文献出处：Amin M, Yahya Z, Ismayatim W F A, et al. Service quality dimension and customer satisfaction: an empirical study in the Malaysian hotel industry[J]. Services Marketing Quarterly, 2013, 34(2): 115-125.
第一部分为译文，第二部分为原文。
默认格式：中文五号宋体，英文五号Times New Roma，行间距1.5倍。
服务质量维度和客户满意度：马来西亚酒店业的实证研究
摘要：本研究的目的是检验马来西亚酒店行业服务质量维度与客户满意度之间的关系。本研究采用了一种采用方便抽样方法的非概率抽样技术。受访者仅限于有在马来西亚逗留酒店的人士。大多数酒店客户对酒店提供的服务的整体质量感到满意。研究结果表明，服务质量维度对客户满意度的预测作出了重大贡献。
关键词：服务质量，客户满意度，酒店，马来西亚
引言
马来西亚是东南亚国家联盟（ASEAN）地区最受欢迎的旅游目的地之一，2009年接待了约2360万国际游客，比前几年增长约7％（MarketResearch.com，2012）。旅游业发展升温，2007年实现利润336亿元。在那一年，马来西亚旅游业估计上涨4.5％，这一数字可能每年上涨6.6％。MarketResearch.com预测，2012年国际旅游人数将在预测期内（2011-2013年）以8％的复合年增长率增长，海外游客的旅游收入预计将以8％左右的年复合增长率上升同期。据预测，2011 - 2013年，东盟国家的游客，如中国，印度和
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中东地区东方将会越来越多地访问马来西亚。马来西亚旅游业在未来几年将继续快速增长，原因是政府的推广活动不断增加，以及作为购物中心的国家声誉不断提高（MarketResearch.com，2012）。
人们旅行的原因很多，包括工作旅行，来访的家人和朋友以及假期。社会化，享受和历史欣赏是人们在休假中可以获得的好处之一，也许是参加当地的节日（Liang，Illum，＆Shu，2008）。由于Ramanathan和Ramanathan（2011）将“物有所值”列为客户未来选择行为的影响因素。同样，Mattila和O'Neill（2003）也将价格视为整体客户满意度的重要预测因素，并确认了服务质量和客户满意度在提升旅游客户行为方面的作用（Gallarza＆Saura，2006）。因此，本研究的目的是调查马来西亚酒店行业服务质量维度与客户满意度之间的关系。因此，本研究的目标是调查马来西亚酒店业服务质量维度与客户满意度之间的关系。
文献评论
酒店业服务质量
在测量服务质量时，已经用于许多研究的最着名的模型是SERVQUAL模型。在客户评估在规定时间内获得的服务的实际表现（Parasuraman，Zeithaml，＆Berry，1985,1991）时，该模型强调了服务质量在客户服务期望和观念方面的比较差异，1994; Nasution＆Mavondo，2008）。SERVQUAL模型中已经应用了客户感知与客户对服务质量的期望之间的差距。结果确定了服务质量。差距越小越大提高客户对服务质量的满意度（Parasuraman et al。，1985）。基本上，当管理者和客户之间的服务传递感知存在利益冲突时，会产生差异。对于经理来说，要交付给客户的业务产品被视为客户价值。而对于客户而言，当他们对他们所经历的服务感到满意（Parasuraman et al。，1985，1988;
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Nasution＆Mavondo，2008）时，价值就是得出的。SERVQUAL模型的反对者在方法和测量方面提到了与该模型有关的几个缺陷。而不是基于五维结构进行测量，模型实际上仅关注于单一构造。例如，Carman（1990）建议通过更改项目措辞或添加项目修改SERVQUAL。SERVQUAL尺寸稳定性也被认为是模糊的，不足以满足服务质量测量要求，并不完全一般。
对于酒店行业，Kandampully和Suhartanto（2000），Getty和Thompson（1994），Wilkins，Merrilees和Herington（2007）开发了LODGQUAL，其使用SERVQUAL的相关维度来衍生酒店业的目标应用。有两个维度被确定为通用的：可靠性和有形的。为这个新模式（Getty＆Getty，2003; Ladhari，2009），建立了住宅质量指数（LQI），其中包括有形性，响应能力，可靠性，通信性和可信度。Salazar，Costa和Rita（2010）通过开发HOLSERV规模修改了SERVQUAL模型来处理酒店。其目的是确定酒店服务质量维度。已确定的项目是响应能力，同情心和信心，所有这些都与员工属性相关。同样，Mei，Dean和White（1999）和Ladhari（2009）在使用HOLSERV时提出了新的标准; 这些都是员工的可靠性和其他有形资料，可以在酒店行业中专门测量服务质量。
