Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Guest Loyalty to Hotels in Delta State

Extant marketing literature has accentuated service quality (SQ) as the critical determinant of customer satisfaction (CS) and ultimately guest loyalty (GL) in the hotel industry. However, it is pertinent to disaggregate SQ into its sub-variables to ascertain the effect of each sub-dimension on CS and GL. The research was undertaken to understand the influence of tangibility (TAN), responsibility (RES), reliability (REL), empathy (EMP) and assurance (ASS) on guest loyalty (GL) meditated by CS. 352 customers of rated hotels in Delta State, Nigeria were selected by stratified and convenience sampling methods. Statistical analysis was conducted by multiple and hierarchical regressions. The outcome showed that TAN, REL, RES, EMP and ASS significantly affected CS and GL. Furthermore, the connection between SQ2 (TAN), SQ3 (EMP) and GL is fully mediated by CS, but its meditational effect on SQ1 (RES), SQ4(REL) and SQ5(ASS) is partial; owing to their direct effect on GL, besides via CS. Arising from the crucial role played by CS in engendering customer loyalty in the hotel industry, hoteliers need to pay attention to components of SQ upon which quality service delivery ultimately rely, to stay ahead of the competition.