Customer satisfaction at Aloni all suite hotel in the peninsula area of Akamas in the country of Pafos-Cyprus : an application of the servqual model

Abstract

Purpose: This dissertation aims to study customer satisfaction at Aloni All-Suite hotel in the county of Pafos in the Republic of Cyprus. Design/Methodology/Approach: The conceptual model for measuring service quality used for this study is SERVQUAL. The sample is made up of 60 hotel visitors who stayed in the hotel from May to July 2012. The questionnaire consists of two parts. Part one examines quality service expectations of the customers and part two their quality service perceptions. Each part composes of twenty two service quality items. Findings: The results with respect to gap analysis reveal negative quality gaps for the quality service attribute of “Tangibility”, “Reliability” and “Empathy” with the largest gap being found in tangibles and positive quality gaps for the quality attributes of “Assurance” and “Responsiveness with the largest gap being found in assurance. Negative gaps indicate that customers’ expectations are not met and positive gaps show that customers’ expectations are met or even exceeded. The Cronbach’s alpha values indicate a good to excellent internal consistency of the scale, with the scale of “responsiveness” only to fall into questionable area. T-test suggests that the quality dimension that has the greatest predictive capability is Tangibility while Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy are not significant in any case. Research Limitations/Implications: The research was carried out only in one tourist lodging in the county of Pafos for the purpose of consultancy, it focused only on two ethnic groups; British and Greeks, and there is not a universal standard formula to estimate the precise sample size. Originality/Value- Small and family owned hotels are very significant for the economy of Cyprus. Therefore, the service quality offered by hotels is of great importance and a strategic issue for increasing the competitiveness and creating customer loyalty. This study is useful and necessary because it focuses on service quality, but also because service quality in hotels has received little attention from professional and scholars.