CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS OF SERVICE QUALITY IN MALAYSIA (AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY OF SELECTED DELUXE HOTELS)

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1 CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS OF SERVICE QUALITY IN MALAYSIA (AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY OF SELECTED DELUXE HOTELS) This is a preprint of an article published in the Journal of Administrative Science, Vol. 2, pp Please cite this article as, Saeed. M and Sohail, Sadiq M (2001). Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality in Malaysia, Journal of Administrative Science, Vol. 2, pp Electronic copy available at:

2 CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS OF SERVICE QUALITY IN MALAYSIA (AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY OF SELECTED DELUXE HOTELS) Abstract Prof. Mohammad Saeed, International Islamic University Malaysia And Dr. Sadiq Sohail Monash University, Sunway Campus, Malaysia The perceptions of guests are of paramount significance and the hoteliers should know about the key aspects of service quality and their order of importance. This is the main objective of this research, that is, to make the hoteliers aware of what service quality is all about. Through this article, it has been endeavored to examine the differences between hoteliers' perceptions vis-a-vis guests' perceptions. The importance of service quality as a major marketing and competitive 1001 for deluxe hotels has also been put forward. Finally, the article also examines whether deluxe hotels in Malaysia have met the expectations of their guests and as to how they could improve the quality of their services. Keywords: Service quality, Hotel management, Hotel marketing INTRODUCTION With the focus of the government on measures to stimulate economic growth, one of the most potential areas that can be exploited to help recovery 01 the economy is tourism. Tourism has been a net contributor to the foreign exchange reserves of the country. Hotel industry is closely related to tourism, as it provides a support to it. Services constitute a major part of a hotel's product. They provide customers with accommodation and other facilities that are needed. The success of hotels depends, so much on the types of services provided that best suit the needs of customers as well as the quality of the services itself. Therefore, a correct and profound understanding of what is said to be an excellent quality of service is of paramount significance for the hoteliers. OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY This research is geared toward an understanding of guests' view about the service quality criteria of deluxe hotels. This is then compared with the perceptions of the hoteliers. The objective is to examine the points of difference and find whether hoteliers have been able to meet customers' expectations or if they have not been able to, then to analyze and suggest how the consumers' expectations could be satisfactorily met. The problem as we perceive is that, although, many hotels ask their guests to give their feedback with regard to the services provided, yet it is only limited to the services or facilities already available in the hotels. Hoteliers fail to address and explore any other important aspects perceived by guests, contributing to their satisfaction.. 2 Electronic copy available at:

3 Three hotels have been selected for the purpose of this research, namely, Sheraton Subang Hotel, The Legend Hotel, and Holiday Villa (Appendix 1). This research is exploratory and qualitative in nature. To suit the objectives, the research hopes to find consumer perceptions of service quality in deluxe hotels. First-hand information has been obtained from both the guests and the hoteliers. The data was collected from guests through a set of questionnaire, which is divided into five sections. (The respondents were asked to present their opinions on the perceived qualities of service staff, hotel facilities and room facilities). The questionnaire comprises of the issues ranging from the qualities that are expected to be possessed by the hotel staff, ranking of the hotel facilities, and room services provided by the hotels. A question in the open-ended formal pertains to the satisfying incident(s), the guests can recall during their slay in hotel. And finally, information has also been sought for preparing and analyzing the demographic profile of the guests. An explorative study of this type is bound -to be restrained by its own limitations. The scope of the research is confined to only around Kuala Lumpur and Subang area. ANALYSIS Firstly, an attempt has been made to analyze the overall view of all guests on the basis of service staff, hotel facilities and room facilities (Table 1). Secondly, a comparative analysis of each of the three hotels with the overall ranking has been undertaken. (Table 2). Thirdly, the respondents are separated on the basis of tourists and business visitors. A comparison of their service quality perceptions is given in Table 3. Finally, business travelers' overall ranking is compared with each of the deluxe hotels in Table 4 and tourists' overall ranking is compared with individual deluxe hotels in table 5. Table 1 shows the results of the overall view of the guests on the basis of service staff, hotel and room facilities. The mean and rankings have been computed for service qualities, which include efficiency, product knowledge, friendliness of staff, initiative, patience, presentable appearance, consistency in services, effectiveness, decisiveness, sensitivity to guest needs and good communication skills. The mean of the quests' expectations of service quality is almost consistent with the position ranking. This means the ranking can be used to indicate the level of satisfaction of the guests with the service quality. The variables under hotel facilities include, swimming pool, fitness club, shopping gallery, meeting rooms, coffee house, business centre, concierge services, discos, butler services, car rental, currency exchange and formal restaurants. Room facilities include, 24 hour room services, spacious room, coffee/tea maker, valet service, fresh fruits, mini-bar, in-house movies, decor, hairdryer, iron and newspaper- The analysis reveals that the four most important quality variables which guests perceive as important services are 'efficiency', friendliness, consistency in service provision, and sensitivity to guests' needs. Regarding the hotel facilities, meeting rooms, banquet & ballrooms, business center and formal restaurant are the four important quality variables as perceived by guests. As for the room facilities, guests consider 24hour room service, spacious room, fresh fruit and in-house movies/cable TV/teletext as important. Having analyzed an overall view of the guests, an attempt is now being made 10 compare these ranks with those of each of the hotels under study. Table 2 shows guests' responses to each of the hotel's services. Sheraton Subang Hotel services - From a comparison of the guests' expectations with the Hotel's performance ranking, it can be seen that, on the whole, the performance matches with guests' expectations. As the table indicates, the hotel needs to take an initiative to improve its personnel, staff 3