客户满意度
像服务质量一样，客户满意度变得非常重要。客户满意度可以作为影响和协助发展满意度的重要因素的价格或价值来衡量（Getty＆Thompson，1994）。优质的服务质量和良好的客户满意度是服务行业面临的最大挑战（Hung，Huang，＆Chen，2003）。以前的研究表明，对于当今的酒店环境，公司成功的真正措施就在于能够持续不断地满足客户的需求。结果表明，客户对提供的产品/服务的价格和质量的价值要求越来越高。在具有挑战性和竞争力的酒店业中，每个组织都被迫以最有效和最有效率的方式经营业务，只有这样才能确保业务进入市场的成功（Gabbie＆O'Neill， 1996）。
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提供客户喜好的服务显然是获得客户满意度的重要基础。发现客户需求的最简单的方法是简单地询问什么样的服务（Su，2004; Gunderson，Heide，＆Olsson，1996）。有明确的证据表明客户满意度和公司业绩之间存在战略联系（Robinot＆Giannelloni，2010; Anderson＆Fornell，1994）。因此，更大的价值释放被认为是企业成功的关键因素（McDougall＆Leveque，2000; Spiteri＆Dion，2004; Nasution＆Mavondo，2008）。此外，温斯坦和波尔曼（1988）重点强调酒店提供卓越的客户价值的重要性，特别是为企业提供最优质的服务，最低的价格和最优质的价值生产实体。管理客户满意度的目的是获得更高的客户保留率，提高公司的利润和市场份额（Gilbert＆Horsnell，1998）。然而，在同一地区经历过良好和不良经验的客户可能会更加注意其质量，因此可能会将其评估为“关键”属性（Robinot＆Giannelloni，2010）。
Poon和Low（2005）指出，客户满意是基于酒店，住宿，餐饮，娱乐娱乐，补充服务，安全和安全，创新和增值服务，交通，地点和外观以及更基本的定价和付款担忧。Cadotte和Turgeon（1988）将四个项目分为一个包括关键，满足，不满意和中立者在内的分类模型（参见Ramanathan＆Ramanathan（1988）），将酒店服务区分为应得到赞美或表现不佳的良好表现， ，2011）。关键属性倾向于获得良好的性能，反之亦然。食品质量和房间安静在这个范畴之内。因此，关键特征同时为管理提供机会和威胁。满意度是指客人对于非凡的表现给予赞美的属性。低或平均性能通常不会影响客人的不满意度，只与酒店大堂的维护或餐厅的食物量有关。酒店服务质量和物理方面可以有效地影响客户满意度（Ekinci，Dawes，＆Massey，2008; Ramanathan＆Ramanathan，2011）。人们普遍认为，服务质量是顾客满意度的（Cronin＆Taylor，1992; Teas，1994; Wilkins et al。，2007）。
研究假设
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以前有关酒店服务行业的研究有五个维度（Mohsin＆Lockyer，2010）。五个方面是酒店氛围和员工礼貌，食品和饮料产品和服务质量，员工介绍和知识，预订服务以及整体物有所值。在文献中建立了衡量服务质量与客户满意度关系的概念框架。在酒店行业，客户满意度和服务质量非常重要。这是行业面临的主要挑战（Chen，Yang，Lin，Yeh，2007; Hung et al。，2003）。例如，在酒店行业，Ekinci等人 （2008）指出，酒店的品质对客户满意度有积极的影响。同样，康德兰和苏哈坦托（2000）发现服务质量和客户满意度之间存在着重要的关系。因此，本研究的假设是：
H1：酒店氛围，员工礼貌和客户满意度之间存在重大关系。
H2：食品和饮料产品与客户满意度之间存在重要关系。
H3：员工绩效与知识与客户满意度之间存在重要关系。
H4：预约服务与客户满意度之间存在重要关系。
H5：总体财务价值与客户满意度之间存在重要关系。
方法
