AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING HOTEL GUESTS SATISFACTION FROM FRONT OFFICE SERVICES & FACILITIES IN INDIAN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

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1 AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING HOTEL GUESTS SATISFACTION FROM FRONT OFFICE SERVICES & FACILITIES IN INDIAN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ABSTARCT DR. SANJEEV KUMAR*; SANDEEP MALIK** *Assistant Professors, Institute of Hotel & Tourism Management, M.D. University, Rohtak, India. **Assistant Professors, Institute of Hotel & Tourism Management, M.D. University, Rohtak, India. PURPOSE: Main aim of the study is to investigate various underlying dimensions affecting hotel guests satisfaction from services and facilities provided by the front office department of sampled hotels. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The study was undertaken at selected chain hotels situated in Delhi and NCR region of India. The data was collected through a five point Likert type scale ranging from 1 to 5; where 5 denoted Most Important, 4 Very Important, 3 Important, 2 Least Important and 1 Not Important at all. This was developed on the basis of available literature and industry experts opinions. Continuous discussions led to a final questionnaire having 25 items. Factor analysis with varimax rotation is applied to analyse the data. Pinnacle Research Journals 1 FINDINGS: Check-in and Check-out facilities contribute maximum in the satisfaction level from front office department whereas connectivity of the hotel with rail/road/airport and courtesy of doorman is the last dimension. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS: Like any other research this too has its limitation in the form of its universe and sample size which can be addressed in further researches. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The study will provide niche to the researchers for further exploration in the field of hospitality, particularly front office; which is still an open field. KEYWORDS: Hospitality, Front Office.

2 INTRODUCTION The concept of Hotels has been there in societies since time immemorial. In ancient time people used to travel mainly for the religious and trading purposes. The word Hotel came into practice in 18 th century. The word is supposed to has its root in the latin word hospitium or hospes and in French hotel means large house (G. K. Vallen & J. J. Vallen, 2009). Whereas, Bhatnagar(2007) described that the word hospitality is derived from the latin word hospitalitias. He added that as per the oxford dictionary hospitality is defined as reception and entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers with liberality and goodwill. The word is also considered as a relative to words like hospitality and hostiles. The diversity in meanings is contributed by the fact that it was very difficult in early times to judge whether the traveller is friend or ally. It was time when hospitality was free and noting was charged. Hospitality is a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and the public i.e. the business of making and keeping friends, and promoting an atmosphere of better understanding (Bhatnagar, 2007). The charity was forced to turn into business as it was not possible for the household to extend the free food and beverage facility due limited earning resources (G. K. Vallen & J. J. Vallen, 2009). Pinnacle Research Journals 2 Hotels have come a long way since their inception. Modern hotels are, like any commercial establishment, have a large number of departments, equipment and manpower to deliver various products, services and facilities required by the modern guests. Mainly, Front Office, Housekeeping, Food and Beverage Service and Production are core departments complemented by Human Resource, Accounts and Finance, Stores, Maintenance, Sales and Marketing etc. Out of these, the front office may be regarded as the show window of the hotel and hence must be well designed in the first place and maintained in a well organized and orderly manner (Bhatnagar, 2007). Irrespective of hotel s organisation, the front office is always an essential focal point. It includes sections like reservations, reception, cashier, lobby, concierge, bell desk and other points of guests contacts. It may or may not be a part of Room Division section. This department alone generates nearly 60 to 70% of the revenue for a hotel. Ghosh (2005) supported this by saying that front office is one of the major operational and revenue producing departments of the hotels which generates two third of the revenue earned by a hotel from the sale of earned by a hotel from the sale of the guestrooms. This is not only the first but also the last place in which the guest comes into direct contact with the hotel staff (Baker, Huyton & Bradley, 2004). He further propounded that this is the most visible department in a hotel; and reception desk is the focal point of activity within this section. It is at this place at which guests form their first important impressions of the hotel. This is also the communication hub for the daily hotel functioning. In brief, the main function of the front office department is to support and facilitate guests transactions and services. Bitran and Lojo (1993) structured a framework to reflect the different encounters that take place at professional service firms. These are access, check-in, diagnosis, service delivery, check-out, and follow-up. They argued that these encounters are typical in every professional service organization.

