FACTORS INFLUENCING FOREIGN STUDENT TOURISTS PERSPECTIVE OF BUDGET HOTEL IN MALAYSIA

NATTACHA CHAYAWISAN FARHANA BT ZAINAL JANE MAKWINJA CHOW TAK CHOY

Sunway University No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia 09003666@imail.sunway.edu.my

ABSTRACT This study examined the factors that influence the view of foreign students who travelled and experience budget hotels in Malaysia with the overall satisfaction level and the likelihood of returning to the same hotel in their subsequent trips. Using factor analysis techniques, this study has identified six budget hotel factors that were likely to influence the intentions of customers choice: Staff Service Quality, Room Quality, Value, Supplementary Services ,Security and Location. Correlation and linear regression analysis was then applied to examine the importance of each of those hotel factors in determining the customers overall satisfaction and their likelih ood of returning to the same hotel. Value, Staff Service Quality and Room Quality were the three most influential factors in determining the overall satisfaction level and their Value is the only most influential factor for customers likelihood of returning back to the s ame budget hotels. Keywords: Factors influencing, foreign student tourists, perspective, budget hotel, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION Malaysia has a growing tourism industry (Poon & Low, 2005). Moreover, tourism has become a fundamental component of people lifestyle. People travel from place to place for different reasons such as visiting friends or relatives; business; education; healthcare; sport and leisure (Nanthakumar & Ibrahim, 2010). It is appeared that in 2008 international tourists increased by 2% which reached 924 million people (Nanthakumar & Ibrahim, 2010). In addition, young people or youth are travelling more than before. It is appeared that youth traveling is the fastest growing traveling market segment (Taiyab, 2005). Due to the globalisation has made people easier to access information for traveling, therefore, there is an increasing intensity of the competitiveness in tourism industry especially in hotel sector (Verdugo, Garcia, & Roldan, 2009).

The high level of competitiveness in the hotel industry is reflected by narrower margins and pressure of the hotel that try to offer more as well as better services (Verdugo et al., 2009). It is appeared that there are more budget hotels occurring in Malaysia with the insight that people now are more conscious with the spending due to the trend that has continued from the financial crisis (Poon & Low, 2005). However, customers especially youth tourists still want to receive good experience via their visits. Therefore, hotels are developing more focus towards the factors like staff service quality, room quality, supplementary services, security, pricing and location to make travelers have good visiting experiences. The travelers would consider those factors in order to select the hotel and whether they are satisfied with the hotel or not (Chu & Choi, 2000; Poon & Low, 2005). In order to distinguish budget hotels, the challenge they faced would be to create and deliver better value to customers, which subsequently will enhance productivity and profitability. Delivering superior service quality to customers is important for business success (McDougall & Levesque, 2000). Based on challenges faced by the hotel industry, this research aimed to address the objective to examine nature of the relationships between factors of hotel attraction and customers satisfaction and customers return intention.

LITERATURE REVIEW Student Tourist The youth travel market had no widely accepted definition but World Tourism Organisation (WTO) had define youth travel as young tourist travelers aged between 16 to 25 years old (Taiyab, 2005). Travelers are said to be tourist needs to fulfill a requirement which involves at least one night stay at the travel place. According to WTO, the international trips taken by the travelers had increased from 14.6% to 20% in the year of 2001 and it is forecasted to be 25% in 2005. Youth tourism can be mainly students due to their age between 16 to 25 years old and they are a market that grows even faster than ecotourism and cultural tourism. Youth tourism can be further categorised into group travel and independent travel. In group travels, they must be at least in a group of six people (Taiyab, 2005). Group travels can be further divided into two categories which is school based and non-school based travel. School based travels are mainly exchange trips for example in Malaysia, students are actively involved with exchange trip between Japanese schools.

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 Total

Table 1: Number of youth visitors per year Number of visitor Percent (%) 1527 16.6 3723 40.4 2241 24.3 1720 18.7 9211 100.00 Source: Ministry of Education Malaysia (2005)

Increase (%) +143 -39.8 -23.2

For independent travelers, they are usually alone or in small informal groups. Most of them usually travels or chooses a destination that is far away from their home so that they could stay a little bit longer. Foreign independent traveler used to stay longer than domestic travelers because they are more eager to explore the culture, increase their knowledge and hunt for excitement.

