WOLAITA SODO UNVERSITY

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT

ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY IN HOTEL INDUSTRY (IN CASE OF YACOB

HOTEL IN SODO TOWN)

A SENOR ESSAY RESEARCH SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF

MARKETING MANAGEMENT IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENT FOR (BA) DEGREE IN MARKETING AND SELLS MANAGEMENT

By:-

ASFAW MEKURIA ID NO MSM/WE/042/12

ADVISOR: -. TAREKEGN TESEFAY

JUNE, 2022

WOLAITA SODO, ETHIOPIA

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 AKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and for most let us I praise and honor the almighty God for the opportunity and capacity
given to us to realize my aspiration and helping us in all activities of my life. Secondly, I would
like to express my deepest gratitude to my research advisor Tarekegn .T for his valuable
comments, encouragement and precious advice, suggestion and strict follow up. My honorable
acknowledgement is also goes to my genuine and lovely families for their effort to build my life
in success.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

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S
AKNOWLEDGEMENT..................................................................................................................i

LIST OF TABLE.............................................................................................................................v

ACRONYMS..................................................................................................................................vi

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................vii

CHAPTER ONE 1...........................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1

1.1Background of the Study.........................................................................................................1

1.2 Statement of the problem.......................................................................................................2

1.3 Objectives of the study...........................................................................................................3

1.3.1 General Objective of the study........................................................................................3

1.3.2 Specific objectives of the study.......................................................................................3

1.4 Basic Research Questions......................................................................................................3

1.5 Significance of the study........................................................................................................4

1.6 The scope of the study / Delimitation....................................................................................4

1.7 Organizations of the proposal................................................................................................4

CHAPTER TWO.............................................................................................................................5

2. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................5

2.1. Concepts and Definition........................................................................................................5

2.1.1 Service Quality................................................................................................................5

2.1.2. Customer Satisfaction.....................................................................................................5

2.1.3. Hotel Service Quality.....................................................................................................6

2.1.4. Operational Definition....................................................................................................7

2.2. Different Service Quality measurement Instruments............................................................8

2.2.1. SERVQUAL...................................................................................................................8

2.2.2. Customer Satisfaction.....................................................................................................9

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 2.3. The Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality..............................10

2.4. Conceptual Framework.......................................................................................................11

CHAPTER THREE.......................................................................................................................13

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................13

3.1 Description of study area.....................................................................................................13

3.2. Research Approach.............................................................................................................13

3.3. Research design...................................................................................................................13

3.4. Research Method.................................................................................................................13

3.5. Sampling Method and Sample Size....................................................................................14

3.5.1 Sampling Method..........................................................................................................14

3.5.2. Sample size...................................................................................................................14

3.6. Sources of Data...................................................................................................................14

3.7. Data Analysis method.........................................................................................................14

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS..............................................................................................15

4.1. Socio Economic Characteristics of Respondents...................................................................15

4.2 Employee work experience..................................................................................................16

4.3 Comparisons of Hotel..........................................................................................................17

4.4. Expected Service.................................................................................................................18

4.5 Customer complain..............................................................................................................18

4.6 Overall Level of Satisfaction of Customers towards the Service of the Hotels...................19

4.6.1. Customer Satisfaction on Hotels Service/Product Dimension.....................................19

CHAPTER FIVE...........................................................................................................................21

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION......................................................................21

5.1 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................21

5.2 Recommendation.................................................................................................................22

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REFERENCE................................................................................................................................23

APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................28

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 LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Households........................................................16
Table 2 Employee work experience..............................................................................................17
Table 3 Comparing the hotel service with other hotels service delivery process.........................17
Table 4 Evaluation of providing the expected service...................................................................18
Table 5 Customer complain handling system................................................................................19
Table 6: Expectation and gap scores of hotel service/product dimension.....................................20

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 ACRONYMS

ASSU Assurance
CS Customer Satisfaction
E Expectation
EMP Empathy
HOLSERV Hotel Service Quality
HSP Hotels Service/Product
P Perception
PR Price
REL Reliability
RES Responsiveness
SERVPERF Service Performance
SERVQUAL Service Quality
TAN Tangibles

