysis
of the problem there is requirement to generate a solution that can help in taking of timely
feedbacks. In Park avenue hotel there will be work towards improvement of quality of services for
which there will be market survey in order to identify the wants and needs of Customers. This is
going to help in fulfilling specific customer requirements. In case of some serious issues there has
to be customised solutions so that overall level of customer satisfaction can be maintained for long
term. It is essential to provide solution for the occurred issue so that improvement is done in
appropriate manner.
Above discussed three stage customer feedback system will help Park avenue hotel in
working towards improvement of quality of their services. There are lot of advantages of this
system of customer feedback that is discussed below:
Getting detail overview about customer needs: Customer feedback system is very crucial
for Park avenue Hotel as it is going to help in understand the problems faced by customers. In the
provided case study there have been issues where customers have complaints that they do not have
a proper system and a platform that can help their customers to communicate about the problems
that they are facing (Celuch, and Robinson, 2016). This system will be very helpful in providing a
common platform that is easily approachable and will lead to addressing of customer issues in
limited time period.
Analysing information: Customer feedback system will be very effective for Park Avenue
hotel as it will lead to establishment of a direct communication channel with their customers. It will
be a type of interaction medium where there can be efforts towards getting the information about
customer views & opinions related to customer services. Through analysing such informations
properly, manager will be able to be aware about preferences of customers. (Teo and Wu,
Excalibur IP LLC, 2018).
Improving quality of services: After there has been understanding of the customer
information next step is to actually work towards some common problem areas where the services