根据马来西亚旅游局2010年的记录，马来西亚有2,367家酒店，共有53,130,743家酒店客人（国内27,534,771人，外国人25,595,972人）。收集所有这些酒店客人的数据远远超出了本研究的范围。因此，本研究仅限于在巴生谷运营的酒店。该网站已被选中，因为该地区有三个着名城市，吉隆坡，普特拉贾亚和雪兰莪Shah Alam。此外，吉隆坡是马来西亚的首府，马来西亚是访问马来西亚时必须游客逗留的大都市。本研究采用了一种
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方便的采样技术。由于时间的限制，大多数问卷由马来西亚人分发。从发放的250份问卷中，只有155份问卷被检索出来，可以在今后的研究中用于进一步的分析。62％的反应率被认为是高的。
问卷调查发展
Mohsin和Lockyer（2010）调整了酒店服务质量维度（酒店氛围和员工礼貌，餐饮产品和服务质量，员工许可和知识，预订服务和总体价值）的工具，而用于衡量客户满意度的仪器已经从Kandampully和Suhartanto（2000）进行了改编。五点Likert量表用于衡量维度结构的不同类别：酒店氛围和员工氛围，食品和饮料产品和服务质量，员工介绍和知识，预订服务和整体物有所值（1更糟糕; 5好多了）; 和客户满意度（1强烈不满意; 5强烈满意）。
数据分析
人口统计信息
大部分受访者（53％）。年龄从26岁到35岁，受访者最少（1％）超过60.受访者包括男性48％，女性52％。当地人占90％的受访者。从五星级酒店，四星级酒店，三星级酒店和廉价酒店四大酒店类别中，50％的受访者从问卷调查表中选出五星级酒店。
其次是根据类别列出的酒店。这可能是由于90％的受访者报告了大学或大学背景，而中学则为9％，小学为1％。职位较高的人选择五星级酒店。住在酒店的目的是以旅游和假期为中心，为51％。这与提供的其他理由相反，其中大会和公约为37％，商务旅行为12％。
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因子分析
使用主成分分析进行探索性因素分析，用于确定酒店服务质量的维度。在因子分析中，仅保留特征值大于1的因子。如表1所示，大多数物品被适当地加载到其相应的尺寸中，因子载荷大于0.5。因此，酒店服务质量仪器的五维结构是可以接受的（Nunnally＆Bernstein，1994）。
回归分析
如表2所示，回归分析结果表明，服务质量维度（酒店氛围和员工礼貌，餐饮产品和服务质量，员工介绍和知识，预订服务和总体物有所值）之间存在显着的相关性和客户满意度。数据很重要，因此支持H1-H5。
表1服务质量和客户满意度因子分析。表2回归分析。
结论和研究意义
本研究的目的是调查马来西亚酒店业服务质量与客户满意度之间的关系。一般来说，马来西亚的酒店客人对国内酒店行业的服务质量感到满意。虽然酒店客人对酒店服务的质量感到满意，但酒店管理人员吸引客户的方式仍有改进的空间，特别是让客人回访他们的酒店。在这种情况下，某些方面需要改进，特别是在酒店氛围和工作人员礼貌方面。为了进一步提升酒店服务质素，其他关键因素是员工介绍和知识，食品饮料产品和服务质量以及预订服务需要改进。这项研究是与Weinstein和Pohlman（1998）和Nasution and Mavondo（2008）一致，他们的研究发现，为了提供卓越的客户价值，酒店管理层需要通过提供最优惠的价格，最好的质量和优质的服务来实现价值生产实体的方法。如
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Silverman和Grover（1995），Mohsin和Lockyer（2010）所述，如果客户认识到服务质量是好的，它不会对质量感知产生直接的影响。同样，McDougall和Leveque（2000），Spiteri和Dion（2004），Nasution和Mavondo（2008）也表示，企业成功的关键考虑是满足客户的期望和期望。有趣的是，Baker和Crompton（2000），Patterson和Spreng（1997），Oh（1999）和Petrick（2002）都指出，如果客户满意，就会倾向于传播他们的满意度，并重复购买将会增加（Caruana，2002; Nasution＆Mavondo，2008）。为了提供满足客户期望的服务质量，酒店管理者需要确定目标群体，以便能够发现需要改进的服务领域（Barsky，1996; Su，2004; Ladhari，2009）。简单地询问客户的需求和需求基本上是一个比较容易的方式来发现自己的偏好（Gunderson et al。，1996; Su，2004）。因此，酒店管理者已经准备充分，意识到酒店员工在向酒店客人提供服务方面发挥重要作用。因此，酒店经理应强调提升酒店客人的情感，并致力于与客人保持关系。鼓励培训和提升员工技能，发展他们面对全球市场的能力。