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 ABSTRACT
The study was concerned with the service delivery for customer in Yacob Hotel in Sodo Town.
The objective of the study was survey quality in hotel industry. The study was significant to
creating a better understanding on the service quality and customer satisfaction of Yacob hotel
in Sodo and addition the research was of use for those who are interested to undertake further
study on a related topic. The study concentrates on Yacob Hotel in Sodo Town. The design of
study was decretive type. The study was used non-probability sampling techniques which are
purposive & convenience that was used to select the sampled hotel and the willing customers
from the selected hotels respectively. The researcher took sample size of 1 hotel that has a better
experience in the worker and also who was willing to participate in the study and using with
sample of 30 customer’s and 20 hotel workers and managers from Yacob hotel, a total of 50
sample size was selected to study. The study was used both primary and secondary sources of
data was used for this study. The collected data was analyzed by table, frequency and
percentage. Male customers who responded the questioners are 60% and the female respondents
are 40%. The employee experiences of the respondents were 30%, 20%, 40% and 10% with the
experience of less than one, one, one to two and more than two respectively. The researcher
recommends hotel should train its employees to provide consistence service to reduce the
variability of service delivery to its customers while providing service and should try to minimize
the variation of service delivery process. Finally collected data was analyzed and conclusion and
recommendation set.

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viii
 CHAPTER ONE

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study

To remain competitive, service providers must render quality service to their customers.
Moreover, understanding and meeting customers’ expectations and subsequently being different
from competitors are important in order to satisfy the customer and also survive in the today’s
competitive environment and world of globalization.
According to Berry, Parasuraman & Zeithaml (1994) excellent service is a profit strategy
because it results in more new customers, more business with existing customers, fewer lost
customers, more insulation from price competition, and fewer mistakes requiring the
performance of services. Excellent service can also be energizing because it requires the building
of an organizational culture in which people are challenged to perform to their potential and are
recognized and rewarded when they do. Service is a key component of value that drives any
company's success. To the customer, value is the benefits received for the burdens endured such
as price, an inconvenient location, unfriendly employees, or an unattractive service facility.
Quality service helps a company maximize benefits and minimize non-price burdens for its
customers.

According to Irons, 1997, in order to provide the desired quality level service companies should
know customers expectation and the way they perceive or evaluate the quality of a service. As
Zeithml and Bitner, (2003) stated, customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction is considered to be the
result of a comparison between the pre-use expectations that a customer has about the product or
service and the post-use perception of product or service performance.

In the highly competitive hotel industry, service becomes one of the most important elements for
gaining a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. Consequently, the efforts of
service managers and academic researchers are directed towards understanding how customers
perceive the quality of service. Customers are likely to view services as a variety of attributes
that may, in different ways, contribute to their purchase intentions and perceptions of service
quality. Although researchers (Gronroos 1982; Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml 1985 & 1991)
have focused on different aspects of service quality, they all agree that the emphasis should be on

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customers. The most common definition of the concept is attitude, which results from a
comparison of customer’s expectations with perceptions of performance (Parasuraman, Berry
and Zeithaml 1985). What is more, customers perceive service quality as a multidimensional
concept. The specific nature of services makes it difficult to provide measure and maintain their
quality. However, they presented the SERVQUAL scale, which became the most popular
instrument for measuring service quality. It has been applied in various service industries,
including tourism and hospitality. In most of the researches the instrument was modified to suit
the features of a specific service.

Therefore, giving a quality service is essential in order to attract, satisfy and retain the
customer’s and getting a high market share.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1991) and other scholars argued that delivering high quality in
the service industry has been recognized as the most effective means of ensuring that a
company’s offerings are uniquely positioned in a market. Service quality has become a major
area of attention to researchers because of its strong impact on business performance, customer
satisfaction, customer loyalty and gaining higher profit. And customer satisfaction is the feeling
of someone who described feeling happy or disappointed that the result of comparing the
perceived performance of a service with the expected service performance.

However, as Alelign (2013) the hospitality industry has passed through hostile struggles and turf
wars, failures and raisings with regard to expansions and standardizations, quantity and quality.
The advantages granted from the free market economy of our country has given people the
“opportunity” to manipulate the industry based on their need and selfish business interests
without considering the interest of the customer which is very important to the survival of the
business (Alelign, 2013). By these and other reasons the given service quality and customer
satisfaction is affected. As Poul (2001) stated the cost of lost customers can be many times the
simple loss of revenue from what they no longer buy. This makes customer satisfaction essential
to meet the goal of hotels therefore it’s important to give quality service and make the customer
satisfy in order to be a strong competitor and customer’s choice in the industry. If assessing
service quality is important in order to get a perfect brand image and gain attractive profit, then
knowing the status of the service quality given by the company and make a necessary adjustment

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when it’s needed is the way to survive in the business environment. As far as the researcher
accessed researches have done in the hotel industry in Ethiopia and also the rest of the world that
emphasize different aspect of the industry. For instance Jana Lauková (2006) studies hospitality
management, Ekaterina Makeeva (2010) studies service quality and customer satisfaction the
case of case: restel hotels in imatra and Lappeenranta, Afshan, Sadia and Khusro (2011) studies
Improvement of Hotel Service Quality; an Empirical Research in Pakistan, Kidane Assefa (2012)
studies Relationship Marketing in the Hotel Industry:

The reason behind doing research on Yacob hotels in addition to the existed studies is as far as
the researcher access most of the researches that are done in the hospitality and hotel industries
predominantly focus on the hotels specifically. Therefore, the researcher measures the quality
service & customer satisfaction by using the modified form of SERVQUAL which is HOLSERV
that are customized for the hotel industry and also add another dimensions. Due to the above
reason, the purpose of this research is to measure the service quality and customer satisfaction of
Yacob hotels found in Sodo town, southern Ethiopia.