Attributes Influencing Student Tourists Staff Service Quality Staff service quality may play a huge role in determining on why customers may choose a hotel. It is an intangible element that could lead to customers satisfaction. The quality of staff service can be associated with the attitude of the staff while serving their customers. Bitnar et al. (1994) mentioned that the interpersonal interaction between the customer and staff will have a great influences on determining customers satisfaction in the hospital industry (Tuzun & Devrani, 2010). Supported by Ramamoorthy and Carroll (1998), besides room quality and hotel image that usually satisfy customers satisfaction, the hotel staff attributes is the most important factors for the overall satisfaction (Tuzun & Devrani, 2010). Under the staff quality factor, staff will have to provide an efficient service besides understanding customers request. Staff needs to portray a helpful service especially when they are at the check-in or check-out counter besides showing their polite and friendly manner. Besides that, if staff acquires multilingual skills added with neat appearance at all times, this would be an added advantage to the overall customers satisfaction. Room Quality Room quality is another factor that could give a huge influence on the selection and satisfaction of hotels by customers. Room quality indicates how the hotels perform their ability to provide a quality room (Yahya, 2000). Some travelers or customers may see quality of room as a vital tangible element when staying in a hotel. Thus hotels need to maintain their room quality for a comfortable experience. Room quality must include clean room, well-maintained rooms, comfortable, a safe environment, location that is convenient coupled by courteous and prompt services by staffs (Choi & Chu, 2001). As supported by Saleh and Ryan (1992) that interior dcor and exterior aesthetics, room safety box and equipment in the room also contribute to the room quality (Tuzun & Devrani, 2010). Supplementary Services Supplementary services factor includes secondary services offered by the hotel to provide convenience for customers (Yahya, 2000). These services deals with services such as wake-up calls by staff when customers need it, wifi access throughout the whole hotel area, free newspaper for hotel residents, brochures of city information and also mini-bar with live band for soothing experience. Security John et al. (2000) and Kara et al. (2003) stated that security is one of the important factors to be concerned by most of the travelers (Jayaraman, Lin, Guat, & Ong, 2010). Security factors can be accidents happening in the hotel or some unwanted issues happening in the country such as terrorism and riots. These factors have a negative impact to tourists. The more these incidents happen the less tourist visits the country has. For most of the western travelers, security became very important to them when choosing visiting spots (Poon & Low, 2005). Leisure trips or group trips that usually involve family members made traveler more sensitive towards security issues in the country they are visiting and the hotel that they are choosing. Simple security issues in the hotel such as fire extinguisher, good fire detection system, reliable security personnel and alarm system became factors influencing tourist choices (Clow, Garretson, & Kurtz, 1994; Marshall, 1993). As security factor could increase customers satisfaction, this means that they are willing to pay more to have a safer place to stay and hotels that ensure their security efficiently will stand out gaining competitive advantage over rivals (Chu & Choi, 2000). Pricing Pricing factors would lead to repeat sales and customers would usually come back if the price satisfies them because they are concern with the fact that it is value for money. Visitors from different origin country may have different purchasing patter for example USA travelers are more willing to spend on accommodation but Asians

are more concern about shopping (Poon & Low, 2005). Price factors also include other expenditure during the vacation such as transport service to the destination, tour services and entertainment costs besides accommodation costs. Tourists are more concern about looking for deals where they could spend less and buy more. Hence, a good combination of product and service quality with fair prices would attract many tourist and repeating sales during holidays (Poon & Low, 2005). Location Lewis and Chambers (1989) and McCleary et al. (1993) mentioned that travelers chose to stay in hotel based on the location (Chu & Choi, 2000). Location is the value-added services that could also determine the customers satisfaction (Poon & Low, 2005). Hotel could be considered as having a good location when it has easy accessible to the city as well as locates at the prime area where travelers could conveniently take public transports. In addition, the hotel should not be difficult to find or locates in dangerous area. Customers satisfaction Customers satisfaction is a very crucial issue in every business and has been used as a differentiator as part of the business strategy. Customers satisfaction can be defined as the customers overall evaluation of the performance of an offering date (Anders & Micheal, 2005). This basically means the strong overall satisfaction later reflect on the customers loyalty positively towards a range of available products and service. Customers satisfaction helps to drive the organisations market share, revenues and its competitive strength. Several important factors can be used to help businesses to determine and understand how satisfied or dissatisfied the consumer is. Those factors include the attribution theory, equity theory and disconfirmation theory. In relation to the disconfirmation theory satisfaction is determined by the intensity and direction of the gap between the expectation and perceived performance. That is to say, people are likely to be more satisfied if the service performance meets or exceed their expectations and on the other hand they are likely to be dissatisfied if the performance of the service falls below their expectations. Attribution theory is more on how people interpret events and how this is related to their thinking and behavior. The assumption of the attribution theory is that; people try to determine why people do what they do and thus causes a certain behavior. Equity theory is concerned with consumers perceptions towards fairness in the market exchange. Richard (2010, p.42) stated that Consumers form perceptions of their inputs (that are search, decision, making money, and so on) and outputs into a particular exchange. Equity Theory maintains that people seek a balance between their efforts and rewards and the rewards that others receive for their efforts.

