Service quality in china's hotel industry: a perspective from tourists and hotel managers

Service quality in China's hotel industry: a

perspective from tourists and hotel managers

Nelson Tsang

Lecturer, Department of Hotel & Tourism Management, The Hong Kong

Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Hailin Qu

Professor and William E. Davis Distinguished Chair, School of Hotel and Restaurant

Administration, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA

Introduction

When China first opened its doors to

international tourists in the late 1970s, the

sudden influx of foreign visitors created a

great demand on China's undeveloped

lodging industry. Hotel development was

therefore considered as a very important part

of China's tourism development, and it was

given priority for development in the Sixth

Five-Year Plan (1981-1985) for China's

Economic and Social Development (Yu, 1992).

As a result, great effort has been put into

hotel construction and renovation in the last

12 years. However, according to Yu (1992), the

supply of hotel beds appeared to have

expanded beyond the demand of

international tourists during the period 1986

to 1994 and, for the first time, the

overdevelopment of hotel accommodation

became a problem confronting the Chinese

government.

In spite of the overdevelopment of Chinese

hotels, some studies (Choy et al., 1986; Cook,

1989; Schrock et al., 1989; Boyd, 1993; Cai and

Woods, 1993) found that the standard and

quality of services provided by the hotels

were still far below international standards.

Problems included poor language ability and

communication skills, a lack of property

maintenance, unreliable reservations system

and poor sanitation.

The hotel industry has also faced the

problem of finding qualified employees to

provide services that could meet the

standards of foreign tourists. Most service

workers in China lack an understanding or

appreciation of international service

standards. Because China was closed to the

West for so long, its standards of living are

different from western societies, and a

discrepancy in expectation of service quality

has existed between foreign tourists and

service workers. Yu (1995) also expressed the

same opinion that the concept of service was

non-existent during the era that Mao Zedong

ruled China. Many hotel employees had

service attitude problems which drew

constant complaints from international

tourists. Further, Zhang (1987) also pointed

out that lack of education and training in

tourism management was the major reason

for the problem of poor service in the hotel

industry in China.

The Chinese government has recognized

that, by comparison with international

standards, service standards are still poor.

For the purpose of reinforcing the

management of these hotels, and to raise

service quality so that hotels can match the

international standards, in 1988 the Chinese

government approved hotel classification

standards and regulations. This hotel rating

program has demonstrated the commitment

of the Chinese government to improving

hotel management in China. However, in

order to render consistent and excellent

services to international tourists, the

Chinese government must introduce

monitoring and evaluation measures that

will reinforce the importance of service

quality management and operations.

Offering consistent and excellent services

will not only help China's hotels to meet

international standards, but also increase

its international competitiveness. Further,

it is important to consider the international

competitiveness of China's hotel industry.

China has to compete for the same market

with counterparts in the Asia-Pacific

region, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and

Thailand, most of which are well

established and have a sophisticated hotel

industry, with similar products but better

service (Tisdell and Wen, 1991). The future

of China's hotel industry looks challenging

and it is important to identify the quality

and variety of service and products

provided by China's hotel industry.

However, most of the research that has

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[ 316 ]

International Journal of

Contemporary Hospitality

Management

12/5 [2000] 316±326

# MCB University Press

[ISSN 0959-6119]

Keywords

Service quality, China, Hotels,

Customer satisfaction,

Consumer behaviour

Abstract

Assesses the perceptions of service

quality in China's hotel industry,

from the perspective of both

international tourists and hotel

managers. A questionnaire was

used to survey a sample of 90 hotel

managers and 270 international

tourists who visited China and

stayed at hotels in Beijing,

Shanghai, and Guangzhou. A

descriptive statistics analysis was

used (paired t-test and independent

t-test) to evaluate the service

quality of China's hotel industry

from both the tourists' and the

managers' perspectives, and to

investigate the four gaps: between

tourists' expectations and their

actual perceptions; between

managers' perceptions of tourists'

expectations and the actual

expectations of tourists; between

managers' perceptions of a hotel's

service delivery and tourists' actual

perceptions of the service; and

between managers' perceptions of

tourists' expectations and

managers' perceptions of their

hotel's service delivery. The results

showed that tourists' perceptions of

service quality provided in the hotel

industry in China were consistently

lower than their expectations and

that managers overestimated the

service delivery, compared to

tourists' perceptions of actual

service quality, in the hotel industry

in China. From the result of gap

analysis, it might be concluded that

Delivery Gap and Internal Evaluation

Gap were the main reasons

contributing to the service quality

shortfalls in the hotel industry in

China.