Tangibles - Physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel.
Reliability - Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
Responsiveness - Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.
Assurance - (including competence, courtesy, credibility and security). Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence.
Empathy - (including access, communication, understanding the customer). Caring and individualized attention that the firm provides to its customers.
Source: Sahney et al 2004 The SERVQUAL measurement can be used internally, through measurement against preset quality assurance standards such as the ISO 9001 Quality certification process (BSI 2008) and the "Star Rating system" operated by Visit Britain (2008) in conjunction with the Automobile Association. In this case the hotel services and processes are measured against pre-determined sets of quality criterion and monitored at least annually by those who regulate these standards. The internal quality assurance programme is also complemented by external consumer questionnaires and interview surveys. The SERVQUAL quality assurance method has been in existence for some years and is "tried and tested" (Shahin 2005, p.5), making it a firm favourite within the hotel service industry, where managers are comfortable and confident with the outcomes of these measurements. An element of SERVQUAL that is considered particularly important in this respect is the fact that the system and its measurements are monitored and updated on a regular basis (Holbrook (1999), Sahney et al (2004) and Boztepe (2007)), for example annually (Shahin 2005, p.6). Both ISO 9001 and the "Star Rating" systems conform to these determinants. As will be seen from the following analysis, the "quality assurance" systems applied to the hotel in terms of both the internal industry "Star Rating" and external SERVQUAL systems are virtually synonymous in terms of the standards and factors they rely upon for measurement. To maintain their perception as upscale or "5 star" hotels, in each of these cases the hotel will have to achieve much higher levels of standards. 4.1 Star Rating system Although the Star Rating system is formatted in a slightly different way to SERVQUAL, the quality elements of this process are still graded in a similar manner. The main difference is the fact that there are minimum quality requirements before the hotel will even be considered for a rating. However, even these equate to the tangible element of the SERVQUAL system (figure 2). Figure 2 Minimum entry requirements Source (Visit Britain 2005, p.8) Once the minimum entry requirements have been met, to assess which star level is applicable to the establishment independent inspectors will monitor five quality bands and award a quality percentage to each. These percentages determine what rating the establishment has achieved (figure 3). Figure 3 Quality bands for star rating
Star rating
Bands
One star
30-46%
Two stars
47-54%
Three stars
55-69%
Four Stars
70-84%
Five Stars
85-100%
Source: Visit Britain (2005, p.6) Furthermore, this standard of quality has to be achieved across a range of five product elements, which include cleanliness, service, food quality, bedrooms and bathrooms. Simply complying in one of the areas is not sufficient to earn the highest star. Therefore, if the hotel fails to achieve the required 85-100% standards during an annual monitoring it risks its rating being downgraded to four stars or a lower standard. For instance, in the example shown below (figure 4), despite the fact that the hotel being monitored has achieved the five star requirements in three of the five bands, its failures in the other two would demote it to a four star hotel. Figure 4 Quality bank achievement
LevelStandard
1
2
3
4
5
Cleanliness
X
Service
X
Food quality
X
Bedrooms
X
Bathrooms
X
Source: adapted from Visit Britain (2005, p.7) 4.2 SERVQUAL system When using the SERVQUAL system, which is largely based largely upon the results of customer satisfaction surveys, although all hotels would be looking to achieve the maximum "service quality" satisfaction level of 100% in terms of the overall scoring, there is a significant difference in the way this would be achieved when related to the different standard of establishments. To provide an example of how this equates in practice, the following is a comparison between the SERVQUAL requirements of a 5 star hotel against lower rated hotel, such as the budget Travelodge hotel chain (figure 5). Figure 5 SERVQUAL comparisons
Quality Assurance Systems In The Upscale Hotel Sector. (2017, Jun 26).
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