METHODOLOGY Conceptual Framework Figure 1: The research framework

Dependent Variables Independent Variables Staff Service Quality Room Quality Supplementary Services Security Value Location Customers satisfaction

Customers Return Intention

In this study, the conceptual diagram focuses on the measurement of staff service quality, room quality, supplementary services, security, value and location against the customers satisfaction and return intention. Some researchers have suggested that customers satisfaction and return intention are depended on those factors mentioned of the overall hotel industry measurement. However, this paper is focusing to examine the relationship of independent and dependent variables to the edge of budget hotel and the focal point is on foreign students. The Sample The sample of this study is the Non-Malaysian students whose at the same time have been travelled and experienced budget hotel in Malaysia. Using a simple random sampling approach, the questionnaires were distributed in total of 300 at Sunway University and via online for convenience purpose. As a result, exactly 200 questionnaires were collected. However, 182 questionnaires were usable for data analysis. The screening questions were: first, identifying the respondents as Non-Malaysian students, and second, determining whether they have stayed at budget hotel in Malaysia. Instrumentation In this study, the questionnaire instrument is adopted from several researchers and designed in 3 sections as shown below: Part A- This section of questionnaire is designed and adopted from Chu & Choi (2000) and Choi & Chu (2001) to determine the respondents demographic. The demographic profile included respondents nationality, gender, age, and monthly income/ allowance. This information gave the rough idea of our research study demographic. Part B- In this part of questionnaire, it is designed to measure the factors that influencing the perspective of foreign students who experienced the stayed at budget hotel in Malaysia. There were 30 attributes that captured into 6 factors, which are staff service quality (Choi & Chu, 2001; Chu & Choi, 2000; Poon & Low, 2005; Yahya, 2000), room quality(Choi & Chu, 2001; Chu & Choi, 2000; Poon & Low, 2005; Yahya, 2000), supplementary services(Choi & Chu, 2001; Poon & Low, 2005; Yahya, 2000), security(Choi & Chu, 2001; Chu & Choi, 2000; Poon & Low, 2005; Yahya, 2000), value(Choi & Chu, 2001; Chu & Choi, 2000; Yahya, 2000), and location(Poon & Low, 2005). The respondents were asked to rate their levels of agreement based on their experience that they had on their visit to any budget hotels in Malaysia, on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree-(1) to strongly disagree-(7) by signifying (4) as neutral. Part C- This section of questionnaire is designed and adopted mainly Chu & Choi (2000) and Choi & Chu (2001). Two questions were asked respondents to rate the overall customers satisfaction level: first, overall how much they satisfied with hotel (which indicated to the customers satisfaction dependent variable) and what is the possibility of them coming back to the hotel (which indicated to the return intention independent variable). The seven-point Likert scale ranging from strongly satisfied-(1) to strongly dissatisfied-(7) for the rating of the first question and mostly likely-(1) to most unlikely-(7) for the rating of the second question. Data Analysis Data was keyed in and processed in SPSS v16.0 software and subjected to reliability and normality testing prior to further the analysis: Reliability Test The value for Cronbachs Alpha at the minimum of 0.70 would be an satisfactory value of reliability coefficient (Nunnally, 1978). From the data in Table 2 has shown that our Cronbachs Alpha is range from 0.823 to 0.938, which are all satisfied the minimum value of 0.70. Therefore, our data collected from this study is reliable and being obtained at an acceptable level of consistency.

Table 2: Cronbachs Alpha reliability test results Variables Cronbachs Alpha 0.881 Staff Service Quality 0.938 Room Quality 0.823 Supplementary Services 0.898 Security 0.872 Value 0.914 Location

Normality Test Normality testing is to measure the form of data distribution assessed through the use of skewness and kurtosis values (Mey & Mohamed, 2010). As mentioned by Hair, Anderson, Tatham & Black (1998) that the skewness is the tool that uses to determine the balance of the distribution and kurtosis is for measuring the peak or flat of the distribution as compared to a normal distribution (Mey & Mohamed, 2010). The result in Table 3 has shown the skewness data ranging from 0.292 to 0.768. In addition, Hair, et al (1998) mentioned that bell-shaped curve would be within +/-3 standard deviation from its mean. Furthermore, our kurtosis value is ranging from -0.585 to 0.436, and as mentioned by Hoyle (1995) the kurtosis values would not exceed +/- 10 thresholds to have normal distribution (Mey & Mohamed, 2010). Therefore, from the skewness and kurtosis data would be able to derive that our variables are considered normally distributed.