Service Quality Dimension and Customer Satisfaction: An Empirical Study in the Malaysian Hotel Industry
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the service quality dimension and customer satisfaction in the Malaysian hotel industry. A nonprobability sampling technique with a convenient sampling approach has been used in this study. Respondents have been restricted to those who have the experience of staying in hotels in Malaysia. The majority of the hotel customers were satisfied with the overall quality of the service provided by their hotels. The findings suggest that service quality dimension makes a significant contribution to the prediction of customer satisfaction.
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KEYWORDS service quality, customer satisfaction, hotel, Malaysia
INTRODUCTION
Malaysia is one of the most popular travel destinations in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, and received approximately 23.6 million international tourists in 2009, an increase of approximately 7% over the previous years (MarketResearch.com, 2012). Travel and tourist activities escalated and yielded profits of 33.6 billion in the year 2007. In that year, tourism industry in Malaysia is estimated to have risen by 4.5%, and this figure is likely to grow by 6.6% yearly. MarketResearch.com forecasts that in 2012, international tourist arrivals in Malaysia will grow at a CAGR of approximately 8% during the forecast period (2011–2013) and tourism receipts from overseas tourists are also expected to rise at a CAGR of approximately 8% during the same period. It has been forecast that in the years 2011–2013, tourists from the ASEAN countries, such as from China, India, and the Middle East, will visit Malaysia in growing numbers. The Malaysian tourism industry will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years due to the ever-increasing promotional activities of the government and the growing reputation of the country as a shopping center (MarketResearch.com, 2012).
