1. An empirical study to determine the pre-eminent range of attributes of United Kingdom hotels as perceived by the hotelier and the customer and to educe how proficiently such ascriptions are measured by hotel classification and grading schemes
- Author
-
Callan, Roger J.
- Subjects
381 ,Hotel grading schemes ,Service quality - Abstract
The key research question which was addressed by the study was whether gaps existed between the sal ient attributes employed for hotel selection by managers and customers and the inspection criteria used by the UK hotel classification and grading schemes. If so, to identify whether such unassessed attributes were appraisable by the hotel inspectorate. A review of the literature indicated that no such published study had previously been attempted. A literature review examined the criteria identified to assess service quality, and in particular its provision within the hotel industry. The historical development and operational characteristics of the major grading schemes were presented. A unique numerical analysis of the schemes provided the incidence of classified and graded hotels by country. This formed the basis for the establishment of a representative stratified random sample. The determination of the hotel selection attributes was achieved by literature review and in-depth and focus group interviews. An extensive questionnaire asking recipients to rate the importance of the selection attributes was distributed to 500 hotel managers, producing a 62.4~ response. Equivalent customer contacts were provided by the managers, and 500 customers were surveyed, producing a 57.8~ response. Attribute analysis defined important, interjacent and unimportant groups. Comparisons were made between leisure and business, gender, grading categories and forms of business ownersh ip for both data sets. The closeness of association between the total manager and customer data sets allowed a merging into a consolidated attribute set. An analysis of the schemes' grading criteria was compared with the important attributes to indicate those which were not specifically assessed by the schemes. A survey of hotel inspectors asked them to indicate whether such attributes were specifically, generally or not assessab 1e during a routine inspect ion, and if they were specifically assessable, to provide suggested methodologies for such assessment. The aim was achieved. Sixty five attributes were identified as important but not assessed by the schemes. Of these, 45 were capable of being specifically assessed. It was recommended that the scheme operators should take account of these findings when reviewing their hotel grading methodologies.
- Published
- 1996