Table 3: Skewness and Kurtosis results for normality test Variables Skewness 0.547 Staff Service Quality 0.425 Room Quality 0.292 Supplementary Services 0.350 Security 0.633 Value 0.502 Location 0.768 Customers satisfaction

Kurtosis -0.197 -0.422 -0.398 -0.585 0.017 -0.483 0.436

FINDINGS Demographic Data The sample data had 100 male respondents (50%) and 100 female respondents (50%). 36.5 percent of total respondents fall under age of 20 years old and below, 53.5 percent fall in 21-24 years age group, 8 percent fall in 25-30 years age group, 1.5 percent fall in 31-34 years age group and 0.5 percent fall in 40 years old and above age group. 7 percent of total respondents monthly income fall less than RM600, 21.5 percent fall in RM600-1000 monthly income group, 17.5 percent fall in RM1001-1400 monthly income group, 13.5 percent fall in RM14011800 monthly income group, 23 percent fall in RM1801-2200 monthly income group and 17.5 percent fall in RM2201 and above monthly income group. Lastly, 65 percent of the total respondents are Asian, 0.5 percent is Australian, 2.5 percent are European, 30.5 percent are African and 1.5 percent are from North America continent.

Correlation Positive value of Pearsons correlation coefficient shows that it is correlated. The coefficient valued more than 0.5 and less than 0.8 is at an acceptable level, however, the value below 0.5 is weakly correlated (Bolboaca & Jantschi, 2006). From the data in Table 4 shows that some independent variables are more correlated to customers satisfaction, which are staff service quality, room quality and value. In addition, Pearsons correlation coefficient data of independent variables against customers return intention are ranging from 0.292 to 0.449 and is appeared that value (0.512) is the most influencing variable for the customers return intention. Table 4: Mean, Standard Deviations, Pearsons Correlation of Independent Variables of Customers satisfaction and Return Intention Customers satisfaction Return Intention Item Mean Standard Pearsons Mean Standard Pearsons Deviation correlation Deviation correlation 2.96 1.086 0.543 3.10 1.249 0.380 Staff Service Quality 2.86 1.078 0.557 3.02 1.282 0.361 Room Quality 3.30 1.123 0.473 3.35 1.172 0.402 Supplementary Services 3.14 1.216 0.435 3.22 1.285 0.449 Security 2.89 1.343 0.539 3.02 1.483 0.512 Value 2.57 1.080 0.404 2.78 1.360 0.292 Location

Linear Regression The data in Table 5 below shows that not all of our independent variables are significant to customers satisfaction, however, the Pearsons correlation coefficient (Table 4) data shows that some of variables are more correlated than one another. Staff service quality, room quality and value had a coefficient less than 0.05 which shows the significance at 95% interval towards customers satisfaction as shown in Table 5. The other three variables which are security, location and supplementary services are not significant towards customers satisfaction; however, it is still correlated shown in correlation findings. Table 5: Linear Regression on Customers Satisfaction Item Coefficient Significant 0.002** Staff Service Quality 0.020** Room Quality 0.060 Supplementary Services 0.790 Security 0.000** Value 0.832 Location **significant at 5 percent level Furthermore, the only independent variable that is significant towards the customers return intention is value. The coefficient has the significance of lower 0.05. However, the other five variables which are staff service quality; room quality, supplementary services, security and location appeared to be not significant, which means

that those variables do not affect customers return intention (Table 6). However, in Pearsons correlation coefficient results show that all six variables are correlated.

Table 6: Linear Regression on Return Intention Item Coefficient Significant 0.136 Staff Service Quality 0.892 Room Quality 0.384 Supplementary Services 0.074 Security 0.000** Value 0.565 Location **significant at 5 percent level In addition, the R-square of model that all independent variables perceived towards customers satisfaction is 0.464 whereas R-square towards customers return intention is 0.324. Moreover, according to Duke University (2011) R-square of over 0.25 or 25% would be respectable. Therefore, our both dependent models are acceptable.