There are many reasons for people to travel, including work-related travel, visiting family and friends, and vacations. Socialization, enjoyment, and historical appreciation are among the benefits that can be gained by people on vacation, perhaps by attending a local festival (Liang, Illum, & Shu, 2008). As Ramanathan and Ramanathan (2011) have classified “value for money” as an influencing
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factor of customers’ future choice behavior. Similarly, Mattila and O’Neill (2003) have found price as a significant pre- dictor of overall guest satisfaction and confirmed the existence of service quality and guest satisfaction in enhancing the behavior of tourist custom- ers (Gallarza & Saura, 2006). Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between the service quality dimension and customer satisfaction in the Malaysian hotel industry. Therefore, the objec- tive of this study is to investigate the relationship between the service quality dimension and customer satisfaction in the Malaysian hotel industry.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Service Quality in the Hotel Industry
In measuring service quality, the best-known model that has been used for many studies is the SERVQUAL model. The model gives emphasis to com- parative differentiation in terms of the service quality with respect to the customer service expectations and perceptions, as customers assess the actual performance of the service obtained within a stipulated time (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985, 1991, 1994; Nasution & Mavondo, 2008). The gap between customer perceptions and customer expectations of service quality has been applied in the SERVQUAL model. The results deter- mine the perceived service quality. The smaller the gap, the greater the increase customer’s satisfaction with the service quality (Parasuraman et al., 1985). Basically, differences arise when there is a conflict of interest in the service delivery perception between managers and the customers. For managers, the business product to be delivered to customers is considered
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customer value. Whereas for the customers, value is derived when they are satisfied with the services they have experienced (Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988; Nasution & Mavondo, 2008). Opponents of the SERVQUAL model mention several flaws related to this model in terms of the methodological and measurement aspects. Instead of performing measurements based on the five-dimensional construct, the model actually focuses on the unidimen- sional construct only. For example, Carman (1990) suggested that the SERVQUAL be modified by changing the item wording or adding items. The SERVQUAL dimensions stability are also considered vague, insufficient in meeting the service quality measurement requirement, and not entirely generic.
For the hotel industry, Kandampully and Suhartanto (2000), Getty and Thompson (1994), and Wilkins, Merrilees, and Herington (2007) have devel- oped LODGQUAL, which uses related dimensions from SERVQUAL to deriva- tive targeted applications for hotel industry. There are two dimensions that have been identified as generic: reliability and tangibles. The Lodging Quality Index (LQI), which consists of tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, commu- nication, and confidence has been constructed for this new model (Getty & Getty, 2003; Ladhari, 2009). Salazar, Costa, and Rita (2010) have modified the SERVQUAL model to deal with hotels by developing their HOLSERV scale. Its purpose is to determine the service quality dimensions on hospitality. The items that have been identified are responsiveness, empathy, and confidence, all of which are linked to the staff attributes. Similarly, Mei, Dean, and White (1999) and Ladhari (2009) introduced new criteria when using HOLSERV; these are employee reliability and other tangibles to measure the service quality specifically in the hotel industry.
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Customer Satisfaction
Like service quality, customer satisfaction has become very important. Customer satisfaction can be measured as the prices or values that are important factors influencing and assisting the development of satisfaction (Getty & Thompson, 1994). Excellent quality of service and high customer satisfaction are the most important challenges facing the service industry (Hung, Huang, & Chen, 2003). Previous studies have shown that for today’s hospitality environment, the true measure of a company’s success lies in its ability to satisfy customer’s needs continually and consistently. Results show that customers have become increasingly more demanding over the value for money in terms of both the price and the quality of product/service being offered. In the challenging and highly competitive hospitality industry, every organization is forced to run its business in the most effec- tive and efficient manner possible, and only this can ensure the success in the market that the business is entering (Gabbie & O’Neill, 1996).
Offering services that customers prefer is obviously a vital basis for gain- ing customer satisfaction. The easiest way to discover customer needs is simply to ask what services are wanted (Su, 2004; Gunderson, Heide, & Olsson, 1996).
There is clear evidence of a strategic link between customer satisfac- tion and company performance (Robinot & Giannelloni, 2010; Anderson & Fornell, 1994). Thus, greater value deliverance is considered a key factor in business success (McDougall & Leveque, 2000; Spiteri & Dion, 2004; Nasution & Mavondo, 2008). Also, Weinstein and Pohlman (1988) lay stress on the importance for the hotel to
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deliver outstanding customer value, especially by providing the best service, the lowest prices and the best quality for the business to be value-producing entity. The purpose of managing customer satisfaction is to attain a higher customer retention rate and boost the company’s profits and market share (Gilbert & Horsnell, 1998). However, a customer who has undergone both good and bad experiences in the same area is likely to be more attentive to their quality and may therefore evaluate them as a “key” attributes (Robinot & Giannelloni, 2010).