1.3 Objectives of the study

1.3.1 General Objective of the study

The general objectives of this study were to assess of service quality on customer’s satisfaction
towards the services provided by Yacob Hotel in Sodo Town, Southern Ethiopia.

1.3.2 Specific objectives of the study

1. To identify the service quality that significantly influences the satisfaction level of customers.

2. To measure the level of customers satisfaction towards the services of hotels.

3. To identify some problems customers encounter in the hotels.

1.4 Basic Research Questions

1. Which one of the service quality has significant impact in satisfaction level of customers?

2. What is the overall level of satisfaction of customers towards the service of the hotels?

3. What are the major problems the customer encounters in the hotels?

1.5 Significance of the study

The beneficiary of this specific study was hotel managers, employees and customers.
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Therefore, after identifying the relationship of service quality and customer satisfaction and the
level of customer satisfaction the researcher suggests what is to be done to satisfy the unsatisfied
need of the customer’s.

 It was help in creating a better understanding on the service quality and customer
satisfaction of Yacob Hotel in Sodo Town.
 Use as to the future study for reference.

1.7 Organizations of the study

The study was contained the following five chapters. The first chapter contained introduction of
the study, including background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study,
significance of the study and the second chapter contained related review literature. The third
chapter was study about research methodology. While the fourth chapter contained data analysis
and interpretation and the last chapter was contained conclusion and recommendation.

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 CHAPTER TWO

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Concepts and Definition

2.1.1 Service Quality

Service Quality is a customer perception that occurs when the need of service is met above
average, more than just adequate. In other words service quality is the ability of service that
meets a customer’s expectations for that service. It represents of the service valued by the
customer. Service quality has been defined in services marketing literature as an overall
assessment of service by the customers. Perceived service quality is believed to be resulting from
comparison between customers’ prior expectations about the service and their perceptions after
actual experience of service performance (Parasuraman et al., 1985). Service quality has been
defined by the practitioners in terms of key dimensions that customers use while evaluating the
services.

Conceptualization of service quality should include both the service delivery process
(Parasuraman et al., 1985) as well as the service outcomes (Gronroos, 1984) offered a service
quality measurement instruments with dimensions of technical quality (what consumer gets),
functional quality (how consumer gets the service) and corporate image (how consumers
perceive the firm and its services).

SERVQUAL - is an instrument for measuring service quality. It is based on the premise that the
best way to measure service quality is to base it on the customer’s experience of quality. In
SERVQUAL, quality is defined by the gap between what a customer expects and what the
customer perceives.

The Dimensions of SERVQUAL scale are: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and
tangibles.

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2.1.2. Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction is a measure of how a product and services supplied by a company meet
or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator with business and is an
indicator of how successful the company is at providing products and services to the market.
Customer satisfaction is an abstract concept and is actually happening of the state of satisfaction
will vary from person to person and product /service to product/ service in a competitive market
where business compete for customer; customer satisfaction is considered a key element of
business strategy (Gitman & Carl, 2005).

2.1.3. Hotel Service Quality

Hotel is a part of the hospitality industry which is an umbrella term for a broad variety of service
industries including, but not limited to, hotels, restaurants and casinos. Hotel is often referred as
a “Home away from home”. If we consider meaning of hotel in the dictionary, a hotel is a
building where you pay to have a room to sleep in and where you can eat meals (Cambridge
dictionary) or a hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis.
(Wikipedia) A hotel is more than a place to eat and to stay. A customer in a restaurant wants
more than a meal; as well guests in hotel want more than a room to stay and food to eat.
Individuals may use a hotel service for family vacation, romantic gate away, business travel or
even for simple dinning. In any of the cases mentioned, a given individual tends to expect a
quality service to be delivered to them for the payment they made and get satisfied. Good
service is a requirement of getting and maintaining customers. Truly, without customers it is
impossible to stay in business and without satisfied customers it is impossible to remain
profitable. Everyone in the company benefits from good service, not just the customers. There
are external services for customers, and internal services from one employee or department to
another. Good service plays important role in all businesses (Afshan, Sadia and Khusro, 2011).

