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The importance of service quality as an instrument for client customization: a methodological and practical approach within the hotel sector

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Abstract

Service quality plays an important role in hotel competitiveness, being tools based on this concept a way to differentiate hotels within their sector. The main goal of this work is to develop a tool for client customization. Such a tool can personalize the importance that each client gives to four attributes: customer service, facilities, overall cleanliness and quality-price ratio. A questionnaire was conducted on the opinions of more than fifty thousand clients during a period of twelve months. Our approach makes use of the machine learning methodology known as k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN). Among other important facts, the results reveal that the quality price ratio is assessed by clients as one of the most important attributes in order to provide a positive recommendation of a hotel. Based on the proposed methodology, new recommendation models can be developed with the aim of finding out implicit preferences of customers for future stays.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been partially funded by projects of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities: GROMA (reference: MTM2015-63710-P) and MODAS-IN (reference: RTI2018-094269-B-I00).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Sciences, Rey Juan Carlos University, Avenida de Atenas s/n, 28922, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain

    Javier M. Moguerza

  2. Faculty of Commerce and Tourism, Complutense University, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Av. de Filipinas, 3, 28003, Madrid, Spain

    Clara Martín-Duque

  3. Faculty of Heath Sciences, Rey Juan Carlos University, Avenida de Atenas s/n, 28922, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain

    Juan José Fernández-Muñoz

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  1. Javier M. Moguerza
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  2. Clara Martín-Duque
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  3. Juan José Fernández-Muñoz
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Correspondence to Clara Martín-Duque.

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Moguerza, J.M., Martín-Duque, C. & Fernández-Muñoz, J.J. The importance of service quality as an instrument for client customization: a methodological and practical approach within the hotel sector. Qual Quant 56, 1631–1642 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01198-4

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