Award Date

5-1-2015

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Hotel Administration

First Committee Member

Sarah Tanford

Second Committee Member

Seyhmus Baloglu

Third Committee Member

Billy Bai

Fourth Committee Member

Gillian S. Naylor

Number of Pages

119

Abstract

This study examined the impact of hotel loyalty program membership and tier levels on guest perceptions and tolerance for service quality in major U. S. hotel chains. A sample of 315 hotel loyalty program members and non-members were surveyed via an online self-administered survey sent by Qualtrics. The survey used a three-column format asking the adequate level of expectations, desired level of expectations, and perceptions to test survey respondents’ zone of tolerance and perceived service quality using SERVQUAL dimensions. Guest satisfaction was measured by American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). A nine-point Likert scale was applied for the measurement of service quality and satisfaction.

From factor analysis, it was shown that the five dimensions of SERVQUAL did not materialize. Two factors of externally versus internally focused items were found for expectations. Externally focused items are those that the general public wants to receive as core service from their preferred hotels. Internally focused items are those that a specific guest wants to receive as extended service from hotels. From multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) with post hoc Scheffé tests, it was revealed that higher tier level members had higher levels of perception and satisfaction and had a narrower zone of tolerance than lower tier level members.

Keywords

Customer loyalty; Hotel loyalty program; Service industries--Quality control; Service quality; SERVQUAL (Service quality framework); Tier level; Zone of tolerance

Disciplines

Business | Hospitality Administration and Management | Marketing

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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