In addition to the four unique attributes of service (intangibility, inseparability, variability and
perishability) in the hospitality industry, other attributes, such as imprecise standards and
fluctuating demand have been identified and further complicate the task of defining, delivering
and measuring service quality. For example, while firms in the hospitality industry have
established policies, rules and procedures to govern the standardization of their product, many
aspects of service quality do not lend themselves to standards. Quality aspects such as
“friendliness”, “helpfulness” and “politeness” are likely to be interpreted differently by various

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guests and are assessed subjectively. Moreover, demand for service in the hospitality industry is
generally clustered around peak periods of the day or year, such as checkout time or holiday
season and these peaks create an environment which make it difficult to provide consistent
service quality (Amy W. Mei, Alison M. Dean and Christopher J. White 1999).

2.1.4. Operational Definition

Reliability – the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. It is
regarded as the most important determinant of perceptions of service quality.

Responsiveness – the willingness to help customers and to provide prompt service. This
dimension is particularly prevalent where customers have requests, questions, Complaints and
problems.

Assurance – the employees’ knowledge and courtesy, and the ability of the service to inspire
trust and confidence.

Empathy – the caring, individualized attention the service provides its customers.

Tangibles – the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel image that will find
favor with consumers (Peter & Angela, 2006).

Hotel service/product - The hospitality service product consists of a wide variety of services
such as restaurants, bars and entertainment and leisure facilities.

Price – is value that the customer gives to the given service. It’s the difference between benefit
and cost.

Customer Expectation and Perception – Before and after consumption of a service two
feelings are prominent, namely expectations and perceptions. Expectations are usually formed
prior to usage of a service but may also occur where a customer is actively involved in the
delivery of a service. They reflect inclinations or beliefs as to what will or should happen
Perceptions can also develop during a service, but invariably materialize after usage. They
represent the customer’s evaluation of the service, particularly in relation to expectations. Where
perceptions match or exceed expectations the customer is said to be satisfied in accordance with
the first law of service (Peter and Angela, 2006).

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Perception – Expectation = Satisfaction

Customer expectations are beliefs about service delivery that function as standards or reference
point against which performance is judged. Because, customers are compare their perception of
performance with their expectation when evaluating service quality. Though, knowledge about
customer expectations is critical to marketers. Knowing what the customer expects is the first
and possibly the most critical step in delivering quality service. According to Kenneth and David
(2003), Customer expectations are used as the standard or reference against which service
performance is judged. It consists of five levels.

 Idealist level – consumer wished for level of service.

 Desired service level – level of performance customers want or hope to receive from a
service.

 Adequate service level - minimum level of service a consumer will tolerate and accept
without being dissatisfied.

 Zone of tolerance – is an area between the adequate level of service and the desired level of
service.

 Predicted service level – level of service consumers actually expect from the service firm.

2.2. Different Service Quality measurement Instruments

2.2.1. SERVQUAL
Since the development of SERVQUAL by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985), service
quality has been widely researched and applied in different types of industries. SERVQUAL is a
diagnostic tool that uncovers a firm’s broad weaknesses and strengths’ in service quality. It
focuses on the five ‘gaps’ affecting the delivery of excellent service quality.

It concentrates on five gaps impairing the delivery of excellent service quality. Before intensive
efforts can be successfully undertaken to level out service management problems that impede the
delivery of truly excellent service quality, it is essential to know to what degree customer
perceptions of existing service fail to meet expectations; this study focuses on that primary issue.

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There after it becomes important to know whether differences exist in management perceptions
of customer expectations (Gap 1), a discrepancy in management perceptions and the service
specifications that are enacted (Gap 2), a difference on service specifications versus service
delivery (Gap 3), Gap 4 deals with service delivery versus external communication and gap 5
deals with the differences between consumer expectations and perceptions. The SERVQUAL
scale contains desirable characteristics of services with ten dimensions (responsiveness,
competence, courtesy, credibility, security, access, communication, understanding, reliability and
tangibles) and then it is summed up into five in Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988)
tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. However, researchers found that
when applying SERVQUAL to different industries, items must be removed or added in order to
customize the scale to accommodate differences in service settings.

Nevertheless, despite the apparent shortcomings of the SERVQUAL scale, many researchers and
practitioners continue to find that the instrument is useful for measuring service quality.
Moreover, Pitt et al. (1995) noted that practitioners need a generic measurement instrument that
provides the potential for cross-industry and cross-functional comparisons. Despite the numerous
critics, the SERVQUAL instrument still continues to appeal to both academics and practitioners.
After from replication of the SERVQUAL instrument suggest that practitioners and researchers
working in particular service settings should confirm the factor structure of the service quality to
determine how many dimensions are implicit in their own particular sample relative to their
specific industry (Cronin and Taylor, 1992). The various factor structures that have been
identified in the literature should be examined and compared to ensure that an appropriate
structure is chosen for a given experimental setting for example, a one-dimensional structure, a
two-factor structure, or the standard five-dimensional structure. Using exploratory factor analysis
and confirmatory factor analysis, researchers should ascertain whether their scales have a factor
structure that reflects the theoretical dimensionality of their setting. In addition, it might be
necessary to adapt, delete, or add items as required to capture the service-quality construct in a
specific industry. Researchers are therefore encouraged to assess the commonly used approach of
adaptation of the SERVQUAL scale (Riadh, 2009).