4 communication skills, providing currency exchange facilities and a shopping gallery. II appears that the hotel has given undue emphasis to butler service, valet services, mini bar and coffee - house at the expense of others. The other of carrying out the analysis could be than of the ideal ranking versus the performance ranking. By computing the deviations of the performance ranking from the ideal ranking, and then summing that deviation, we can easily see how far a hotel deviates from the ideal ranking. As the table shows, Holiday villa performed better than the other two hotels, it has the lowest deviation from the ideal ranking, and Sheraton Subang is the second best. Whereas, Legend has to work hard to improve its position. (For details, see Table 6) Legend Hotel. On comparison of the guests' expectations with the hotel's performance ranking, it can be seen that there is a consistency in the top five ranks of staff service. While the guests prefer facilities like, formal restaurants, business center and meeting rooms, the hotel has emphasized on butler services and fitness club. It can be seen from the table, that the hotel needs a formal restaurant and a business center. A comparison between the business travelers' responses in each of the three hotel s with their expectations. As can be seen from the table, in the category of staff services, the rankings of the business travelers in each of the individual hotels differ significantly with their ideal expectations. While, business travelers' top preference has been on efficiency, guests at Holiday Villa have ranked this service as number 2, at Sheraton as number 3 and at Legend as number 5. A further analysis reveals that as regards the top 5 rankings that match in this category, Holiday Villa and the legend have got 4 apiece while Sheraton has only 3. The analysis of the hotel facilities is even more startling. Of the top 5 rankings that match, Holiday villa and Sheraton have 3 dimensions, while the legend has got only 2 dimensions that match. The analysis of the room facilities reveals that of the top 5 rankings that match, all the three hotels have 3 dimensions apiece that match. This analysis clearly indicates the areas that hotel Management must consider for meeting the service expectations of business travelers. Table 5 provides a comparison between the tourists' responses in each of the three hotels with their ideal expectations. As can be seen from the table, in the category of staff services, the rankings of the business travelers in each of the hotels differ with their ideal expectations. While the top 3 ranks more or less match with each of the hotel ranking, tourists' fourth preference has been on the effectiveness. The guests at Holiday Villa have ranked this service as number 10, al Sheraton as number 11 and at Legend as number 8. A further analysis of this table reveals that of the top 5 rankings that match in this category, Holiday Villa and the legend have 4 apiece and Sheraton has only 3 dimensions. The analysis of the hotel facilities is even more revealing. Of the top 5 ran kings that match, Holiday villa and Sheraton have 3 dimensions, while the Legend has 4 dimensions that match. The analysis of the room facilities reveals that of the top 5 rankings that match, Holiday villa has only 2 dimensions that match and Sheraton and the Legend have 3 dimensions apiece that match. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The competition in hotel industry is going to be stiffer and stiffer due to the quality of service awareness on the part of the guests. And moreover, hotel service is something that still can be regarded, as a luxurious need; hence the hoteliers are competing to get customers' spending that is selectively spent by them. If we relate to the tourism industry the challenge is even bigger. When we deal with foreigners, we have to bear in mind that they have different cultural backgrounds and their own unique preferences. This is true in case of both tourists as 4

