According to the latest World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO, 2016) records, about 1.2 billion tourists have crossed international borders in 2015, an increase of 4.4%. For 2030, numbers are forecasted to reach 1.8 billion (see Figure 1). With the globalized and more accessible world, every sector of the tourism industry, including the hospitality sector, faces various challenges. Guests with diverse cultural and social backgrounds (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Kapiki, 2012) and a high level of travel experiences expect a more personalized and more exciting hospitality experience, which satisfy the “uppermost part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the need for self-fulfilment and enjoyment instead of just satisfying the need for shelter and nourishment” (Björkqvist, 2009, p. 7)
Due to the development of the modern internet …show more content…
Bruhn (2013) lists seven commonly used models of different authors that all try to sum up results of the rather subjective perceptions of service delivery in a measurable and tangible way, to which service managers are able to implement suitable solutions.
Based on the five dimensions of service, so called “RATER” (see Figure 2), Parasuraman, Berry, and Zeithaml already identified in 1988 that measuring quality of goods differs from measuring quality of services and developed the SERVQUAL model (see Figure 3), which is still being used in many service based sector such as financial institutes or hospitality. The SERVQUAL model seeks to identify the following five gaps between the expected and the experienced service quality from the customer’s as well as the management’s perspective to be able to close them:
Gap 1: Mismatch of management perception and customer expectation
Gap 2: Missing communication between management and service
Due to the development of the modern internet …show more content…
Bruhn (2013) lists seven commonly used models of different authors that all try to sum up results of the rather subjective perceptions of service delivery in a measurable and tangible way, to which service managers are able to implement suitable solutions.
Based on the five dimensions of service, so called “RATER” (see Figure 2), Parasuraman, Berry, and Zeithaml already identified in 1988 that measuring quality of goods differs from measuring quality of services and developed the SERVQUAL model (see Figure 3), which is still being used in many service based sector such as financial institutes or hospitality. The SERVQUAL model seeks to identify the following five gaps between the expected and the experienced service quality from the customer’s as well as the management’s perspective to be able to close them:
Gap 1: Mismatch of management perception and customer expectation
Gap 2: Missing communication between management and service