2.2.2. Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is an emotional response to the experiences provided by, associated with
particular products and services purchased, retail outlets, or even molar patterns of behavior such
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as shopping and buyer behavior, as well as the overall market place” (Yi, 1990, p. 69). Research
shows that expectation-disconfirmation paradigm has received much empirical attention
(Parasuraman et al., 1988). However, other empirical findings demonstrate that customer
satisfaction can also be measured through product or service performance (Churchill and
Surprenant, 1982) or an outcome of service quality (Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann, 1994).
Customer satisfaction has become a key intermediary objective in service operations due to the
benefits it brings to organizations. The importance of customer satisfaction is derived from the
generally accepted philosophy that for a business to be successful and profitable, it must satisfy
customers (Bitner and Hubbert, 1994). Customer satisfaction also serves as an exit barrier,
helping a firm to retain its customers. Several studies have concluded that it costs more to gain a
new customer than it does to retain an existing one. In addition, customer satisfaction also leads
to favorable word-of-mouth publicity that provides valuable indirect advertising for an
organization (Fornell, 1992). Bitner and Hubbert (1994) concluded that, through satisfying
customers, organizations could improve profitability by expanding their business and gaining a
higher market share as well as repeat and referral business.

2.3. The Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality

To achieve a high level of customer satisfaction, most researchers suggest that a high level of
service quality should be delivered by the service provider as service quality is normally
considered an antecedent of customer satisfaction (Cronin, Brady, and Hult, 2000; Anderson
Fornell and Lehmann, 1994; Cronin and Taylor, 1992). However, the exact relationship between
satisfaction and service quality has been described as a complex issue, characterized by debate
regarding the distinction between the two constructs and the casual direction of their relationship
(Brady, Cronin and Brand, 2002). Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1994) concluded that the
confusion surrounding the distinction between the two constructs was partly attributed to
practitioners and the popular press using the terms interchangeable, which make theoretical
distinctions difficult.

Interpretations of the role of service quality and satisfaction have varied considerably (Cronin
and Taylor, 1992; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1988). Parasuraman et al. confined
satisfaction to relate to a specific transaction as service quality was defined as an attitude. This
meant that perceived service quality was a global judgment, or attitude, relating to the superiority
of the service. Cronin and Taylor (1992) found empirical support for the idea that perceived
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service quality led to satisfaction and argued that service quality was actually an antecedent of
consumer satisfaction. Asserted that consumer satisfaction appeared to exert a stronger influence
on purchase intention than service quality, and concluded that the strategic emphasis of service
organizations should focus on total customer satisfaction programs.

The authors reasoned that consumers may not buy the highest quality service because of factors
such as convenience, price, or availability and that these constructs may enhance satisfaction
while not actually affecting consumers’ perceptions of service quality. Cronin and Taylor (1992)
later conceded that the directionality of the service quality/satisfaction relationship was still in
question and that future research on the subject should incorporate multi item measures. The
authors suggested restricting the domain of service quality to long-term attitudes and consumer
satisfaction to transaction-specific judgments.

Brady and Cronin (1992) had endeavored to clarify the specification and nature of the service
quality and satisfaction constructs and found empirical support for the conceptualization that
service quality was an antecedent of the super ordinate satisfaction construct. In addition, the
authors found that explained a greater portion of the variance in consumers’ purchase intentions
than service quality. A reverse causal relationship has also been hypothesized between the two
constructs.

2.4. Conceptual Framework

As cited in Zeithamal and Bitner ,(2004),(Parasuraman et al,1988) is the one who came up with
the SERVQUAL model also known as the Gaps model, defines quality as the difference between
customer’s expectation and their perception of the service delivered. The SERVQUAL
instrument provides a method of measuring service quality. SERVQUAL is the most frequently
used measure of service quality and is based on five service quality dimensions (tangibles,
reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy). The relationship between service quality and
customer satisfaction has received considerable academic attention in the past few years. Service
quality and customer satisfaction has been investigated by many researchers.

According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2003), satisfaction and service quality are fundamentally
different in terms of their underlying causes and outcomes. Although they have certain things in
common, satisfaction is generally viewed as a broader concept, whereas service quality

11
 assessment focuses specifically on dimensions of service. Service quality is a component of
customer satisfaction.