RESULT DISCUSSION It is vital for hotel owners or managers to study and understand the relationship between customers satisfaction level towards the facilities and services offered by hotels that they stayed, and whether they have an intention of coming back to the hotel or not. Hotels are businesses that can be categorised as long term investments, so only those hotels that can attract and maintain satisfaction have a high chance to survive. With the growing number of international students in Malaysia, budget hotels would see this as an opportunity to offer more to the students thus these students will eventually recommend to their friends and this is one of the marketing tools that can generate more profits to the budget hotels. According to Cronin and Taylor (1992) as cited in Choi and Chu (2001), customers satisfaction act as a foundation that sustains the brands attitude and intention to repurchase the brand again. The finding of this report shows that there are relative impacts of six hotel factors that contribute to customers overall satisfaction level and the likelihood of them coming back to the hotels. As we can see from an empirical perspective, the top three hotel that determine overall satisfaction level and likelihood of returning are Room Quality, Security and Staff Service Quality. The following unit indicates some explanations for the determinants of hotel factors in relation to the customers satisfaction level and the likelihood of coming back to the same budget hotel for their returning trips. Room Quality Room Quality has been identified as the most influential factor in determining the overall customers satisfaction level. In order to maintain customers satisfaction level, some additional resources need to be considered, including cleanliness, quite environment, room temperature control, and well-equipped bathroom. Although budgets hotels are relatively cheaper than the normal hotels, hoteliers should emphasis on environmental signs when designing promotional activities or advertising. As mentioned by Parasuraman et al (1988) cited in Choy & Chu (2001), hotels service quality will result to a positive attitude if it meets or exceed customers satisfaction.

Staff Service Quality Under this Staff Service Quality, this factor is one of the most significant factors that contribute to the overall satisfaction of customers. The employee-customer relationship refers to the efficient of front desk for checkin/out, the staff understand the service when travelers requested, politeness and friendliness of staff, the capability of staff to converse in multi-lingual and staff are helpful towards customers Hoteliers need to make sure that employee-customer interactions are always in good manners and this will result to the overall satisfaction level in service quality, and the likelihood of returning to the budget hotels (Choi &Chu, 2001). According to Bitner (1990), satisfaction could enforce quality perceptions; however, it only applies directly (Choi & Chu, 2001). Furthermore, it is added that satisfaction is a huge influence towards future quality perceptions. Therefore, hoteliers from time to time must arrange an in-house training programmes to improve employees friendliness, language skills and courtesy so that customers feel welcome at the budget hotels. As supported by Choi & Chu (2000), hotel managers should provide human resource training for workers to work efficiently. However, our study only focus on budget hotels while our sample covers only international students that have stayed in budget hotels in Malaysia, and different hotel ranking provides different kinds of service quality for travelers. In this case, those that have stayed in three, four and five star hotels can obtain a better quality then two and one start hotels (Poon & Low, 2005). Budget hotels need to examine what other skills and knowledge they can offer for the convenient of travelers. Value While Value, which associated with the price of the hotel and whether it is value for money. As in our findings, we found that Value is a huge contributing factor that leads to high level of satisfaction and the possibility of travelers coming back to the hotels. According to Ananth et al (1992), travelers are more concern with regard to the hotels brand familiarity and reputation (Poon & Low, 2005). Therefore, in our study our focus is students and they may not concern brand name and hotels reputations for purchasing preference and that is why they prefer budget hotels as their preference and budget hotels are value for money. It is assumed that students mainly earn money from their pocket income by parents thus going for a budget travelling would be the factor on why they choose budget hotels over the normal three star hotels and above. Supplementary Services, Location and Security The findings of this study demonstrate that Supplementary Services, Location and Security are the least significant factors that lead to travelers satisfaction level. As for the factor of Supplementary Services this factor consist of the trustworthiness of services given, the reliability of wake up calls, WiFi connections are good, mini bar are provided, and city broachers are given to travelers. This factor may not be as crucial as other factors in the search of customers satisfaction level. As agreed by Choi &Chu (2001), Supplementary Services is not a prime factor for travelers; however, Room Quality is regarded as the most important factor for travelers. Under the Location factor, it refers to the accessibility of the hotel, the hotel location was at co nvenient area, and it must be easy to find. As for most international students, places of travelling in Malaysia may not be at ease due to Malaysia is not their home country. Therefore location of hotels is important to them so that it is convenient for travelers to find (Poon & Low, 2005). However, this factor does not affect the overall satisfaction is the location is not as convenient as they would prefer. Student would not mind when Location is not a huge factor as students are looking for budget hotels that are considered low-cost compared to the normal high-standard hotels. Security does not have a high significant level that contributes to the overall customers satisfaction level. Security factor deals with hotel security and safety as what perceived by customers. Security factor does have an impact towards customers preference of budget hotels. Our study did not propose that with the absence of this Security factor it would not lead to customers satisfaction. However, with the presence of this factor, it is more likely that it would lead to higher customers satisfaction level. Travelers may see that staying in budget hotels are already cheap compared to the higher standard hotels, therefore protections and security is regarded as important to travelers. According to Choi and Chu (2001), different hotels may have different kinds of safety and security system and it is up to the hotels to be different than other hotels to gain confidence and trust from