5 well as business travelers. In the case of business travelers, the selling point is MICE (meeting, convention, and exhibition) where the goal for Malaysia is to become a preferred destination to hold meetings, conventions, exhibitions and other business events, both at regional and international levels. As most of the participants are from business community, the service quality issues from the perspectives of business travelers assume a great significance. To be a winner, hotels should focus more on the quality side of the service considering the competitive environment. The hotels must understand clearly what exactly are the perceptions and expectations of customers. Only those who are able to meet the expectations of customers and satisfy their needs fully will be the winners. Another thing that should be noticed is that the expectations of customers are changing in line with the fast growing and the dynamic nature of contemporary environment. Therefore, the hotels should always keep themselves abreast of the changes that occur. Through this study we have endeavored to explore the determinants of quality service in deluxe hotels from the perspectives of the guests as well as the hotel management. The study has revealed that guests think that the four most important qualities that should he possessed by service staffs are efficiency, friendliness, consistency in service provision, and sensitivity to guests' needs. As regards the most important hotel facilities according to guests are meeting rooms, banquets & ballrooms, business centers, concierge services, and formal restaurants. And finally guests feel that the availability of 24-hr room service, spacious room, in-house entertainment, as well as fresh fruits are the most important room services that should be provided by hotels. The hoteliers might consider this study as the starting point on how to improve the quality of their services. Each hotel 2S analyzed has different views and lays emphasis upon three different issues i.e.. quality of staff, hotel facilities, and room facilities. This is so because a hotel is influenced partly by its particular business environment. Overall the hotels have met the guests' expectation to a great extent. None of them have totally different views with guests. Even though, there are still many wide gaps in terms of how the ranking is done. Indeed, each hotel must adjust itself to the desire of guests otherwise it will lose its competitiveness in the industry. It is very hard indeed to know what exactly do guests desire and need. However, it is possible for hoteliers at least to try continuously to narrow down the gap that exists between their perceptions and guests' perceptions. Otherwise, wider the gap, poorer will be the services that are rendered by hotels, which eventually will, bring down the hotels' performance. With regard to extracting the information regarding guests' needs, hotels can provide an effective channel for the guests to lodge their complains and suggestions, evaluations, or feedback. This can be done through a written form by asking the guests to fill up a questionnaire. Hoteliers also need to train the staff on how to communicate in order to understand, appreciate and absorb guests' perceptions. But more importantly, after the hoteliers get feedback, they have to take necessary actions to improve the quality of services. The guests are very unlikely to come back to the service providers who do not entertain their complaints arid feedback appropriately. The staff has to be trained so that they become sensitive to guests' needs and take an initiative to extend a helping hand so as to avoid a complaint. 5

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16 2. Holiday Villas, Subang Jaya, Malaysia It started its operations in Malaysia in 1986 as a wholly owned company. It is fully owned by Malaysians, and it is listed on KLSE. Holiday Villas Subang Hotel is located in the prestigious township of Subang Jaya, just besides Sheraton. II is only 35-minute drive to KL. Facilities available: Guestrooms Health care rooms Business center Fitness center Splashes pool bar Shopping arcade 3. The Legend Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia It started its operations in Malaysia in 1996 as wholly owned company, fully owned by Malaysians; and it is listed on KLSE. The Legend Hotel is located in Putra place, which is in the center of Kuala Lumpur, just next to Yaohan mall. Facilities available: 420 Guestrooms. Among the guestrooms 30 of them are suite rooms, and in addition to that there are also 206 fully serviced apartments. Business center Fitness center i.e. The Clark Hatch Fitness Center and Squash Courts The VIP spa Shopping center that is known as The Mall including Aktif Lifestyle Stores Supermarket, and Cineplex Dining. There are six dining places offered by The Legend i.e. Di-Alas Brasserie an International Dinner Buffet, Legend Natural Cuisine, Gen Japanese Restaurant, The Monkey Bar, Museum Restaurant a Chinese restaurant, and lastly Beris; Lounge that offers special brews of coffee, specially tea, freshly baked cakes and pastries. 16