3 Danaher and Mattsson (1994) divided the delivery process of a conference event into 4 distinct service encounters namely arrival, coffee-break, lunch, and the conference room. In another study by them in Danaher and Mattsson (1994b), the hotel service delivery process was partitioned into 5 encounters, namely: check-in, room, restaurant, breakfast, and check-out. A survey conducted by famous Marriott Corporation team to identify hotel factors recognized that dimensions such as cleanliness, friendliness of personnel, value, and check-in speed influence guest satisfaction. (Verespej, 1994). Choi and Chu, (2001) in their study of determination of hotel guests satisfaction and repeat patronage in the Hong Kong hotel industry proposed that Hospitality dimension includes questions based on service delivered by the employees, specifically their ability to meet customer needs; and dimension of Ambience refers to architectural design, decor, elegance, colour harmony and atmosphere. Hospitality and Ambience were found to be two significant indicators of hotel customer satisfaction in a model of customer satisfaction and retention as proposed by Sim, Mak and Jones (2006). Davidson, Manning, Brosnan and Timo, (2001) explored relationship between organisational climate, perceived customer satisfaction, and revenue per available room in four- and five-star Australian hotels; proposed that there exists a positive relationship between organizational climate, and customer satisfaction and Francese, (1993) in his study of delivering services; Schneider and Bowen, (1993) researched on human resource management in service organisations; and The outcome was further supported by Gillespie, Denison, Haaland, Smerek and Neale (2008) who tried to link organizational culture and customer satisfaction established that climate for service or service climate is a very important contributor toward customer satisfaction. Pinnacle Research Journals 3 Employee attributes along with reliability and physical features were found to be the most important factor contributing to tourists overall satisfaction (Heung, Wong & Qu., 2000), in a study of behavioural intentions of 630 customers dining experiences at Hong Kong s airport restaurants identified three factors responsible for overall guest satisfaction. On the basis of above mentioned literature it is felt that though researchers have tried to identify factors affecting guests satisfaction in hotels as a whole. But hotel itself is an amalgamation of various departments. Few of them have direct contact with the guests whereas; hence they play a vital role in improving levels of guests satisfaction. Out of these front office is the most important department but there is scarcity of research solely on how the facilities and services of front office contribute to the satisfaction level of a guest. Therefore, this empirical study was designed to uncover underlying dimensions affecting hotel guests satisfaction from services and facilities provided by the front office department of five major chain hotels of Delhi and NCR region. METHODOLOGY The lack of research in the area of front office forced the researchers to construct a questionnaire on five point Likert type scale, ranging from 1 to 5; where 5 denoted Most Important, 4 Very

4 Important, 3 Important, 2 Least Important and 1 Not Important at all, with the help of people from industry and academics. Initially, the questionnaire, with 30 questions, was pretested on 50 guests and evaluated by 10 experts, both from academics and hotel. This led to omission of five questions. Thus, the final questionnaire has 25 questions relating to all aspects of front office. The guests of five major chain hotels of Delhi and NCR region comprise universe for the study. 441 usable questionnaires were used for further analysis out of the total 500 questionnaires administered to the guests of sampled hotels. Factor analysis, with varimax rotation, was applied with the help of PASW Statistics 18 to analyse the data. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION Factor analysis is also used on the products and services offered by front office department. Initially there were 25 items in this category but when factor analysis was applied items having factor loading less than 0.5 are excluded and factor analysis was performed again on the remaining items. From the value of KMO (0.733) in the Table: 1, it is clear that data is fit for applying factor analysis and eight factors were extracted as a result of this. (Refer to Table: 2) TABLE: 1 GOODNESS OF FIT TEST FOR FACTOR ANALYSIS OF FRONT OFFICE Pinnacle Research Journals 4 KMO and Bartlett's Test (Goodness of fit) for the samples Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square Df 253 Sig The first factor is related to check in and checkout facilities, security measures at the entrance, special tariff offered to frequent guests and allocation of room as per guest choice. This factor is representing per cent of variance and eigen value of Second factor extracted includes four items. Out of these 3 items i.e valet parking facility, pick up and drop facility and escorting by bell boy are part of uniformed service. The last item is associated with extending online reservation facilities by reservation staff. The said factor is representing per cent of variance and eigen value of Only two items are included in the third factor which is associated with providing information about products and services by reservation staff and various modes of reservation available contributing percent of variance and eigen value of

5 TABLE: 2 IMPORTANT DIMENSIONS FOR FRONT OFFICE Pinnacle Research Journals 5 Factor 1: Check-In facilities This hotel offers special tariff to frequent guests As a frequent guest, flexible check-out facilities is offered Security measures at the entrance are appropriate and effective This hotel offers flexible check-in timings This hotel allocates room as per guest s choice Factor 2:Concierge Facilities This hotel provides valet parking facility This hotel provides Pick-up and drop facility In this hotel, bell boy escorts guest to the room This hotel extends online reservation facility Factor 3:Reservation Services Reservation staff provides adequate information of hotel product and services This hotel provides various modes of reservation Factor 4: Ambiance of Lobby Temperature of the lobby is comfortable Required facilities in the lobby are available, attractive and comfortable. Ambiance of lobby is Factor Loadings satisfying Factor 5 Efficiency of Check In Process Check-in process in this hotel is efficient