Poon and Low, (2005) pointed out that customer satisfaction is based on hospitality, accommodation, food and beverage, recreation and entertain- ment, supplementary services, security and safety, innovation and value- added services, transportation, location, and appearance, as well as on the more basic concerns of pricing and payment. To differentiate hotel services between good performance that deserves to get compliments or bad perfor- mance by received complaints, Cadotte and Turgeon (1988) categorized four items into a classification model that includes criticals, satisfiers, dissatisfiers, and neutrals (See also Ramanathan & Ramanathan, 2011). There is a high tendency for the critical attributes to receive compliments for good perfor- mance and vice versa. Food quality and room quietness fall within this cat- egory. Thus, critical traits at the same time provide opportunities and threats for the management. Satisfiers refer to the attributes where guests will give compliments for an extraordinary good performance. Low or average perfor- mance will normally not affect guest dissatisfaction, if it relates only to the maintenance of the hotel lobby or the amount of food in the restaurant. Hotel service qualities and physical aspects can have favorable impact on customer satisfaction (Ekinci, Dawes, & Massey, 2008; Ramanathan & Ramanathan,
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2011). It is generally acknowledged that service quality is ante- cedent to customer satisfaction (Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Teas, 1994; Wilkins et al., 2007).
Hypothesis Development
There are five dimensions constructed here from prior studies regarding the hotel service industry (Mohsin & Lockyer, 2010). The five dimensions are hotel ambience and staff courtesy, food and beverage product and service quality, staff presentation and knowledge, reservation services, and overall value for money. The conceptual framework that measures the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction is established upon the literature. In the hotel industry, customer satisfaction and service quality is very important. This is the main challenge for the industry to confront (Chen, Yang, Lin, & Yeh, 2007; Hung et al., 2003). For example, in the hotel industry, Ekinci et al. (2008) pointed out that both the physical and service qualities of a hotel have a positive impact on customer satisfaction. Similarly, Kandampully and Suhartanto (2000) found that there is a significant relation- ship between service quality and customer satisfaction. Therefore, the hypotheses for this study are developed as:
H1: There is a significant relationship between hotel ambience, staff courtesy, and customer satisfaction.
H2: There is a significant relationship between food and beverage prod- ucts and customer satisfaction.
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H3: There is a significant relationship between staff performance and knowledge and customer satisfaction.
H4: There is a significant relationship between reservation services and customer satisfaction.
H5: There is a significant relationship between overall financial value and customer satisfaction.
METHODOLOGY
According to Tourism Malaysia’s records for year 2010, there were 2,367 hotels in Malaysia and a total of 53,130,743 hotel guests (27,534,771 domestic and 25,595,972 foreign). Accumulating data from all those hotel guests was far beyond the scope of this study. Hence, this study has been limited to hotels operating in the Klang Valley. This site has been chosen because there are three prominent cities situated in the area, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Shah Alam, Selangor. Furthermore, Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia, a metropolis where must tourists stay when visiting Malaysia. A convenient sampling technique was used in this study. Most of the question- naires were distributed among Malaysians due to time constrains. From the 250 questionnaires that were distributed, only 155 questionnaires were retrieved and able to be used for further analysis in this and future research. The response rate of 62% is considered high.
Questionnaire Development
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The instrument to measure the hotel service quality dimension (hotel ambi- ence and staff courtesy, food and beverage product and service quality, staff permission and knowledge, reservation services, and overall value of money) has been adapted from Mohsin and Lockyer (2010), while the instrument used to measure customer satisfaction has been adapted from Kandampully and Suhartanto (2000). Five-point Likert scales were used to measure the dif- ferent categories of the dimension structures: hotel ambience and staff cour- tesy, food and beverage product and service quality, staff presentation and knowledge, reservation services, and overall value for money (1 much worse; 5 much better); and customer satisfaction (1 strongly dissatisfied; 5 strongly satisfied).
