Evaluation of the customers' service expectations and satisfaction levels in hotel establishments: A study in Antalya

Production of products and services in hotel establishments, its marketing,presentation to customers and necessity of direct interaction between customers andservice providers have created hotel establishments differences over otherestablishments which are unique hotel industry.The main purpose of providing services in hotels is to meet customers?expectations and get them satisfied. The success and continuity of hotels in the industrywhere time is sold, products and services consumed where they are produced andproduction and consumption is realized simultaneously can only be possible by meetingcustomers? expectations and keeping them satisfied. For this purpose, hotelsestablishments in hospitality industry have worked in an organizational environmentwhich aims to meet expectations of customers with different demographicalcharacteristics.In this respect, five-star hotels have superiority over four-star, three-star, two-star,and one-star hotels in terms of human resources, physical resources, technicalequipments and variety of products and services they have. These advantages providegreater opportunity to five-star hotels for meeting customers? expectations and keepingtheir satisfaction level at the highest possible level. On the other hand, three-star hotelshave richer facilities compared to two-star and one-star hotels which give them a chanceto offer their customers more superior products and services.This study aims to find out customer expectation and satisfaction levels in hotelestablishments. In this respect, ?evaluation of service expectations and satisfactionlevels in hotel establishments? forms the main research problem. This study tries tomeasure customer expectations and satisfaction levels in functional and commonservice departments of three-star and four-star hotels located in Antalya. It has beenfound that significant differences exist between three-star and five-star hotels in termsof customer expectations levels except for housekeeping services. Furthermore, it isfound that the expectation level of customers in five-star hotels is greater than theexpectation levels of three-star hotels? customers. On the other hand, when thecustomers? satisfaction levels are analyzed, except for general services, no significantrelationship has been found between three-star and five-star hotels? customersatisfaction levels. The satisfaction level of customers in terms of general servicesprovided in five-star hotels is found to be higher than in three-star hotels.