travelers. In this study, international students see Security as not a high importance when they stay in budget hotels in Malaysia as they pay low-cost for budget hotels.

IMPLICATIONS A research on the factors influencing foreign students tourists perspective of budget hotels in Malaysia will help foster budget hotels to improve and maintain their foreign customers satisfaction and thus leading to having intentions of coming back. This means if the customer is not satisfied with the form of service offered in a certain budget hotel then he/she is unlikely to come back to that particular budget hotel. According to the findings using the linear regression there is significance between customers return intentions and value, meaning in order to influence foreign tourists as budget hotel owners they must make sure customers value and satisfaction must be important and be provided. When it comes to consumers, they must learn that not every budget hotel can offer best customers satisfaction and value as they are cheap and affordable so they would not expect much during their stay in budget hotels. If they want perfection and great value, they should consider other hotels higher than the budget hotel such as four or higher stars hotels. With a vast growing of businesses in the hotel industry especially the budget hotels, this study will be vital to hotel owners as it will help them recognise that the customers value and satisfaction are the key elements to success and to consumers intentions of coming back again. It will assist the budget hotel owners to really value their consumers in the sense that they are the backbone of the business rather than trying to cut costs and ignoring customers satisfaction attributes. The study will furthermore assist consumers to know the expectations of budget hotel and have a wider variety of budget hotels to choose from considering the attributes related to satisfaction and value such as customer services that offered to them. Consumers will also learn to communicate their preferences and standards to the budget hotels they are poised to listen and respond. This means as consumers they have to voice out and let changes be made in case of next time or any intentions of coming back then the service would have improved or fixed. Also, if customers do give feedback and their opinions then it means they cannot be deceived with unsatisfactory services and values thus choose a better budget hotel. In relation to foreign customers or consumers, this study will help realise that Malaysia is a multicultural country with different races; therefore, the level of customers satisfaction and value is likely to be perceived differently depending on the certain culture. In other words, what might be satisfactory to an Asian must not be perceived to be by an African. It is then crucial for the service providers (budget hotels) to make sure the attributes that results in satisfaction and customer value are standard and are perceived by everyone. This study will then help the budget hotels to make the customers to have the intention of coming back and being loyal to their hotels due to satisfied customer service and facilities. This study also conveys a message to services providers that customers satisfaction is the key to profitability now and in future, therefore, as companies, they have to make sure all the attributes/ factors affecting foreign students tourists perspective on the budget hotels are always in place and fulfilled. Otherwise the company or business is likely to close down or experience low profits and in result lead low stuff turnover.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY There are limitations to our study that need to be addressed. We only made our study towards budget hotels and the respondents targeted are mainly gathered around Sunway University area. There might be some bias that exists because respondents to our questionnaire are mainly Asians student tourist. Other than that, we had scope down our customers satisfaction attribute to six where there might be more than six that would influence customers satisfaction as well as customer return intention.

CONCLUSION As we can see from an empirical perspective, the top three factors that determine overall satisfaction level and likelihood of returning are Staff Service Quality, Room Quality, and Value, where the Room Quality has been identified as the most influential factor in determining the overall customers satisfaction level. The findings of this study demonstrate that Supplementary Services, Security and Location are the least significant factors that lead to travellers satisfaction level. Furthermore, this study will play a crucial role to the business society especially those that own budget hotels as it shows how important the customers satisfaction is. Therefore, it is essential for companies or service providers to consider their customers needs first, and then only customer loyalty and profits will come in place to them as rewards. Without doing these, the unlikely hood of customers coming back to the budget hotels and being dissatisfied will be occurred. The budget hotel owners should make effective that customers come first before considering cutting costs and that they should give them most attention by focusing on the factors that mostly affect their customers perception and especially foreign youth travellers perspective.

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