An Empirical Study on Food and Beverage Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in Star Graded Hotels in Dambulla

Abstract

The hotel industry is one of the integral constituents in flourishing tourism industry and is extremely competitive. In this competitive arena, service quality has become a crucial success factor in maintaining hotel standards. However, due to the intangible nature of service industry, measuring service quality is substantially challengeable than measuring the quality of physical products. Hence, this study attempts to investigate the impact of food and beverage service quality on the customer satisfaction in the star graded hotels in Dambulla. Dambulla as one of the major tourism destinations in Sri Lanka, has been identified as the study area. A sample of 150 foreign tourists who have visited the star graded hotels located in the respective area have selected through convenient sampling technique for this study. Widely accepted SERVQUAL model utilized to ascertain the findings. Primary data collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire. Descriptive, frequency, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were conducted to analyse data using SPSS. The results reveal that there is a positive significant impact of tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance of food and beverage service quality on the customer satisfaction in the star graded hotels in Dambulla area. On the contrary, the empathy shows that there is no direct impact towards the customer satisfaction. Moreover, the tangibility is the most influential service quality attribute that effect on customer satisfaction. The study recommended that the authorities must pay their attention towards improving the tangible evidences such as staff attires and appearance, aesthetic upkeep of interior and exterior, and provide reliable service for their guests with greater customer care.