Service quality is a focused evaluation that reflects the customer’s perception of elements of
service such as interaction quality, physical environment quality, and outcome quality. These
elements are in turn evaluated based on specific quality: reliability, responsiveness, assurance,
empathy and tangibles. Satisfaction, on the other hand, is more inclusive: it is influenced by
perceptions of service quality, product quality, and price so well so situational factors and
personal factors.

Reliability

Responsiveness

Assurance
Customer Service Quality
Empathy Satisfaction

Tangibles

Hotel
Service/Product

Price

Selam, 2014

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 CHAPTER THREE
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter contains about description of the study area, research approach, research design,
research methods, sampling methods and sampling size, sources of data and data analysis.

3.2 Description of study area

Yacob hotel was located in Sodo Town, Sothern region of the Federal democratic republic of
Ethiopia nation nationalities state roughly 391 km from capital of Addis Ababa

Climatically Sodo town categories under warm and temperature climate zone with mean annual
rain fall 1200mm with average maximum Kermit season of the area relatively heavy rain and
indicator the July now day.

3.3. Research Approach

In order to study the service quality on the hotel industry the researcher was chooses quantitative
research approach. Quantitative research involves studies that make use of statistical analyses to
obtain their findings. Key features include formal and systematic measurement and the use of
statistics (Geoffrey, David D. & David F., 2005).

3.4. Research design

In order to answer the problem statement and meet the research objectives, the design of the
study was descriptive type. Descriptive research studies were that study which was concerned
with describing the characteristics of a particular individual, or of a group. The main
characteristic of this method were that the researcher has no control over the variables; he/she
can only report what was happened or what was happening (Kothari, 2004).

3.5. Research Method

The method of this research was survey. A survey method provides a quantitative or numeric
description of trends, attitudes, or opinions of a population by studying a sample of that
population. From sample results, the researcher generalizes or makes claims about the population
(Creswell, 2003). Among the two types of survey which was cross sectional and longitudinal
survey the researcher uses cross sectional one. Cross-sectional surveys were studies aimed at
determining the frequency (or level) of a particular attribute, such as a specific exposure,

13
satisfaction or any other service-related event, in a defined population at a particular point in
time.

3.6. Sampling Method and Sample Size

3.6.1 Sampling Method

The study was used non-probability sampling techniques which was purposive & convenience
that was used to select the sampled hotels and the willing customers from the selected hotels
respectively. Purposive sampling involves selection of particular units of the universe for
constituting a sample which represents the universe (Anol 2012). Basically the researcher
consider it was better of getting information from experienced hotels in the industry than the
early emerged ones in order to have a reliable and rational data.

Because of the large number of the sample unit, time and cost constraint, the sample was drawn
from the small population by using convenience-sampling technique.

3.6.2. Sample size

As stated in the above section the researcher was used purposive sampling method to select
Tesfa hotels from the other hotel. Therefore, out of the total population the researcher took
sample size of 1 hotel that has a better experience in the worker and also who was willing to
participate in the study. In the case of non-probability samples, the choice of sample size was
determined by the insight, judgment, experience or financial resource of the researcher. Thus, the
researcher consider available fund and time, sample size used by similar past studies and own
judgment to determine the sample size. Roscoe (2001) also proposes that the appropriate sample
sizes for most research to be greater than 30 and less than 500. Taking into considerations these
guidelines, with sample of 30 customer’s and 20 hotel workers and managers from Tesfa hotels,
a total of 50 sample size was selected to study.

3.7. Sources of Data

Both primary and secondary sources of data were used for this study. Primary data was collected
using semi-structured questionnaire which contained a mixture of closed ended and open-ended
questions. And secondary data was collected from different books, journals, articles, previous
studies and Internet.

3.8. Data Analysis method

The data that were analyzed and interpreted using statistical table percentage and frequency
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 CHAPTER FOUR

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1. Socio Economic Characteristics of Respondents

Item 1 of the table 1 shows that the male customers who responded the questioners are 60% and
the female respondents are 40%. The hotels should implement different strategies to attract
female customers. Item 2 illustrates the age group of the respondents, 43%, 18% and 30% of
the respondents are included in the 16-30, 31-45 & 46-60 years range respectively. The rest 10%
of the respondent is categorized in the age of above 60 years. . And it shows that the majority of
the respondents are mature to respond by rational mind and it helps to get a reasonable and
rational response to the question.

