Research Problem

Discuss the implication of servqual model on the service quality of hotel industry – a case of hilton hotel, USA?

According to Powell & Takayoshi (2012) high quality service is the most distinct factor determining the success of the hotel industry. As per the industry analysis, during 2014, the overall hotel industry of US has contributed around 176.7 billion to the GDP of USA (Supino & Borer, 2012).  However, Bernat & Beresford (2013) argued that the revenue, growth and success of hotel industries depend on their high level of customer service. The use of the SERVQUAL model helps in assessing the different service gaps that arises at different stages of service marketing in hotel industry. Thus, the researcher has focused on analyzing the impact of the SERVQUAL model in enhancement of the service quality in Hilton hotels USA which is one of the largest operating hotel chains of USA.

As per Financial Times, Hilton Hotel has the highest market share of 10% among the top ten companies in USA (Supino & Borer, 2012). However, the rises in the number of customer complaints over different trip advisor portals are reducing the number of customer footfall for Hilton USA in comparison to its competitors namely Marriot, Starwood and Choice Hotels. The major complaints at different stages of accommodation in Hilton include lack of room availability, ineffective database system, delay in food services, presence of excess noise within the corridors and lack of effective number of hotel staffs during night shift. However, Nickoson & Sheridan (2012) argued that a gap between the service expectation and service delivery is responsible for increasing level of customer dissatisfaction. In case of Hilton, the customers expect premium quality services and the complaints and issues faced while actual accommodation has negatively affected the future decision of customers.

The purpose of the researcher in this study is to analyze the application of SERVQUAL model on the service quality of Hilton hotels in USA. Supino & Borer (2012) stated that SERVQUAL model acts as the measurement model that identifies the five different gaps that may arise within a service delivery and the major factors that are responsible for creation of the gaps. Thus, use of the SERVQUAL model on services of Hilton will help management of Hilton to reduce customer complaints by reduction of service gaps.

The following are the major research questions

• What are the key attributes that you consider being important while designing the services within Hilton hotel?
• What key attributes does the consumers consider as important with respect to satisfied accommodation process in Hilton?
• What are the major challenges that are faced in delivering the services to the customers in Hilton, USA?
• What are the major improvements that can be made in order to reduce the service gaps in Hilton Hotel, USA?

Supino & Borer (2012) stated that the two major data collection strategy includes qualitative data collection and quantitative data collection strategies. The quantitative data collection is selected when the researcher is required to assess incidence of various views, opinions and ideas of the sample group of respondents. On the contrary, McBride (2013) argued that qualitative data collection strategy is selected when the researcher is required to gain understanding of motivations, problems, trends and suggestions from the respondents on the research topic.

The researcher in this project will select the mid level managers of Hilton Hotel, USA for assessing the number of complaints that the hotel receives from the customers. The researcher will focus on conducting primary interviews with 10 mid-level managers of Hilton to understand the gaps that generally exists between the customer’s expectation and actual service delivered by Hilton (Love, 2012).

Research Purpose

As per 1974 National Research Act, in research project involving human participants, the researcher is required to maintain high levels of ethical considerations (Nickoson & Sheridan, 2012). In this case the researcher will have face the following ethical issues

• Issues regarding maintaining of confidentiality regarding the identity of the managers participating in the research
• Issues regarding acquirement of informed consent from the managers before conducting the research
• Maintaining of respect and avoid application of coercion on managers during research project

The researcher in this project can also consider conducting primary research on the customers of Hilton group for analyzing the type of service hurdles that they have faced during their accommodation duration in Hilton hotels. With respect to primary research for customers the following ethical issues may be faced:

• Issues related to obtaining of the voluntary informed consent from the customers
• Issues related to psychological and physical harm to the customers during the research process (Farrimond, 2013)
• Issues relating management of privacy of the data supplied by the customers for the research result

The researcher will use an access letter for obtaining the formal permission of the managers of Hilton before conducting research (Love, 2012). The researcher in order to avoid any conflict or permission denial can include a separate authentic permission document obtained from the college or university authorities to confirm the fact that the research is authentic and the results will be used solely for academic purposes.

As per the Data Protection Act 1999, the researcher is required to maintain privacy with regards to identity and the opinions given by the respondents within the project. In this case, the researcher will create separate database and excel file and will store the research results along with the personal information of the managers with a locked password. The access of the data base will be given to the researcher only so that the opinions and the identities of the managers can be kept private (Lichtman, 2013).

The researcher should provide a participatory consent form to the managers at the beginning of the research to ensure voluntary participation on part of the managers. Further, the researcher should avoid any forceful selection of any manager who is reluctant to participate in the research and should not make an impression that participation is compulsory.

As per regulations of 1947 Nuremberg Code, incentive or compensation provided to research participants can act as a form of coercion on the participants to participate in the research process (Miller et al. 2012). Goodson, Loveless & Stephens (2012) stated that compensation encourages higher level of survey responding thus, the researcher in this project will not include any compensation or incentive for provoking the managers to participate in the research process.

The researcher in this project will use the qualitative data collection method and use open-ended questions to get suggestions and opinions of the managers related to the problem of service gap in Hilton hotel, USA.  According to Love (2012) in qualitative data collection method the direct responses of the participants about a particular issue is recorded as a part of the research result, thus, management of confidentiality ad respondent privacy is highly necessary for the researcher.  In this project the researcher may face confidentiality issues and voluntary participation issues from the managers (Lichtman, 2013).

Using of quantitative data collection method is an alternative to the qualitative data collection method. In case of quantitative data collection the researcher would have used the close-ended questions for interview and evaluated the opinions and views of the managers on statistical parameters by quantifying and showing the trend of the problem through graphical representation.

The ethical issues in this respect will include:

• Obtaining of informed consent regarding the amount of data that can be included in the project
• Avoid asking controversial or difficult questions to respondents
• Use neutral language and show card methods for ensuring comfort level of respondents (Lichtman, 2013)

In this case if the researcher uses quantitative research design, then the researcher managers will be more comfortable in answering since the questions will consist of options and the managers would not be required to give opinions on controversial matters related to services of Hilton hotel.

15. Conclusion

Although the researcher will face low level of ethical obligations in case of quantitative research, however in this project the researcher will use qualitative research technique for successfully gaining and in-depth knowledge on the problems and the service gaps in Hilton and accordingly apply the SERVQUAL model to enhance the service delivery process.

References

Bernat, J., & Beresford, H. (2013). Ethical and legal issues in neurology. Edinburgh: Elsevier.

Miller, T., Birch, M., Mauthner, M., & Jessop, J. (Eds.). (2012). Ethics in qualitative research. Sage.

Farrimond, H. (2013). Doing ethical research. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Goodson, I., Loveless, A., & Stephens, D. (2012). Explorations in narrative research. Rotterdam: SensePublishers.

Lichtman, M. (2013). Qualitative research in education. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Love, K. (2012). Ethics in social research. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald.

McBride, D. (2013). The process of research in psychology. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications.

Nickoson, L., & Sheridan, M. (2012). Writing studies research in practice. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Powell, K., & Takayoshi, P. (2012). Practicing research in writing studies. New York: Hampton Press.

Supino, P., & Borer, J. (2012). Principles of research methodology. New York, NY: Springer.