DATA ANALYSIS
Demographic Information
The majority of respondents (53%). ranged in age from 26 to 35, with the fewest respondents (1%) over 60. The respondents consisted of 48% males and 52% females. Local people comprise 90% of the chosen respondents. From the four hotel categories, which are the five-star hotels, four-star hotels, three-star hotels, and budget hotels, 50% of the respondents choose five-star hotels from the types listed on the questionnaire. This was followed by the hotels listed according to the categories. This may be due to the fact that 90% of the respondent reported a college or university background compared to 9% for secondary school and 1% for primary school. Those who had higher job positions preferred five-star hotels. The purpose of staying at the hotel centered on tourism and holidays, at 51%. This is in
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contrast with other rea- sons provided, which were 37% for congresses and conventions and 12% for business trips.
Factor Analysis
An exploratory factor analysis has been conducted using principal compo- nents analysis with varimax rotation utilized to determine the dimensions of hotel service quality. In the factor analysis, only factors with eigenvalues greater than one were retained. As shown in Table 1, most of the items were properly loaded into their corresponding dimensions with factor loadings of greater than 0.5. Therefore, the five-dimension structure of hotel service quality instrument was acceptable (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).
Regression Analysis
As shown in Table 2 from regression analysis, the results show that there was significant relationship between service quality dimension (hotel ambience and staff courtesy, food and beverage product and service quality, staff presentation and knowledge, reservation services, and overall value for money) and customer satisfaction. The figures are significant, thus, H1–H5 are supported.
TABLE 1 Factor Analysis of Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction
TABLE 2 Regression Analysis
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CONCLUSION AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
The objective of this study has been to investigate the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in Malaysian hotel industry. Generally, Malaysian hotel guests are satisfied with the service quality pro- vided by the country’s hotel industry. While hotel guests are satisfied with the quality of hotel services, there is still room for improvement in the way hotel managers attract customers, especially in getting guests to pay return visits to their hotel. In this context, certain areas need to be improved, espe- cially with respect to hotel ambience and the staff courtesy. To further enhance their hotel service quality, other critical factors are the need for improvement in staff presentation and knowledge, food and beverages product and service quality, as well as reservation services. This study is consistent with Weinstein and Pohlman (1998) and Nasution and Mavondo (2008), whose studies have found that to provide exceptional customers value, hotel managements need to take a value producing entities approach by providing best price, best quality, and excellent service. As stated by Silverman and Grover (1995), Mohsin and Lockyer (2010), if customers per- ceive the service quality is good, it will not have direct influence on the quality perception. Similarly, McDougall and Leveque (2000), Spiteri and Dion (2004), and Nasution and Mavondo (2008) stated that a key consider- ation for the business success is to meet the customer’s expectations and anticipation. Interestingly, Baker and Crompton (2000), Patterson and Spreng (1997), Oh (1999), and Petrick (2002) state that if customers are sat- isfied, the tendency to spread their satisfaction word-of-mouth and make repeat purchases will be increased (Caruana, 2002; Nasution & Mavondo, 2008). To provide service quality that meets
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customer’s expectation, the hotel managers need to identify the target group, so that they can discover which service areas need to be improved (Barsky, 1996; Su, 2004; Ladhari,2009). Simply asking what the customer needs and wants is basically a com- paratively easy way to discover their preference (Gunderson et al., 1996; Su, 2004). Consequently, hotel managers are well-prepared and aware that hotel employees are plays an important role in delivering services to hotel guests. Therefore, hotel managers should put emphasize to enhance hotel guests’ emotion, and committed in maintaining their relationship with their guest. Training and upgrading employee skills is encouraged to develop their capabilities in facing the global market.
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