Project On Customer Retention

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ArthPrabandh:A JournalofEconomicsandManagement
Vol.2Issue3March2013,ISSN22780629
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING HOTEL GUESTS

SATISFACTION FROM FRONT OFFICE SERVICES & FACILITIES IN
INDIAN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
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.
ABSTARCT
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.
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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.
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.
______________________________________________________________________________
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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 18th 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).
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 hotels 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.
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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.
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 Kongs 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
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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

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
Sig.
0.733
4618.324
253
0.000
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 12.450 per cent of variance and eigen value of 2.864.
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 11.044 per cent of variance and eigen value of 2.540.
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 10. 227 percent of variance and eigen value of 2.352.
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TABLE: 2
IMPORTANT DIMENSIONS FOR FRONT OFFICE
Factor 1: Check-In facilities

This hotel offers special tariff 0.786
to frequent guests
As a frequent guest, flexible 0.677
check-out facilities is offered
Security measures at the
0.646
entrance are appropriate and
effective
This hotel offers flexible
0.616
check-in timings
This hotel allocates room as 0.609
per guests choice
Factor 2:Concierge Facilities
This hotel provides valet
0.787
parking facility
This hotel provides Pick-up
0.728
and drop facility
In this hotel, bell boy escorts
0.694
guest to the room
This hotel extends online
0.106
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
satisfying
Factor 5 Efficiency of Check In Process
Check-in process in this hotel
is efficient
Factor Loadings
4
5
0.775
0.678
0.811
0.729
0.653
0.759
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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)
12.450 11.044 10.227
Eigen Value
2.864 2.540 2.352
0.656
0.512
0.779
0.735
0.739
0.544
0.760
9.733
2.239
8.445
1.942
0.757
8.105 6.927 5.754
1.864 1.593 1.323
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 9.733 per cent of variance and Eigen
value of 2.239.
Fifth factor extracted is representing 8.445 per cent of variance and eigen value of 1.942 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 1.864 and has 8.105 percent of
variance.
With a variance per cent of 6.927 and Eigen value of 1.593 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 1.323 and variance of 5.754 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
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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 2nd 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), 385-396.
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, 277-297.
Danaher, P. J. & Mattsson, J. (1994a). Customer satisfaction in the service delivery process.
European Journal of Marketing, 28(5), 5-16.
Danaher, P. J., & Mattsson, J. (1994b). Cumulative encounter satisfaction in the hotel conference
process. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 5(4), 69-80.
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.12337.
Francese, P. (1993). Breaking the rules: Delivering responsive service. Hospitality Research
Journal, 16(2), 55-76.
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), 112-132.
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), 86-96.
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Schneider, B. & Bowen, D. E. (1993). The service organization: Human resources management
is crucial. Organizational Dynamics, Spring, 39-52.
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), 1-23.
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.

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APJEM

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING HOTEL GUESTS

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The study was undertaken at selected chain hotels

GOODNESS OF FIT TEST FOR FACTOR ANALYSIS OF FRONT OFFICE

Factor 1: Check-In facilities

Receptionist attends guests

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