Item 3 shows the educational background of the respondent and 20% of the respondents are
degree holder. 54% of the respondents have diploma, none of the respondents are high school
graduate, 24% of them are master’s degree holder and the last 2% of them have an educational
background above master’s degree. Therefore, it implies that most of the respondents are literate
to understand and answer the questioner. Item 4 clarifies the purpose of visit of the customers
and 60% of them came for business, 20% of them use the hotel for leisure time, 10% of them
used the hotels in time of transit and the other 10% of the respondents have personal reason. This
implies that large number of the respondents use the service for personal purpose.

The 5th respondent question and the first open ended question was the nationality of the
respondents. The analysis reveals that customers’ of the hotels are coming from the whole
continent but to list some of them are come from Africa including Ethiopians the other from Asia
and America and so on.

15
Table 1: Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Households

Category and variable Frequency Percentage

Sex
Male 30 60
Female 20 40
Age
16-30 21 42
31-45 years 9 18
46-60 years 15 30
Above 60years 5 10
Educational status
High School - -
Diploma 27 54
Degree 10 20
Masters 12 24
Above Masters 1 2
Purpose of Visit
Business 30 60
Leisure 10 20
Transit 5 10
Personal 5 10

4.2 Employee work experience

The below table shows the experience of the employees are appropriate, superior employee
selection and training employees is a determinate factor to improve a quality work environment
and strong support for those dealing with customers because they have more interaction with
customers. The employee experiences of the respondents were 30%, 20%, 40% and 10% with
the experience of less than one, one, one to two and more than two respectively. This analysis
was recommended on how to make employees more reliable and accurate in their service
delivery process because they know the service delivery process of the organization and
customer desire.

16
Table 2 Employee work experience
Item No of respondents in

No %
Less than 1 year 15 30%
For 1 year 10 20%
Form 1-2 year 20 40%
More than 2 years 5 10%
Total 50 100%
Source, survey 2024

4.3 Comparisons of Hotel

As observed in the table 3 most of the employees 30(60%) has not had working experience in the
other however 40% of the respondents have working experience and the other employees how
are experiences in other respond that the hotels delivering averagely good service for its
customer are 40% but the 60% were good. But for better improved services it was better if the
Hotel hire competent who have cumulative experience working in different Environment to
increase performance delivery process. Because they can easily understand different internal and
external factors that affect the hotel to deliver a good quality services.

Table 3 Comparing the hotel service with other hotels service delivery process

Item No of Item No respondents in

respondents No %

No %

Have you If yes how do you

been working compare the
in other hotel? service delivery?
No 30 60% Very good 20 40%
Yes 20 40% Good 30 60%
Poor - -
Very poor - -
Total 50 100% Total 50 100%
Source, survey 2024

17
4.4. Expected Service
The table shows employees 50(100%) agrees that Yacob Hotel is deliver much service with
customer expectation by watching service performance closely about competitors and their own
the need to check whether the standards of service delivery are met expectation of customer
building long time relationships will be ensured .from this we can understand that if the hotel
tries to meet customer expectation all time than it will result beyond highly satisfying service
were 30% and rest 70% was satisfied.
Table 4 Evaluation of providing the expected service

Item No of respondent in Item No of respondents in

No % No %
Is Tesfa hotel giving If yes how do you
the expected service by evaluate the service
its customers?
Yes 48 96 Highly satisfied 15 30%
No 2 4 Satisfied 35 70%
Dissatisfied - -
Highly dissatisfied - -
Total 50 100% Total 50 100%
Source, survey 2024

4.5 Customer complain

Totale-5 show more the employees 31(62%) replied that the hotel has as complain handling
system and they think it help them to it improve the service process. Form this researcher can
concluded some of the employees 19(38%) are not even aware whether the hotel have a
complain handling system or not and this show there is a gap in giving employees orientation
about hotel service methods and employees found in the hotel need to be aware about the all
method of service delivery system because according to (berry,2002) service employees need
specific training no how to deal with angry customer and how to help customers solve service
problems to have better working relationship.

18
Table 5 Customer complain handling system

Item No respondent in Item No respondents in

No % No %
Do you have customer If yes do you think it
complain handling will help to improve
system? service delivery
Yes 31 62% Very good 17 34%
No 19 38% Good 33 66%
Poor - -
Very poor - -
Total 50 100% Total 50 100%
Source, survey 2024

4.6 Overall Level of Satisfaction of Customers towards the Service of the Hotels
In order to know whether the customers are satisfied or not, the researcher consider only the
service quality dimension which have a positive significant effect on the customer satisfaction
level. Those are hotel service and product, empathy and assurance. The reason behind selecting
only the three variables out of the seven dimensions are only three of them have an impact on the
level of customer satisfaction and the rest of them have no impact on the dependent variable.
Therefore, knowing the satisfaction level on the rest does not give any meaning or does not have
any implication on the dependent variable on this specific study.

