On research into the interdependence between service quality indices and a hotel’s business processes

The article covers the major technical and human factors (indices) determining hotel guest satisfaction, and proposes a questionnaire model. An analysis of the models of service quality and guest satisfaction assessment, a number of service quality assessment models employed by international hotel networks, and the Cause and Effect diagram developed by Ishikawa lead the authors to relate guest-satisfaction-determining factors to the hotel’s individual business processes. The authors have developed a Guest Questionnaire designed to reveal a guest’s evaluation of the “significance” and “perceived quality” of service provision for each of the factors identified. The authors also rely on Noriaki Kano’s model, which is widely used in managerial decision-making on issues concerning business-process improvement, to develop a methodology for hotel service factor significance evaluation. The hotel service factors most affecting guest satisfaction are grouped by the authors into (1) quantitative, (2), compulsory, (3) surprise, (4) neutral, and (5) reverse. According to the authors, when making decisions on business-process improvement, managers should take into account the processes related to qualitative and compulsory hotel service factors.