6 Receptionist attends guests promptly Visible and proper signage for this hotel are provided Factor 6 Check Out Process Various modes of payment are offered by the hotel Check-out process in the hotel is efficient Factor 7 politeness of Reception Staff Lobby of this hotel is grand Reception staff of this hotel is polite and friendly Factor 8 Connectivity of the hotel This hotel is well connected to rail/road/air Doorman is courteous Variance (Percent) Eigen Value Items related to facilities provided in the lobby are temperature of the lobby is comfortable:, availability and attractiveness of required facilities in the lobby and ambience of the lobby which are included in fourth factor. These items are representing per cent of variance and Eigen value of Pinnacle Research Journals 6 Fifth factor extracted is representing per cent of variance and eigen value of and includes items like check in process is efficient, Receptionist attends guests promptly and visible and proper signage are provided by hotel. Various modes of payment and efficiency of Check-out process are a part of the sixth factor extracted as a result of factor analysis. Eigen value of this factor is and has percent of variance. With a variance per cent of and Eigen value of the two items lobby of the hotel is grand and politeness and friendliness of reservation staff are included in factor seven. In the last and eighth factor items like connectivity of the hotel to road/rail/air and courtesy of doorman are included with an eigen value of and variance of per cent. CONCLUSION The practical and theoretical importance of front office in hotel operations is undoubtedly above all. Even before arrival front office starts making an impression on guests which continues even after departure of guest from hotel. The available literature also substantiates the same that the services and facilities extended by front office play a significant role in determining satisfaction

7 level of guests. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate various factors affecting hotel guests satisfaction from the front office department of sampled hotels. It was found that checkin and check-out facilities followed by concierge facilities, reservation services, ambience of lobby, Efficiency of check-in and check-out process, politeness of the staff and connectivity of the hotel emerged as the important dimensions influencing satisfaction of guests from front office. Although study has its own constraints regarding universe, sample size and other resources, yet the study would be a milestone for the future researchers in the field of front office, hospitality and guest satisfaction. Further, it is suggested to take up the untouched issues in the present study. REFERENCES Baker, S., Huyton, J. & Bradley, P. (2004). Principles of Hotel Front Office Operations 2 nd Ed. Thomson Asia Pte Ltd., Singapore. Bhatnagar S. K. (2007). Front office Management. Frank Bros. & Co. (publishers) ltd., New Delhi. Bitran, G. R. & Lojo, M. P. (1993). A framework for analyzing the quality of the customer interface. European Management Journal, 11(4), Choi, T. Y. & Chu, R. (2001). Determination of hotel guests satisfaction and repeat patronage in the Hong Kong hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 20, Danaher, P. J. & Mattsson, J. (1994a). Customer satisfaction in the service delivery process. European Journal of Marketing, 28(5), Danaher, P. J., & Mattsson, J. (1994b). Cumulative encounter satisfaction in the hotel conference process. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 5(4), Pinnacle Research Journals 7 Davidson, M., Mannin, M.L., Brosnan, P. & Timo, N. (2001). Organizational climate, perceived customer satisfaction, and revenue per available room in four- and five-star Australian hotels, Tourism Analysis, 6(2), pp Francese, P. (1993). Breaking the rules: Delivering responsive service. Hospitality Research Journal, 16(2), Ghosh, S. G. (2005). Hotel Front Office Training Manual, Aman Pub., New Delhi. Gillespie, M. A., Denison, D. R., Haaland, S., Smerek, R. & Neale, W. S. (2008). Linking organizational culture and customer satisfaction: Results from two companies in different industries, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 17(1), Heung, V. C. S., Wong, M. Y. & Qu, H. (2000). Airport-restaurant service quality in Hong Kong. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 41(3),

8 Schneider, B. & Bowen, D. E. (1993). The service organization: Human resources management is crucial. Organizational Dynamics, Spring, Sim, J., Mak, B. & Jones, D. (2006). A Model of Customer Satisfaction and Retention for Hotels. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 7(3), Vallen, G. K & Vallen J. J. (2009). Check-In Check-Out: Managing Hotel Operations, 8th Edition. Pearson Education. Verespej, M. A. (1994). How the best got better. Industry Week, 243 (5): 27. Pinnacle Research Journals 8