4.6.1. Customer Satisfaction on Hotels Service/Product Dimension

Based on data analysis the above table shown us the scores of customers’ perceived and expected
hotel service/product quality hotel menu item variety was excellent were 20% and 30% agree,
strongly agree, neutral and disagree respectively . In item 2 the food is served hot and fresh the
respondents’ responses about 30% strongly agreed, 20% were agreed and neutral while 16% and
4% of the respondents were disagree and strongly disagree respectively. The item 3 shows 10% ,
20%, 30% and 40% of the respondents was agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree
respectively to the bathrooms in the hotel are neat and clean. The item 4 shows about to the
hotel rooms are clean and comfortable 30% of the respondents were neutral the rest 40% and
30% were disagree and strongly disagree. The item 5 shows 30%, 20% and 50% of the hotel
provides modern recreation facilities the respondent responses neutral, disagree and strongly
19
disagree respectively. Finally, the result shows that the customers’ are very dissatisfied with the
recreational facilities of the hotels.

Table 6: Expectation and gap scores of hotel service/product dimension

No Service Quality Attributes Strongly agree Neutral disagree Strongly

agree disagree
1 The hotels menu item - 10 15 15 10
variety was excellent (20%) (30%) (30%) (20%)
2 The food is served hot and 15 10 10 8 2
fresh (have good quality) (30%) (20%) (20%) (16%) (4%)
3 The bathrooms in the - 5 10 15 20
hotel are neat and clean (10%) (20%) (30%) (40%)
4 The hotel rooms are clean - - 15 20 15
and comfortable (30%) (40%) (30%)
5 The hotel provides 15 10 25
modern recreation (30%) (20%) (50%)
facilities

20
 CHAPTER FIVE

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusion.
The demographic characteristics of employee’s respondents in the hotel shows majority of the
employees are, male. Most of the employees are found the age of above 16-30 years. This
implies that the work force of the hotel is young that expected to hotel positively influence the
productivity. On the educational level of employees most of them are diploma. This indicates
that the hotel employee difficult to communicate to foreign customer this is negative Impact on
service delivery of the hotel. Majority of employee have work experience were 1-2 years.

Majority of the workers has not working in other hotel. The hotel has complained handling
system and it must provide to improved delivery. Most of the employees reply that hotel giving
the expected service to the customers.
The hotel is evaluation service quality using service dimension as an important. The hotel take
solution to have a better service quality by adopting new technological Systems to delivers an
effective service.

The manager also replies that the hotel knows customers are satisfied or dissatisfied through
observation, customer request and from the feedback they process of the service. Generally the
hotel service delivery quality is in a good manner regarding to the perception of the customers
but there should be some factors which needs attention And the hotels existing service delivery
quality is in appropriate regarding to the customers Expectation and perception match.

21
5.2 Recommendation
 The hotel should train its employees to provide consistence service to reduce the
variability of service delivery to its customers while providing service. Should try to
minimize the variation of service delivery process.
 The hotel should be adopting new service delivery method like on line bed reservation.
 The hotels must give high emphasis on recreational facilities that is a sub-dimension of
hotel service/product quality to build modern recreational facilities which help the
customer to relax and refresh.
 The hotel should focus on upgrading the services which customers have greater
expectation and less perception.
 The hotel should be aware of continuing the services which the customers have a good
perception because increasing the best part of the service can help them to develop the
other ones.
 Finally, even if the customers are satisfied with the current service quality the hotels must
strive to delight their customers and get a better position in the mind of the customers.

22
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 APPENDIX
Direction: Give your own answer choosing the given alternative

Part -1

1. Gender A. Male B. Female

2. Age Group A. 21-30 B. 31-45 C. 46-60 D. Above 60

3. Education A. High school B. Diploma C. Degree D. Masters E. above Masters

4. Purpose of visit A. Business B. Leisure C. Transit D. Personal

5. How long you have been working in Yacob hotel A. less than 1 year B. 1 year
C. 2-5 year D. more than 5 year

6. Have you been working in other hotel before A. Yes B. No

7. If yes how do you compare the service delivery?

A. Very good B. Good C. Not good D. Very bad

8. What is your responsibility to the service providing process?

A. Very good B. Good C. Not good D. very bad

9. What is the overall level of satisfaction of customers towards the service of the
hotels?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------

10. What are the problems the customer encounters in the

hotel?-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------

28
29
 Part II

No Service Quality Attributes Strongly agree Neutral disagree Strongly

agree disagree
1 The hotels menu item
variety was excellent
2 The food is served hot and
fresh (have good quality)
3 The bathrooms in the
hotel are neat and clean
4 The hotel rooms are clean
and comfortable
5 The hotel provides
modern recreation
facilities

30